Charlie's Dressage Test

Novice A

Fall NWEC

John knows the answer to everything

Here is what is frustrating - brain understanding is nowhere near the same as muscle memory.  It is like watching paint dry waiting for my muscles to catch up with my brain, but I'm not sure, other than running through the checklist each time I'm ride, how to speed that up beyond what we're already doing.
Charlie's run out xc:
I probably had long reins; + Charlie long and stretched out on the forehand; + rode aggressively into the ditch; + then relaxed; + probably rode a bit to the left of center (because the right leg is stronger than the left); = Charlie can't fit two stretched out strides in, is already angling left to give himself more space, and then is like what the hell, I'm already way over here, and at the last second, just runs out.
The second one was most likely him just being naughty.
The biggest error?  I said "Well, it was cross country so I was relaxed and not worried like I am for dressage and show jumping."  And the remarkable show jumping round the next day?  Because I was so pissed I actually rode it instead of cruising around waiting for Charlie to take care of everything.
I also said "I didn't have any trouble with the hard fences" and John took that as proof that when I'm riding, I ride fine, but when I'm relaxed and just cruising around (all of which was painfully true), I expect poor Charlie to just figure it all out and do it.
He said he sees it even with prelim riders; they have refusals before or after the hard fence because they are thinking about that fence - or relaxing because it's done - and not riding every fence.  He also said that usually when someone blows dressage, they ride great the next two days because they're so mad that they really ride. 
Lessons:
Keep my reins shorter.  If I can't keep them short, then shorten them back up between each fence.
Keep Charlie in between my legs and in the center of the fences.
Ride every fence like he is going to refuse.  Relax afterwards, then ride the next fence like he is going to refuse.
Don't let him get strung out and on the forehand - get big, but not long.
Keep the contact on the outside rein.  Don't yank him around with the inside hand.
Don't squeeze like an anaconda.  Aid is calf off-on-off-on, and if he's ignoring me, a hard off-on and a big smack with the whip.  Stop lifting my heels as the harder aid.
It was actually a relief, even if a huge slice of humble pie, for John to label it and tell me how to fix it.
He had us ride a course with a combination, and the first time through was irrefutable proof - I had jumped in, drifted way over to the left, and you could see Charlie's take off hoof prints from almost at the edge of the fence.
The good news?  I still have a lot more time to think than I did at this time last year, and I am starting to be able to feel my heels come up, which I think is step 2 towards being able to get them down.
We also looked at my rainy season training schedule, and John approved it:
Monday - off
Tuesday - Dressage
Wednesday - Jump
Thursday - Shannon rides
Friday - Dressage
Saturday - Lesson at John's
Sunday - Condition

October Major Beale clinic - audit or wait list

Major Jeremy Beale (from the British 3 day team and exceptional dressage instructor) will be in Olympia on October 12-13 for a clinic.  The clinic is already full, but contact Cynthia Dickinson at Peteton Farm to audit and get on the wait list for an unforgettable experience.
http://www.dressagefoundation.org/Jeremy_Beale.htm

Our first 8 in collective marks!

We knocked the socks off of our Caber dressage test two weeks ago, and had a great test.  It wasn't enough to put us in the top 5 - Novice champs is a lot harder than BN champs.
I'm happy because in reflecting on what I struggled with last year and what I am struggling with this year, this year's issues are different and a wee bit more advanced.
Also, I was really nervous about this ride - I had 5 things making me nervous - but after my nerves at Caber I had a plan, and it worked.  I really concentrated on Shannon in the warm up and tried to ignore the other riders (and also tried to ride in the quietest part of the warm up), and then as we went in, I tried to focus on rocking it instead of on how nervous I was.
Shannon point out the big improvement area is after the free walk, I don't pick my reins far enough up so we did the second half of the test more on the forehand and long than the first half.  That's an easy one to remember and fix (in theory).  She said I do the same thing on the outside of the arena - I go from an 8 trot warming up to a 4 as soon as I get out of warm up into the outside of the test.
We also only had one "bend more" comment!
The other thing that really helped was we were riding in a regular arena instead of the small one.  Charlie is so long that it gives me a lot more room to work.

Team FPEC

Jumping with John - big wasn't better

On Sunday, Shannon and I went down for a jump lesson.  It started out superb - we had our distances, we were round, we had quick changes of lead.  Then John made the fences a little bigger, which usually helps us improve, but instead, this time, we just kind of fell apart.  Not completely apart, which was almost more infuriating.  We got really hit or miss - we'd either nail the fence and float perfectly over it - or totally screw it up (in any one of what felt like an endless number of ways).  And no matter how hard I tried, I could just not pull it all together to ride them all smoothly.  It was like fine - flop - fine - fine - flop - flop.
Bigger canter.  Which means more impulsion.  Which means quit digging in my heels so when I give an aid, Charlie leaps forward.  But this is where I'm hopelessly stuck.  If I give one aid - even with a whip smack - he goes back to dull.  That is probably because I have my legs glued on, but I can't feel it. 
Faster and more precise canter lead changes.  When I get overwhelmed, I give sloppy aids and we plunge onto the forehand and quite frequently go back on the wrong lead.  If I just take a breath and think - outside hand, inside leg, outside leg, it is going slower to go faster.
Sit up in between the fences.  Especially on a long line, start with the half halt and the rebalancing about half way between the two fences - not two strides out.  And mean it.
I know this is a lot better than last year - I can think of more things and feel like I have more time between the fences - I can feel the mistakes faster, and now a lot of the time I know what to do - I'm not always fast enough or effective enough, but at least I'm not completely ignorant.  But I am going crazy that I can't figure out my lower leg for impulsion. 
As Shannon pointed out, at the show she came up with a system that works - walk on a loose rein, ask for a trot, and if he doesn't spring into it, he gets three smacks with the whip.  Then ask for it again, and usually the next three or four requests, he springs forward into it.  So that fixes the start.
But how do I fix the anaconda cling around the whole course when I can't feel I'm doing it?  I got the pulling hands about a month ago when suddenly, in a eureka moment, I could feel I was pulling, and since then, I've been able to not pull.  So I'm just waiting for that eureka moment with my heels too.  But I'm ready for you, eureka moment - I'm ready to be done working on that and start working on the next thing.  I'm tired of Shannon and John having to tell me the same thing over and over and over again.  It's humiliating that I can't get that one thing right.

Pilates with Beth

On Saturday, Charlie and I had our first pilates lesson on horseback.  It was interesting, because Beth could see the same things as Shannon, John, and Major Beale, but she had a different approach to trying to fix it.
The first visual is aligning two planes of your body - the lower pelvis (I sit too far forward, on the front points of my pelvis, so that angle needs to go back) and then your shoulder (I sit too rounded, so that angle needs to come forward).
The second series were about use of the core.  First, tightening the "armpits" which is really that muscle that's running under your armpit and connects your back.  Second is not letting my belly flop forward and back so much, but keeping it more still and letting my hips and legs absorb the motion.  Third is making my core still to halt or do a down transition.
Third is to fix the crooked pelvis.  There are a couple ways to approach this.  Going either direction, I need to twist both my hips and my shoulders to the left - to keep them lined up with Charlie.  This feels really wonky, but Beth says it's just barely straight.  The weird thing that happens here is because my pelvis is crooked, my legs feel different in the saddle when I straighten - what feels even is actually heavy on the right seat bone.
The good news was that Beth thinks these are all the same problem, so once we get it fixed, it should be a big golden moment.
I haven't had a chance to ride dressage again since the lesson, so it will be really interesting to see if I can feel it and make the adjustments on my own.

New mantra

"There are no secrets to success.  It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."
- Colin Powell
(Thanks to my Real Simple quote of the day)