Bank, Ship, and Water at Aspen

You can't tell, but we are actually going fast.

Day 2 with Major Beale

I had an incredible workout today with Major Beale; so much of a workout that even my socks got sweaty.  Thank goodness that I've been increasing my workouts, although I still have a long way to go.
The high point of the lesson was the collected canter. 
The low point was my brain's incredible thickness in understanding an exercise that was a circle haunches in to a circle haunches out (basically turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, although I might not even have that right).
We started with a lot more transitions and obtaining the feeling of Charlie being ready to go up a gait at any moment.  Even though I thought I'd been increasing my work at home from just plodding around in a lot of circles, I am not doing nearly as many transitions (or difficult transitions) as we did during the clinic.  I think that part of this is I'm so afraid that I'll do it wrong and make it worse, that I stick with what I'm comfortable with.
Charlie was once again an absolute champ, trying hard to figure out what I was asking him to do so I could do it.  I was a frustrating communicator today.
Then we worked on the correct bend - I am still riding Charlie bent to the right, so going to the right he is overbent (and bulging out through his left shoulder) and going to the left, he isn't bent at all.  So to work on this, we did some counterbend going to the right (bent left), and then going to the left, tried to just get him bending around my leg.  We also worked again on the right lead canter first standing up, shifting over, and then trying to feel that saddle under my right hip.  These were hard exercises because my body's feeling needs to readjust - I feel like we are bent all wild and my shoulders are going the wrong way, respectively, with those exercises, when in fact, he still isn't anywhere near correct.
Then we started working on what led to the high and low points.  I haven't seen anyone ride those particular exercises before, so it was also a good lesson on how I learn, in that it's a lot easier for me to mimic something I've seen, than just listen to it.  And it was new, and it was HARD - riding on a circle and then doing haunches in or out on the circle but staying on the circle is hard enough!!  My brain got totally clogged up trying to think of everything, although perhaps that is also part of the lesson - I don't think I should need to think of everything - instead of sticking my tongue out from concentration, I should just feel what the correct movement is.
Regardless, struggling through that led to some simply brilliant collected canter.  Charlie could leap up into it straight from the walk, and I could slow him down until it felt like he was almost cantering in place.  It was so amazing.  And I got the "poof" - the collection - all by myself!  So it IS possible!  Another year of working this hard and maybe we will be able to do second level.
I had no idea Charlie could move like that, or that I could get a horse to move like that (of course, Charlie has already been trained to do all of this, and it is also amazing he has known all along how to do it, and I have just never asked him to do it), so that was really cool.  Of course, it came at the expense of a soaking wet body, which was disgusting, but that is just more motivation to keep cracking the whip at the gym.
I also got my copy of Jeremy's book, which I can't wait to read and study up on before he is back in August.
My goal is to have my back flatter and to be enough more to the right in my seat so that he can focus on more work like that collected canter.

Clinic Day 1 with Major Beale

There was a major breakthrough for me, and then a lot of really cool stuff that I think is still a bit out of my grasp.
Major breakthrough:  One reason I prefer jumping to dressage is how much more comfortable I am in my jumping saddle.  Well, lo and behold, that's because I trot behind the motion in my dressage saddle.  Which is likely why, despite my clumsy sitting trot, I feel like I have better control over the delicate movements when I'm sitting.  In my efforts to have a dressage posture, instead of posting over the movement, I have been launching my shoulders backwards at the top of each post, and therefore, falling behind the motion on every single step.
One teeny tiny correction (thinking of posting up and over my hands) not only made me feel like I was moving with Charlie, but also let my toes turn in and kept my legs from jamming so far forward.  It was huge.  Because I wasn't lurching around, Charlie could move better, and I could do more because I wasn't always behind.  It was really amazing.
Moving into the harder to capture, we worked on my position and posture.  There were three things going on here.  At least, to be kind to myself I'll clump them in three categories.
First, I have this big hollow in my back.  Major Beale was too nice to call it swayback, but that's what I'd call it.  It makes me look like I'm riding titlted forward onto my pelvis with my belly pushed out, which maybe I am, but when he took a whip and set it behind me in the saddle, and there was a huge fist sized gap between my lower back and the whip - I could NOT make the hollow part go flat.  Afterwards, Shannon showed me how she can.  And I can't in yoga or pilates either, so I don't know if it is a function of poor posture, or if it's the way I'm built and I'll never be able to get it back.  But I need to try to think of lifting my rib cage, sucking my belly button into my spinal cord, and then relaxing my hips and legs.
Doing that leads to the second, which is my toes.  In a dressage stirrup, you should think of lifting your toes, not pushing your heels down, because someone should be able to put their finger between your toes and the stirrups and you wouldn't smash it.  Toes should be the part on the stirrup, and your pinky toe should be near the outside of the stirrup bar (big toe to the inside when you jump).  Thinking heels down pushes your lower leg forward (into a defensive jumping position actually) but is hard to use for delicate dressage.  And when you point your toes all crazy in like you're pigeon toed (if you're me) and look down, they're just barely straight.  So when they feel all crazy and pointed in, with loose hips and soft but light touch legs, and the pelvis tucked under and the ribs lifted, for a moment - sitting there still - I could feel that wrap around softness and how if I could stay like that, I could ask Charlie for anything.
Third - my hips.  I'm crooked.  I post crooked - like a snake wiggling back and forth above the saddle (video coming eventually).  I put more weight in my left stirrup.  I sit off to the left, which makes going to the left fine, but is part of why (maybe all of why) we're having such a hard time when we try to go to the right.
Major Beale thinks if I fix my posture and toes, most of that will correct itself, but I need to stand up, shift to the right, and sit down again before cantering to the right.  Until that horribly, horribly awkward canter feels as good as the left side.  This exercise really helped me feel the difference in the weight between my feet also.
Charlie was an absolute dreamboat for the work, which was a lot of transitions and a lot of changes to keep him sharp.  He made it easy for us to focus on me.
Oh, and focus on him.  Instead of sitting there thinking about where my body is supposed to be, look at Charlie (use soft eyes) and see how he's reacting to me and then fix myself using his reaction.
Also, Major Beale said I can get away with this for now, but it's going to catch up with me, and I agree, although I think it already has with all the right turn stuff.
It was really eye opening, maybe a little too eye opening for me to fully absorb it all - especially the parts I can't feel I'm doing - but some of it I could feel a huge difference right away. 
The only downside is how did I get this old and not know how crooked I was?!?
I'm going to see my rolfer to talk about that gap in my back to see if there's anything we can do.

Aspen recap

Aspen was our second show this season, and like always, it was incredibly professionally done.  Everything ran on time, the fences were gorgeous, the courses were fun but challenging, and it was top notch all the way around.
Charlie had his A game on for dressage, and thanks to the very specific tips and exercises from John and Shannon after my NWEC dressage test, I had concrete things to focus on and practice and it really made a difference.  I felt like I fixed almost all of them - except the halt.
For show jumping, I dropped the ball.  I focused so much on going fast, that I didn't think about keeping Charlie put together until we started puking over and touching all the fences.  By then, he had taken over, and I didn't have enough space/time in between the fences to really put him back together.  He saved my bacon and we got lucky, but this is definitely where we need to work - how to ride a big canter without it being strung out.
Then, our last day was cross country, which is of course my favorite.  And Charlie was, of course, an absolute rock star.  We just cruised it!  Shannon had given me exactly what I needed to think about, but only for a handful of places so I could remember it all.
What I found really helped was that for both dressage and cross country, I visualized my ride over and over again ahead of time.  It seemed to kind of store some of the actions so that I could focus on more things during the ride.  I'm going to try to work on that more for show jumping too, and see if that helps.
The other thing I want to do is shout out to John Camlin and Shannon Morris's patience.  Without them patiently watching me struggle to catch on in little tiny baby steps, I wouldn't be nearly as far as I am today.  And I can really feel the progress from last year.  I appreciate their confidence and patience with me because I'm definitely not a natural rider, but I really want to learn how to ride well, even if it takes me the rest of my damn life.

A thankfully very fuzzy view of our show jumping round

I accomplished the fast part of my three goals, but not the "put together" part so we shot around like a loose rubber band and touched every fence.  I pretty much looked like I'd never ridden before.
http://youtu.be/GpXeX9kKb9k

Conditioning exercises

I talked with John about conditioning exercises at our lesson this week, and he recommended 3 5-minute trot sets (with a 2 minute break in between each) and 4 3-minute canters.  We started today with 2 5-minute trots and 2 3-minute canters.  For each, I started in a two-point for the first minute, then posted the trot, then went back to a two-point.  Charlie and I were both pooped by the final minute of the last canter.
John also recommended building up to an 8 minute wall sit, and emphasized that it's especially important once your quads start burning to stay in the sit because that's when your hip flexors start to work.  I didn't have my watch on, but I'm pretty sure I didn't even make it a minute for the first one.
Our lesson was another great one.  We did the same two lines as last week, a 4 stride and then an angled 4 stride, and of course, Charlie was an angel.  Then we worked on coming around a corner to an oxer, jumping it to the left of mid-way to make a right turn around another fence to a hard right to a wall.  It took me many tries to get this right, but it was a great exercise because the Aspen show jumping courses tend to have a lot of turns around fences.
John said at the show to focus on getting Charlie's canter big enough in the warm up, and the jumping would follow, and that now that I know I can bring Charlie back, I can be more confident about riding him forward.  It's amazing when we get a jump right how incredible it is, but I'd wager we're hitting them perfect at maybe only 25% right now.
Charlie is such a trooper.
Also, there are actually 5 things to think about when jumping, not 3, but they are beyond my skill set right now to even list them all.
The big things to think about are riding in a big enough canter, sitting up and rebalancing around the corner, then getting out of Charlie's way the last three strides - I don't do anything but make things worse if I start messing around the final stride.  John said to think about how Charlie feels going cross country (which he loves) and then try to get that feeling for show jumping.
I love the lessons with John.  They're amazing.

"If you have to think about it, you're too late."

- David O'Connor

Two lessons this week, both excellent.
Some jumping at John's.  This week's issue was flopping forward after the fence.  I have been working much, much harder after the last lesson, and John said it showed - I seemed "crisper".  He also said that now I'm starting to be able to choose what Charlie does, instead of just ride him around the arena.  It's like I have more time to think and more tools in my tool belt to choose from.  While I had a couple flops, I also had a few fences that were just exactly right on, which felt great.  We also jumped the narrow skinny triangle, which was new and fun (for me).

Then today I had a dressage lesson with Shannon.  Again, she said the effort from last week was showing.  I was able to get Charlie rounder, had some nice consistent right circles, and did some really nice leg yields at the end.  Although Charlie started out like a total slug and heavy as a rock in my hands, he ended up moving really great.  The big difference was riding him with a lot of transitions and activity so he had to pay attention.  Transitions in the circle, to a spiral in, changing direction, to another transition ... The other big one was not to do one puny whip and then say "oh, I guess that didn't work" and give up, but to follow it up if he doesn't respond.  If I do a whip smack and he ignores it, I do a second, harder whip smack, and that usually motivates him to get going.  We also did some work without stirrups, which was torture, so I definitely need to incorporate that back into my daily routine.