Three for one special (post): pilates, dressage, and jumping & special bonus - Crystal Gallo

Saturday morning I went to Redmond for my first session with Beth Glosten, the specialist in rider pilates.  It was totally worth it!  Because I was there sans Charlie, we got to focus on my posture instead of trying to ride at the same time.  (At the end of August, I will ride Charlie with her, so I wanted to see her first without him.)  She first checked out my movement on my own, and then gave me some exercises to do for my specific issues.  What was really, really useful about this was for someone to watch me, and then tell me how to do it correctly.  While I've done yoga and dabbled in pilates, I am very good at moving the wrong way, but feeling like I'm doing the position, until someone moves me a centimeter to the right.  Now I'll be able to practice doing it properly instead of fumbling in the dark, trying to figure it out on my own.
It also helped understand some of my quirks, and using a biomechanic explanation not only was useful for just another way of describing the same thing my other trainers have seen, but to see it explained for my body, kind of helped the light go off.
The same old stuff showed up, but now I have some tools to work on it at home too, so I'm really excited.

Then Saturday afternoon I had a dressage lesson with Shannon.  It was really good because finally the light bulb went off about haunches in.  Just like the pilates - another thing I have been practicing incorrectly!  I am very good at doing a leg yield, but have not been doing haunches in.  What makes it haunches in is a feeling of being a "joint" that Charlie bends around.  So if you're doing haunches in to the left, then your left leg acts as the pivot, staying on his side but only giving an aid to keep him moving forward.  Then your right leg bends his haunches AROUND the left leg, so his front legs stay on the track but his back legs twist.  When you get it right, it feels twisted - not moving sideways like a leg yield, but the best way I can describe it is that joint in his back is under your seat.  Then doing this on a 10 meter circle is so hard it makes my tongue stick out.  But when we did it, it engaged his hind leg and then he would bounce out with that underneath impulsion which feels amazing.
The other really useful (but simple) part of the lesson was to think about keeping my toes pointed in.  This helps keep my heels down and from digging into his side at every stride.

Then today we jumped, and the big challenge was getting Charlie moving forward off my legs.  He was sluggish and finally we had to go tearing around in a gallop to get him going.  He perked up as soon as the fences got a little harder, and then jumped like a rock star.  When his canter wasn't big enough, I still have a hard time deciding whether to launch it or if we can fit in one more stride, but when we do that last squished in stride, he jumps up and round and it's so much nicer than the flat launch.
Just like dressage, trying to get him going is actually shooting myself in the foot because I dig in, then dig in harder, so he ignores my aid, then ignores it harder.  So I have GOT to break that habit so I can start moving him off my leg.

 Crystal Gallo was Charlie's dam.  If anyone has one of her mares, would you send a comment to me?

Chehalis Valley Pony Club Derby at Caber Farm

Charlie is the best horse in the entire universe.

Eureka!

Yesterday in our lesson with John I had one of those light bulb moments.  We were warming up over a figure 8 exercise - a cross rail to a vertical to either the left or right.  Maybe the second time on the right line, I suddenly FELT (!!) my hands pulling the last few strides to the fence, even as my legs were kicking.  And then, because I felt it, I could stop doing it.  From that point forward (on that exercise), every line rode a perfect 5 strides, smooth as silk.
It took a long time - I don't even want to think about how long - and we've figured out work-arounds, like planting my hands in his neck, but I FELT it, and then immediately felt how much the correction improved everything.  It was like the skies opened up and angels sang.
Then John did his usual progression up to an exercise I would have thought impossible if we'd started with it, and I had to think a lot more so things weren't as genius.
But that's the genius part.  First, I love how he gradually increases each lesson and how well balanced they are.  But second, I realized as the lesson progressed, that I have so much more time to think than I used to.  Everything used to feel like it was happening so fast, and now, I can not only feel what needs to be corrected, but sometimes even still have time to correct it, in what used to be a mad rush between fences.  We're not going any faster, I think I've just gotten a tiny bit better about feeling, but a whole lot better educated and of course, way more comfortable and trusting of Charlie than I ever was on anyone else.
Have I mentioned lately what an amazing heart Charlie has?  He's so dreamy.
Of course, there's still tons to learn, which I dramatically proved, in case anyone had any doubts, by riding an entire loop on the wrong lead (John counted - 17 strides), but the difference between this year and last year was I knew I was on the wrong lead, but made a decision not to correct it.  It was the wrong decision, but it was a good mistake to make in front of John because he explained why.  First, we're there to school, not to ride a show, so fix mistakes so that me and Charlie learn from them.  And second, 17 strides is eternity, not a flash in the pan.  There are sometimes you wouldn't fix a lead - like in between fences on a line, or around a really hard corner without much space - but a 17 stride corner was not that.
Then I proceeded to screw up the last exercise, which was another golden learning opportunity.  Charlie lands on the right lead like 90% of the time, even if I'm looking left and thinking left over the fence.  Part of this - ok, maybe most of that - is me.  I am still squeezing with the right hand and right leg, even in the air.  But he's a little bit inclined that way anyway.  Which - see last lesson - makes it all the more critical to work on when we school.  So we did this fan, left U turn, oxer - and I could NOT get him to land on the left lead, or to change leads.  Again, it felt too tight so I wasn't committing, but I was also trying to cram it into one stride (because it felt tight).  The take away was that - it's important to make him do it even if it's ugly, there's a lot more space in there than I think, and a  lot more time, AND that even just the act of trying rocks him back on his haunches and gets him set up for a much nicer fence.
The other thing I heard John saying to Shannon was the importance not just of sitting up and balancing and half halting around the corner, but to keep your leg on, otherwise, what's the point of doing all that (that latter half is mine) if you're just going to kick the horse forward and get it all strung out again.  And I realized that's what I've been doing.  I focus so much on the "collection" (not used the way a dressage rider would) that I lose the impulsion.
So one of my at home exercises is to work on making those canter transitions snappy and efficient.
The other benefit to sharing a lesson with Shannon is not only do I get to watch her working with a green horse which is really educational, but she can also tell me what she sees afterwards.  She said I'm still really digging in my heels all the way around, so we really need to keep working on that, that I rarely pat Charlie or tell him good job even when he's putting his heart into figuring it out, and she also emphasized the importance of making him do it properly because it's schooling.
I was on top of the world because of feeling my hands pulling, so now I'm hopeful that one day - maybe even for poor Charlie - I'll be able to feel my heels digging in and get them out.
What a great day.

One correct feeling; Back exercises

After a couple weeks off, we had a lesson with John today.  After some warm up, John's first instruction to me was not to let Charlie just puke over the warm up fences.  Our second task was to switch right to a hefty* line and oxer.  After a few rounds of that, Shannon rode some other lines, and then we did a new set of lines that were even heftier.*  Those four fences were amazing.   Afterwards, John said that's how to ride every fence, no matter how big it is.  He said when they're bigger and I'm a little nervous, I naturally sit up and collect Charlie, like I should for every fence.  Instead, when they're small, I let Charlie take the lead, and then he puts forth minimal effort and they're uncomfortable pukers.  I agree that Charlie is easier to ride when he's bigger and the fences are bigger, but I'm still really wrestling with how to get him big without letting him get flat. Shannon said she noticed that I ride with my heels just dug into his side, so she thinks that I can't use my hips and upper legs very well and that I need to get him in front of my leg and responsive first.  So we'll see - it's a lot of interlocking pieces that I feel like I am close, after a lot of years of sweat, to figuring out.
The other thing I asked John about was exercises for my lower back.  He recommended laying on a pillow, just to stretch it out, and then to use my pecs to pull my shoulders back (not lean backwards and roll my shoulders back), and then third to think about pushing OUT right under my rib cage, which also pushes my back out.  He said it's actually the back under the shoulder blades that needs to be improved, not the low back where it looks the worst.
So I've got the good feeling imprinted in my head now, the next task is just cementing how to get it and then consistently get it.  Baby steps.  But man, Charlie feels like a dreamboat when I get it together.