Lesson #3 with Britt

I had another slew of questions about the three day, and started the lesson with those.   The first was how awkward going downhill feels.  Britt said to just keep working on it until the lightbulb goes off for Charlie.  She suggested starting on a small, gradual hill, and just riding a circle until he gets it and gets balanced and has cadence - then move to a hill that's a little bit steeper and work my way up to a real hill.  My second question was where do I warm up for cross country day, and the answer is - nowhere!  You just get on and ride.  No warm up fences in between A and B or C and D.  Third question was my same question to John about this time last year - if I work at it, can I do training level at the end of the year.  Britt's answer was the same - I can work at it, but I might not make it.  She explained that for training, there is a big jump in the technical aspect, and you really need to be able to rock back before the fence and have control over the shoulders for the turns because they are so tight.  And then I had to sheepishly confess that my fourth question was that I really struggled with exactly that since last week.  So we started by working on it with a new exercise.  She also told me that although Novice is a little easier, I probably am not going to have much horse for the Major Beale clinic the weekend after we get back.
Our exercise was to trot a long side, leg yield a few steps, then go straight a few steps, leg yield, straight - so there were three leg yields.  The part I focused on was using the outside leg (my left leg - we were going left) to "turn on" when I went straight.  At first, I just quit using my right leg, but once I started to use the left leg to make the outside frame, Charlie would slow down.  When I added the whip on the right with the left leg, he started to poof up in the shoulders.  Then we added circles - we'd leg yield, go into a smallish circle (15 meters), go back into the leg yield.  This really helped me use my outside rein on the circle.
Then Britt came and held the rein and held my leg and demonstrated the proper feel.  What I think of as contact is barely contact at all.  As soon as I added the actual contact, it made a huge difference.  The hard part was feeling the difference between rounding contact and flattening contact.  So Britt showed me which muscles to watch on his neck to see the difference.  The other tricky part with this was not to pull back to get contact, but to have steady contact, and when he gives, it releases just by his giving.  I don't have to fling the reins forward when he gives.
So then we did the same thing but at the canter, and other than a total out-take moment where I tried to switch the whip, got my rein wrapped around my thumb and the whip, then dropped the other side of the rein and careened around in a wild circle, this exercise was pretty good too.
So THEN we did our steeplechase triple bar.  Last week I set up a 3'1" triple bar without too much of a spread, and a 3'7" vertical since that is the maximum height the brush can be.  The triple bar was an absolute delight to jump, even at 470 mpm, but the vertical gave me trouble, so I only did it twice and decided to wait for the lesson.
First we did the steeplechase fence, and Britt noted that I'm probably working too hard, and so Charlie is tuning me out.  I basically whip him every stride all the way around.  And it was true - he kept going, even when I wasn't whipping him.  She also reminded me of the two whip rule, which was timely, although since I won't have my dressage whip, I feel like I'll basically be whip-less anyway. 
She also demonstrated, after the warm up fences, that I'm working too hard over the fences, flinging myself in half over his neck, when I should just let him close my angle, like you do when you're skiing moguls.  This makes perfect sense, and I have noticed that I fling forward (increasingly) but I couldn't figure out why I was doing it or what to do instead.  So then she talked about what the steeplechase is for (not sitting up before the fence, but letting the fence close your angle), and so we worked on it a couple more times.  It was too much change at once, and I got more stupid over the fence, but it was all good information.
Then we went from the steeplechase fence to slowing the canter and jumping the 3'7" vertical.  The first four fences were horrible, but then I started to get it.  I had to sit up and half halt until about four strides out, then kick to the fence.  It's the first time I've really had to ride two fences so differently, and it was a lot for my brain to take in, but once I got it, the light bulb kind of went off.  It also helped that I did them so badly at first, because Charlie wasn't doing my job for me anymore, and I had to think it through and actually ride the fence.  Britt said not to work on those on my own, but I'm really glad we did them.  I feel like another layer of gauze just got peeled away so I can see a little bit about what's in store.
I'm not sure this is going to be the year to go Training, but I did realize, in asking her about it, that I just don't know - I have no experience at all - what it means to have that connection and why it's so critical over the fences.  But this last exercise really helped me get it, and that gives me something concrete to understand and work on over the winter to get ready for next season.
Britt has a very patient way of explaining things that really helps with the stuff that is totally unfamiliar to me, and I feel like I am getting closer to the point where I am not just being tootled around on Charlie's back but actually starting to contribute a little bit.  At least, I am starting to see how I could contribute, which is leaps and bounds ahead of where I was two years ago and my whole life up to this point.  It is amazing how much I don't know.