Charlie's 1-3 ride at Dressage in the Park

Revving up the engine

I believe that my next big riding hurdle is to learn how to rev the back engine. I can't ignore the symptoms anymore - when I rode Charlie while Shannon was on vacation, when I rode George while Mike was on vacation, whenever I ride Willig, and this week, when I rode Charlie all week - he was sputtery and slow by the end of the week. It is pretty easy to get the nice movements when I have the engine revved up, but I'm not very good (and maybe that's even being generous to myself) about getting it revved. I started my lesson with Shannon showing her test 1-3, and what I thought was wrong with it (at the canter, his nose was going up in the air, but if I tried to get him on the bit, he'd do a down transition to a trot). And the cause was, as you probably guessed, the sputtering. The way we worked on it was lots of transitions. Halt to canter back to halt to trot, and then lengthening and collecting within the gaits. My instructions before the show today were to do about 5 minutes of loose rein walking and bending, and then the big, confident, assertive transitions to get the engine going for less than 30 minutes. Which we did. And had a nice ride. But this is still a bit out of my grasp, so I am going to need to think more and talk more and ride more on it in my lessons - I think it's a very deep habit that's going to take some real effort to change, but I think it's my next big step to get to the next level of riding.

Handsome, Goofy, and Wet Charlie

4, 5, and 6 strides on a bending line

I thought today was going to be a dud lesson because I've been in a snit and I assumed that meant I'd be difficult and not very receptive. Instead, much to my surprise, it was one of those lessons where I could hardly keep up I was learning so much. Here's the top takeaways: #1 - Ride him forward into the down transition. I was watching Shannon do this at her clinic last weekend, and I started to suspect that I haven't been doing this right. Just like with most things Charlie, it helps me enormously to watch Shannon riding him because I see things that I am doing wrong without realizing it. I think it was the last clinic when I realized she really almost never uses her hands (at least, compared to me) and when I ride him with my seat, he understands better and is far more responsive. So I've been trying to down transitions with my seat only (no pulling back on the reins) and we go down, but we also kind of plummet onto the forehand instead of rocking back onto the hind legs. And this one was one of those slap the forehead it's so obvious lessons - use leg at the same time. Halt the forward momentum with the seat, but use the leg to keep the impulsion and eureka - a nice down transition. Like with everything, it's simple, but going to take some practice to recalibrate the way I've been riding. #2 - Turn from the outside rein. Seriously, how many times do I have to keep being reminded of this? It's sooooo much easier to approach a fence when I turn from the outside rein, but the second I don't think about it, I turn with the inside hand. Use outside rein, outside leg. #3 - Slowing down cross country for the next show. We'll find a nice, long flat stretch and I'll go slower there on purpose. My rhythm was consistent, just a hair too fast at Aspen, so if I just use one flat stretch to go a bit slower, I should hit it just about right. Instead of trying to take my nice consistent 1-2-3-4 and go oonneee-ttwwooo-thhhreeee-foooourr and risk going too slow. #4 - Ok, the exercise for today. To help me spot the distance (something I used to be able to do), first we rode a cross rail with the poles spaced close and rode in on a tiny "piroutte" canter. We did this fine - it was just like our 10 meter circle dressage work only going over a fence. Then Shannon turned it into a bendy line that was a 5 stride. So first we rode it at 5, then shortened the canter to ride it at 6, then rode 5 again, then lengthened for 4, then 5 again. But it took me approximately a million times to get the 6. The 4 I can do no problem. The 5 I do inconsistently (sometimes we launch). But the 6 felt like we were standing still on a merry-go-round (just going up/down/up/down in the canter) and it would still be a 5. Most of this was **the take off spot looks way too close to the fence to me**. So we'd be coming in tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny and I'd think "oh, lord, we're going to go straight through the fence" and launch him from the tiny canter instead of waiting to get to the spot. And then second, it takes me a long time (2 strides) to sit back up and half halt him after we land. I need to get much, much faster at that. Once I finally got the spot a few times, it turns out it's much, much closer than I thought it was - especially on the tiny canter. So it was a really good "feel" test for how off my spot perception was. And it was a great example of how easily I launch (the 4 felt smooth) and how hard it is for me to collect (not Charlie, he was a champ, like always). So it was really good to get it in my head how close we can get and how I can ride right up to the base of the jump - something we'll need to continue to work on, but is step 1 in getting that readjusted in my head. Have I mentioned I love Charlie? Shannon was right a year or two ago - at 36 and not actually all that experienced, a horse like Charlie is what I needed - not a Willig.

Same old, same old; I'm inconsistent

Last week I had the brilliant dressage lesson. We shone like the sun. Today, it was like my entire body was stuck in something sticky. I don't know what makes the difference between the days when I can pull it together and the days I can't, and that drives me crazy. I can't fix it or improve it if I can't at least label what's not working right.

Charlie is AWESOME; I need some work

Our results at Aspen: Dressage - 32.0 (2nd place) Show Jumping - 4 faults (one rail down on fence 2) (6th place) Cross country - 2.8 time faults (too fast) Final - 6th place out of 19; 38.8 1st place for BN rider was 35.0 Our results at NWEC Spring Classic (which I think I forgot to post); Dressage - 26.5 (1st place) Cross country - 3.2 time faults (too fast) (still 1st) Show jumping - 4 faults (final rail down) (2nd place) Final - 2nd place out of 21; 33.7 1st place for BN rider was 31.8 Charlie was awesome, and my goal had been to improve a little bit on each of the three phases - get a slightly better dressage score, go clean in stadium, and get no time penalties in cross country. While I did slow cross country down, I didn't ride any better in show jumping, and in dressage, the razor thin edge between being brilliant in the moment nerves and freezing up nerves slipped into the freezing up side. I lost my left stirrup twice - just before I went into dressage and again after the 2nd fence in show jumping (at NWEC, I lost it over the second cross country fence, so hopefully that is my symmetry for the season and I'm done losing my left stirrup). Although the first walk of the xc course was kind of intimidating, it rode like a charm - thanks to Charlie, who was, once again, a total champ. I felt like my riding (other than dressage) was maybe a micropoint better, but I'm still making dumb mistakes that are messing up a nice blue ribbon. At least this time my pants didn't rip.

Charlie show jumping at Aspen

Charlie's Dressage Test at Aspen

Working on 1-3 with Charlie

Today we had one of those lessons where even though it was in the 50s, by the time I got done, my hair was soaking wet in my helmet. i.e., a success. Other than a few little bobbles, BN-A was fine - I made the same mistake I did in the show and hesitated in the trot to walk transition instead of committing, and I could have slightly improved the right trot to canter transition, but other than that it was rock solid and consistent and smooth. So fingers crossed for tomorrow. For 1-3, we worked on improving the individual movements. We started with some respectful transitions. Charlie was blowing me off just a tiny bit, so we did some walk-canter-walk transitions, and he got a smack with the whip if I gave the aid and he ignored it. After a frustrating 5 minutes or so, I realized it was easier if I smacked him just before he did whatever the bad thing was (blew me off, or down transition before I asked for it) and lo and behold everything went much more smoothly from that point forward. I can't feel them coming 100% of the time, but I can do something about it when I do feel them coming. This helped us with lengthening and then with the collection back to regular canter at the end of lengthening. We'd do a lengthening on the long side, a 20 meter circle where I'd collect him back up, and then either a down transition or another lengthening. Once Charlie caught on to what I wanted (and that it varied), he paid attention instead of "guessing" and offering what was supposed to come next. We also worked on the simple serpentine. I RIDE it (ride being the operative word there, instead of just pointing him in the direction I want him to go), with my inside leg forward, a soft seat, and just a touch on the forehand, so that he doesn't try to offer a flying change. Then we worked on the canter-trot-canter transition across the center line, and again, if I actually ride each step, I get a smooth, flowing transition. For the trot lengthening, that's going to be more of a long term project, so for the dressage show at the end of June, we're just going to ride what he's got (probably a 5) and make up for it on the other movements. I tend to kind of fling him forward and rush it, which is worse than just having it be a somewhat "meh" movement. Oh! And for stretchy trot circle, he tends to get a little fast, so I ride him by halting with my inner thighs, kind of like thinking about asking him to walk. We also started with the leg yield-shoulder in-leg yield exercise, which really helped for those first two movements, and on the two 10 meter circles, I need to learn my 10 meters better (I kept blobbing them out all big) and also have about three steps on the center line and clearly change the bend from left to right on those three steps. About half way through the leg yield, just think shoulder in, and that helps me put his hind leg back underneath him and keep his shoulders from leading. It's much harder going to the left than the right - which was the same on Willig, so it must be something about my confirmation. For the long walk, I need to let my hips rotate (like bike pedals going around) so that I don't restrict his good stretchy walk.

New Eventing Book!

"Fiel" by Diana Vincent.

I need a mnemonic

I had, what is now a "duh, of course" great jump lesson on Charlie today. I have a list of the things that I "get" but just need to keep working on to make them habits - here's the top 8: 1. In warm up, ride him rounder and more forward. 2. Don't bend forward to suck up the reins (after they've been loose). 3. Sit in my two point, light two point, seat down, and then WAIT for the fence - no more launchers!! 4. Keep it even - 1-2-1-2 (a corollary to this is not to get faster, looser, flatter, more strung out (get the picture?) as the course goes on) 5. Turn inside leg to outside hand - not with outside rein 6. Chest open (squished together shoulder blades - chest out, like I'm proud) 7. Commit to the fence and don't wiggle around those last couple strides 8. Make any corrections fast - no dawdling around for 5-10 (ok, sometimes 15) strides before I get it back together again What was nice today was Shannon made things a little twisty, and at the end, just a hair big, and I felt like we did it pretty smoothly. I am having a little more trouble with the combination - I don't correct quickly enough, so that will continue to need some work. Charlie is such a delight to ride. I seriously can't say that enough. I look forward to every ride on him, I'm smiling while I ride, and I'm smiling when I get off.