Overwhelmingly underwhelming - Donida

Sticking with the theme of "this isn't going to be a rock star year", we got a 50.645% on Test 1-3 and a 56.216% on Test 1-2 at Donida today.
We got 4s and 5s. Shudder.
Now, for the most part, this was because Willig and his friend Al acted like they had never, ever seen a judge's stand before, and so pretty much every movement that required passage past the judge's stand was a couple points lower than normal.
In fact, that's all I really want to report on it. This is the highest level I've ever ridden in dressage, but we'll certainly be doing first level again next year and not second level.
Next weekend is Summervale, and my goal is to improve. Which shouldn't be hard to do.

The good news is it's not me being an idiot by myself

Willig can be kind of a snake in the grass about jumping. He darts out, really fast, sometimes at the last minute, without a whole lot of warning.
So I can:
- Feel the dart coming sooner; and/or
- React faster.
But that's about it. I know what to do, I'm just not recognizing he's going to dart in time, or reacting in time once I feel it about to happen.

So today we started with the wall. Here's three pieces of good news. First, I can now ride him on a loose rein past the scary end - ho-hum - that just a few months ago I was enviably watching J do and thinking I'd never be able to do that on Willig. Second, I don't get a knot in my stomach the day before my jump lesson. And in fact, this week when I jumped him by myself, I was looking forward to it all day. Yippee! Third, we started with the wall. The solid wall that a year ago I wouldn't even try, and 6 months ago, I did pretty much crying and definitely holding my breath only because I was in a lesson with Shannon. Now it doesn't even look big or imposing. It's just a jump. Yay! Yay! Yay!

Shannon wanted to start with the wall instead of dinking around over a cross rail to make him snap to it. She also suggested that I try some baby spurs she's got because he's getting kind of lazy and inclined to ignore my aids, even though I've gotten better about not anaconda squeezing the aid non-stop.
So as we turned towards the wall - I mean just turned, like 20 - 30' away - he refused. He ran out. So she made us make 10 meter circles in front of the wall, thinking leg yield him toward it, and inching closer and closer and then popping over it.
We did this both directions and then with the lattice and then with the skinny (the three he refused when I was by myself earlier in the week). The point was that it's way more work to be all ditchy, and he might as well just go over it when I point him at it.
The other big thing was getting his attention. He's trying to look at the jump, or another jump, or a thing under a jump, or the poodle, or the pasture, or Shannon, or anything that is not listening to me. So giving a leg aid, asking him to leg yield, giving a smack with the whip, making a noise - so that his attention refocuses on me. This applies in between fences too.
To fix this Shannon also suggested taking scary stuff (like the tarp that's out there and hanging it over a fence) and not jumping, but just riding 6" past it, so that he learns he has to go where I say when I say it, and that it's less work and less scary to just be obedient. She said there was no obvious reason for the ditching (a couple times, I was grabby, but it wasn't causing the ditching).
So then the other big thing we worked on was rhythm. Coming in saying 1-2-1-2 (at the canter) and then when he lands, he likes to dive and kind of barrel along on his forehand, so give him a few really strong half-halts, pull him back up, and then get him back to 1-2-1-2, but not plummeting to a trot or walk (like I usually do) and not riding him all grabby and scared after every fence. It helps me enormously to say it loud to myself on the way to the fence and as soon as we land.
And then to try, even if he comes in fast and flat, not to pull back before the fence, but to let him go.
Although it was lame he was ditching, it was good to deal with it, so that I know that I'm working on the right thing when I'm by myself (and not making it worse) and to just keep plugging away at it. He's kind of a kook. Today he didn't give a rat's ass about the blue barrels, which are normally the bane of his outdoor existence.

I have NEVER ridden with spurs in my life - my lower leg has always been too bad - so it will be very interesting! Which is another good thing - whether Willig comes in short, low, fast, long, or just right - I have been feeling so good and balanced in the air. Shannon got me my jumping seat back!

Another thing I learned from Pony Club D Manual, which apparently every one, including 6 year olds, knew and I didn't, is that you are supposed to clean your tack, then oil it, then saddle soap it. My entire life I have been saddle soaping and then oiling. And clean the tack with a moist, warm sponge after every ride.

I also just finished Jane Savoie's, "It's not just about the ribbons" which I liked. Some of the visuals were helpful, and it was a good reminder to have a positive attitude instead of thinking about negatives. I've been trying to visualize riding my dressage tests instead of just thinking the pattern.

I continue to need lessons to slowly learn the blindingly obvious, once learned

I had a dressage lesson today, where I bemoaned my fair, but disappointing, dressage scores, particularly the 5 on a right 20 meter trot circle, where, irony of all ironies, he was counterbent - to the LEFT (the side Mike has to basically wrestle me into bending at all towards even when we're already going left).
Mike had three suggestions for moving from 6s to 7s:
1) Increase the connection. I'm riding all kind and soft, with the attitude "oh, please, Mr. Willig, won't you pick up the connection, wouldn't that be nice?" instead of telling him and then picking it up, like the assertive person that I am (when people are using the nice word (assertive) instead of their other choices). This is probably the same problem over fences, that my fellow boarder observed ("I didn't hear you growl when he was intending to refuse?")
2) Increase the bend. Look at his inside eyelashes. Make him do it. We practiced this by clamping my outside hand onto his withers, and then pulling my inside hand to my hip bone. He can do it; and he doesn't mind doing it. It's my pansy attitude.
3) Make him sparkle by trotting on the verge of lengthening. Don't ride it delicate or conservative - it's 5-6 minutes of my life - ride every second and ride it hard. This extra oomph is what's missing - I get timid at a show because I don't want to mess up, so I ride the test conservatively instead of going for the 8 and maybe breaking in a movement and getting a 4.
The other things we talked about:
- I drew a picture of what I thought shoulder in, haunches in, renvers, and travers looked like, because I'm having trouble with where he is and where I am and how I ask for them. And it turns out, that's because I was visualizing them wrong. So Mike re-drew them, then also showed me on the ground, then at the end of the lesson, made me ride each one. I have some kind of mental block about this, so I'm going to have to study the drawings, practice with my body, and then practice, practice, practice. The big thing I got out of today, was - like using my canter aid further back from my last lesson - I'm not moving my legs (outside leg aid, inside leg aid) just squeezing like an anaconda - so how in the world would he know which of those he's supposed to be doing?
- If I want Willig to "sparkle" in his tests and start getting 7s and 8s instead of 6s (something the test scores have consistently said this year is pretty much that we're on the cusp and need to take that step), I need to RIDE him like a 7 and 8 during my rides; not just with Mike. This is the "slowly learning the blindingly obvious" part of the title of this post. Sometimes it is embarrassing how long it takes me to catch on to something that is really common sense. If out of 14 rides, 13 are lazy, why in the world would he think the 1/14 is the goal?
- I struggled with riding into the corners from our last lesson. That's because I was overdoing it. Mike said for Training and 1st level, it's ok to start your corner 5 meters from the corner (about quarter line between C and M, for example) and then end it about 5 meters from the corner (about the letter, which I think is 6 meters). So I don't have to ride him deep in the corner (yet - they do at upper levels).
- The 7 minute warm up? While not ok at a recognized show, Mike said a younger horse or a horse at the lower level can be ready to go - it's a mental block on my end. And I immediately thought of other times I wouldn't neurotically be there two hours ahead of time (traffic jam, flat tire, won't load, forget something), so that ended up being a good opportunity to think and learn about how to handle that differently in the future. (Although yes, we probably would have had more sparkle with my 45 minute warm up. And ok, probably the refusals in show jumping were because I didn't warm up there either, because I didn't like the footing.)
- Make Willig respond. The first time is ok, but he better go by the second. And it shouldn't be me doing the work but him. When I give the canter aid, he better canter that second - not when he feels like it four seconds later.
- For example, the stretchy circle needs to stretch by the time we start the circle, not half way around. When I ask for shoulder-in, I want it on the first step, not half way down the arena.
- His leg yields were very nice. Think about being a waitress holding a very heavy tray and keeping everything together the whole movement - don't let him wobble half way after he starts really nice.
- I think there was something else brilliant, but it's escaping me at the moment.

Non-lesson thoughts:
When I was cleaning his feet before I rode, he kicked me with his hind feet (made contact with first one, I was ready for second one), so after I rode I utilized my very dusty and rusty horse massage skills, and woo-weeeee Willig had some knots. I feel sorry for him. So I gave him a vitrolin rub and tried to rub out the biggest knots, and I'll try again this weekend.
I also finished reading the Pony Club D manual, where I somewhat horrifyingly learned a few things I didn't know. There's an adult pony club called Horse Masters, but it doesn't look like anyone has started one in Olympia yet.
And for the next two recognized shows, I'm going to volunteer for each of the segments and try to learn through observation (something I have been woefully inadequate on for a few years now), and then MAYBE sign up for NWEC.

Last two show jumping

My barn friend got some great shots (in addition to saving my neck with the changed dressage ride time), although I missed out on a cheap photographer deal for xc.
I took the best xc shot and made it the new entry photo. What I like the best is ... I'm smiling! I'm having a good time over the last fence!
(Ok, and I like my position too.)

Show jumping

In the rain.
Although these are small (and I'm on the other side of the arena and it's raining), I like how much my position has improved if you look back at old (wincingly bad position) pictures in the blog.

CVPC Derby

What a mixed bag!
There was a mix-up with my entry, and although they didn't have it, they graciously included me Sunday. But then my dressage time changed from 1:30 to 11:30 after the last time I checked. So when I leisurely pulled in, expecting to go walk the course a couple of times, it turns out I had 15 minutes to tack up Willig and warm up. Thanks to my barn friends (they did the grooming and tacking while I changed clothes) I shot over to the check-in with about 7 minutes to warm up. But the two riders before me didn't show, so after only about two laps of trot, they asked me if I would go ahead! I asked for a couple more minutes, and then after a whopping 3 minutes of warm up, we rode the dressage test.
And scored the right score for the test, but a lousy score for the class. #18 out of 24! There was a stupid error on my part (I halted at x) which wouldn't have mattered whether my test had been two hours later or not, but that was kind of discouraging since it's Willig's strongest suit.
Then the footing was not so great in the show jumping warm up, so I only popped a couple of fences. Although Willig was a tiny bit squirrely, it was only a tiny bit, so I merrily made my way towards fence 1, which he tried to refuse, and then popped from a walky-stop thing, shooting me out of the stirrups but back onto his back, and I only just barely got them on again for fence 2. This was a course with a lot of "tight" turns (for airplane carrier manuverability Willig), so then we may or may not have had a run-out at the last second at 3, and then definitely a run out at 4, where I didn't yank the opposite way, but got him right back in front of the fence and beat him while he tried to jump it from a halt, and then I felt sorry for him and turned around and he jumped 4-9 fine.
But the xc course had the teeniest, tiniest ditch (it was disguised behind a ground pole), and show jumping plus the "ditch", plus then warm-up for xc (Willig started bucking when he landed) got my nerves all a twitter. And so, for the part I was the nerviest about, Willig was a champ. He tried to stop at fence 2 (I chose the direct, taller route - using the very precise leg/crotch measuring system both fences 2 and '10' were novice height), and I had vacillated whether to go there at the 2nd fence. I decided to becuase a) I saw Zoe being scared of the jump judges at the long route, b) fence '10' was even bigger, and c) the taller alternate was hemmed in so it was harder to run-out. So he did one of his walky-jumps, but after that was a total, absolute rock star, who utterly redeemed himself from his show jumping hijinks.
We only came in #14 (out of 24) at the end, but for Willig's first go Beginner Novice? I'm pretty stoked. I'm not sure it's worth it to ride recognized this year, but I think we'll be ready for sure next season.
By the by, when I was riding yesterday to get ready, I tried to think of the most scary way we could ride. I took him straight outside and worked only at poodle side until a nasty downpour made us run for the indoor. And a lot of our home fences are 2'11" now, and I just want to point out (to myself) - from last year to this year? HUGE PROGRESS. That's huge. Amazing. I didn't think we'd make it how last year was going.
So now it's just going back and refocusing on WHY he refuses the show jumps and how to stop those last minute run-outs. I suspect they're only last minute to me - that someone on the ground can see them coming a few strides out.

Willig remembered our deal; I didn't

Two lessons ago, we rode the Forest Park xc fences, and I made a deal with Willig that if he could be the rockstar, I'd get him the next time. So he was.
Then, the next time was in the downpour schooling at NWEC, I asked him to just cart me one more time, and I'd get him the next time. So he did.
And then I promptly forgot that Willig has ever been the slightest bit difficult and today rode him like a little delicate pansy until he made sure I remembered the deal and actually rode him - in the freakishly bizarre second rain storm we've ridden in. It's MID-July!!!
Take-aways:
1. Shannon said if I feel comfortable at the canter then I'm not going fast enough. Take it up just a little notch. (Same goes for her, which always helps me to hear.)
2. RIDE. Him. Assertively. Poor Shannon, having to say that every freaking lesson for two years now. When he's in an ADD mood, I have to ride every second of every step (but not over ride; just be ready for the corrections). He was doing some quick spins and run-outs today, and even though it felt like a slow motion train wreck coming, I just couldn't get my act together to correct it before it happened, and he'd spin, and I'd circle and we'd take the fence. The baby step good news is that we don't have to putter around for an hour in between the bad behavior and the next fence.
3. Ride him in front of my leg, in a defensive posture, with my legs in front of me, and my seat deep, and let him lift me over the fence. i.e. Stop overjumping. When he's coming in short or long, I tend to overjump because I'm anxious because I feel that we're short or long.
4. Use whip, voice, leg. Do not start pulling. Give him a long approach to look at the fence. Particularly if he's having an ADD moment.
I think those are the high points. It was a good lesson because I jumped him Wednesday and he was easy and fine, so I came in with a really "he's cooooolll, dude" kind of approach. Which is fine if he's cool, but I'm not adapting quickly enough. So although I'm disappointed he was in a mood, I'm glad we had the learning opportunity in the lesson BEFORE the show. And I have my fingers crossed for a good Willig/good riding day there.