Another lightbulb!

Today I was having a hard time with my lower legs, keeping them kicked forward instead of pulling them back and up for the leg aid. The good news is now I can feel it when my lower leg swings back and up, the bad news is I don't feel it until after it has moved. But I figure that feeling it at all is progress, and soon I'll feel it earlier and earlier and eventually stop it completely and transition to a correct leg aid. I also had trouble coordinating my inside leg to outside hand - the whole day was one of the days where mostly I felt like a scarecrow up there, with a few moments where I got it together and a beam of light shone down from heaven. Then we worked on the leg yield - I've caught onto the timing of the aid leg, but I was still having Charlie's shoulders lead. I had figured out that I needed a "blocking" aid to stop his shoulder from popping through, but I was trying to do it off my hand. When Shannon finally figured out that I wasn't really using my outside leg, and had me use it as well - which was a feat of coordination to use it while using the other leg in a different way - everything snapped into place and I got some nice leg yields. So that was really nice, and another moment where I don't know why it doesn't occur to me to try to use my leg yields and instead I just keep doing it wrong with my hands. I also have reverted back to forgetting to use my back as an aid - as Shannon pointed out, I don't have any problems doing it over fences, and it's really the same thing - and she's right - I don't know why riding fences is SO much easier for me than riding dressage. It was a good lesson - frustrating, but with a couple of break through moments, so that was a nice reward!

Riding correctly

Today is noteworthy only in that I could finally see a direct result of all the past lessons during today's lesson where I actually could feel and had time to make the changes. We rode a very similar course to last week's at John's, only the long line had gotten longer and was a big 5 now. The light bulb that finally went off for me was the feeling of riding a big canter, but using the half halt around the corners and in between the fences to turn the big canter from a strung out, on the forehand canter to a ready to launch canter. Charlie helped by making it totally obvious: first time through line - long and strung out - horrible jumping on both our parts and he knocked the fence; second time through the line - big canter down the long side, half halt in the corner, half halt in between while keeping the big canter - perfectly flowing and harmonious fences. I still ride timid, and I'm prone to scrunching Charlie up slower and slower instead of getting him back on his haunches, but the feeling was so obvious and different when we jumped off the haunches instead of the forehand that I'm going to work really hard to make sure we never go back to forehand jumping. The other thing I caught onto was the importance of the line and the distances - we still had the bendy line, and my last line through I snipped part of it off, and it put us there at the wrong spot. While Charlie is experienced enough to get himself over the fence, I could really feel the difference from when we rode it on the correct bend. John said if you feel that you're off the line but can't fix it, you can do a bigger half halt, and it solves the problem also. It was another great lesson, and satisfying because I felt like I am not impossibly slow and am finally starting to put this stuff together. Also, gray horses make Charlie anxious.

Continuing to fail to correct the obvious

Today I had a great lesson with John, but a couple more slices of humble pie. First, I forgot about riding a bendy line from center to center, and couldn't tell why sometimes I got it right, and why sometimes we were a half stride off. Then, I kept forgetting to look at the next fence around a roll back corner, even though by the time I forgot it the 10th time or so I wanted to kick myself for overshooting and having to scramble to fix it. Third, I couldn't remember to half halt around the corners, while maintaining impulsion (key to this problem? I have been using my legs last instead of first in the half halt, so I lose impulsion when I half halt), so that we came into the fences nice and round. And fourth, Charlie has hoodwinked me in the half halts. He has cleverly been tucking his head, so I feel him go lighter in my hand, but I don't feel the "poof" in his back. This is because he isn't really half halting (see above). These were all perfectly timed for what looked like it would be hard on the novice courses, and I'd way rather know what my mistakes are, but I would like, every once in a while, to not look like a solid D student. I was telling myself, "C'mon Martha, pull it together" but as soon as I focus on one thing, another one drops off my radar and when I focus back on the dropped one, I drop a new thing.

Aspen video - 2nd round BN

The Beginner Novice course had an up bank, down bank, 3 stride combination, and the usual twisty turns. It rode really well and Charlie was an absolutely reliable champ. I rode the first round a little nervous and tight, so instead of going novice, I rode it again, much better except for we came into the final fence a little long so I launched it instead of adding an extra stride. Next month we'll do Novice twice and be ready to go for this year's season! Much to my surprise, the novice did not look that much bigger or harder (although it definitely needed more control for tighter turns while going faster so I'm probably grossly underestimating how hard that will be to do), except for the last fence which was an enormous rolltop. Since Charlie jumps like a dream, and jumps even better when the fences get bigger, today really helped me build confidence - although I was a little disappointed that I immediately got nervous when we got there, I was really pleased with how much improved my riding feels from the end of last year. I felt like I could think about a lot more things and react a lot better and plan ahead compared to last year. And like my position was more solid. And much to my relief, I did not have any issues with the right hand turns. Charlie is dreamy. I loooovveeee Charlie!

More Aspen derby photos

Some photos from the derby at Aspen