Lesson with Beth - riding every step, keeping the contact

Today with Beth in the studio we focused on two areas:  hamstrings and trapezius?  (center of back and just below arms on back).  It turns out I have even been able to "relax" incorrectly.  For the exercise on the foam roller with scarecrow arms, I should start with my arms crossed so that my back doesn't pop too high up (in the sway back arch) so that my shoulders can open in the front.
The hamstrings seemed a little easier to focus on than they have in the past.  It does really help to take the breath and center, and then do the movement.  We worked on egg beaters with my tailbone on a ball at the end, which I need to incorporate into my at home routine.  My legs had different ability to make the "D" shape, so I need to pay attention to that.
Then we also did a few exercises on the reformer which I think I can mimic at home, where I focus the lift from the spot between my shoulder blades instead of from my neck or from my lower back.
For some reason, today I also did a better job being able to feel this when I was on Charlie as well.  It was helpful because when we were sitting the trot, I could think of that spot and "anchor" my shoulders down into my waist.
I got a better appreciation for how to do scarecrow properly - it is much more difficult than the way I have been doing it - so that will be good to see if I improve by next time with this new appreciation for the nuances.
The studio lesson once again fit really well into my riding lesson.  We started with getting Charlie to "march" forward (Beth doesn't call it marching).  I needed the feeling of being able to halt or trot from the walk, and when he had enough forward coming from the hind end, his neck would more naturally round and he would feel heavier in my hand but softer in his shoulders.  I had to either use legs on-off-on-off or use the whip rhythmically.  He would get a little anxious after about five whip taps, so then we would give him a break from the whip but he had to keep moving forward.
From the walk, we did sitting trot with the same rhythmic tapping so that he was a bit more jazzed up than usual.  Then I took the energy (with shorter reins) and thought about his hind legs stepping under him and my seat giving a bigger bounce but with the same tempo. 
From there we worked on transitions, with the emphasis on thinking about the transition a few steps ahead.  For the up transitions, I kind of slip the reins (or push my hands forward) and so I had to really think about not pushing forward.  This confused Charlie (who is used to the release and the plunge downwards) so then I had to think "transition - transition" and give the aid twice.  Then I gave the aid too strong in too quick a succession so he lunged forward, but a lunging forward was a better response than a puking downward.
Then we worked on canter to walk transitions.  We started on a 20 meter circle, then did a 12 meter circle, then Beth would say "1-2-3" and I would think "halt" but we would "walk".  I thought these were pretty good because he almost came to a halt each time.
Beth said that the topline muscle exercises I'm doing are the correct exercises, but the reason we worked on these specific exercises were to ensure that I was practicing quality exercise to help develop the topline.  She said it naturally develops from the engagement.
Charlie's left lead canter was a little hoppy in his left stifle.  I could feel it and Beth could see it, so that is definitely something to watch.
I'm not doing the best job describing the lesson, but essentially, I was able to ride him rounder and with more activity coming from his hind end, and I could take that energy and channel it into being potential energy for an up or down transition instead of it leaking out the front.  This was by riding with more consistent contact, but also by using my aids (on-off) and using my core.  Beth said to pull my legs off his side, feel how deep my seat got, and to try to get that seat.
It was a really great and helpful lesson, and we were able to do most of it sitting too!

Home exercises and observation of other lessons with John

Nine horribly long days after stupidly riding Charlie on a road with big rocks (= stone bruise on right front foot - 7 days of epsom soaking and bute later - 1 horse show scratched (EI) - and this year's Montana dream crushed), I rode him for the first time today in a lesson with John.  Charlie was a dreamboat.
He then, extremely patiently, waited 5 hours while I watched John give 6 more lessons.  My takeaway?  I ride about as well as a beginner novice Pony Clubber (on a good day), I will never go Intermediate (he had a 6' spread and a show jump on the top of the standards!), and a lot of the "basics" that I hear from him apply to everyone.  I was blown away by the excellent position of the Pony Clubbers - none of them jumped ahead and they had lower legs locked in place.  I was jealous.
In my lesson, we worked on a series of different shapes and transitions.  John said it was work I could do at home, so I'm not just doing the same old 15 meter circle over and over.
We did 20 meter circles, deep into the corner and across the diaganol (on a short side), then 15 meter circles.  We did 10 meter circles, and then we did 10 meter half circles back onto the rail (so a 10 meter half circle between H and A, then back to the rail at B, then the lead change at first at M, but then later at C).  We did lengthenings in between on the long side or across the diaganol, and then did a 4 loop serpentine (in the small arena!) down the center line by alternating 10 meter half circles.
Charlie was an absolute champ.  He just went to work and popped around like it was no big deal without a single step off.  I feel guilty for the time in the trailer (John said next time to check with him and put him in a stall - which is good because that means I get to keep doing this!), so hopefully tomorrow he'll still be ok and today won't have been too much work.
The other great thing about the timing for watching the lessons was that I just read two of Jane Savoie's books over the weekend (while sulking about not being at EI because of my own stupid lack of common sense), and so it was really nice to be on the ground and watching and looking for some of the things she described in the book - especially the legs going out behind, which Asia had said but I did not understand until I saw the drawing in the book.
John has pony club lessons every other week February - September (?), and right now they do four lessons, from a teeny tiny adorable (but rascal) pony to the training level kids, one of whom is working on her first prelim horse.

Aspen derby

We had amazing weather (80!) and so I didn't warm Charlie up much so he wouldn't overheat.  Our first round, we had a disappointing rail down and run out, but it was actually quite good because:
1)  the course was far more technical than what we've been doing (fence 2 was a hard right to a long line to fence 3; fence 4 was several strides to an up bank/down bank which depending on where you jumped in and how you bent the line, was a 2 1/2 or 3 stride; then a downhill canter to a very hard right over a very big table, then a log one stride water, up bank out of the water, one stride, show jumping fence, hard left; but the one we had a rail down was a vertical show jump at an angle to a corner; then a hard left to a line with an oxer and vertical slightly off set.
The good news is that I could feel things coming up and had time to think.
The bad news is of course the rail down and run out despite that.
On the second round, we did better, but the second to last fence Charlie jumped in funny so I slid the reins, then couldn't get them back in time, so I pulled my elbows back and stood up over the last fence and then Charlie's right bell boot came sailing past over the top of our heads.  Charlie and I both looked at it and I yelled "woo!" as it passed us.
I'm pretty happy with it.  I could feel what I was doing and was thinking for myself while things were happening!  Not fast enough to fix them, but fast enough to feel them a stride or two out.  That's progress, I think.

Draw reins with John

I had a dressage lesson with John today and it was amazing.  I told him how Charlie felt all bouncy from the hock injections, but I never noticed it before.  He said it's because I never rode him engaged before, so I couldn't tell.  He said to feel for when it peaks, and then figure out how long it was between the injections and the peak, and then get his hocks injected that many weeks before a three day.
Then he explained the difference between a collected canter, and a working canter with some lift - he said even for advanced horses, a collected canter is very difficult to do.
The first eureka moment was when he told me how Charlie was tilting his head to the right (we were going left, counterclockwise) and said that when Charlie does that - i.e. when I can't see his jaw but only his eyelashes - to lift up with my left hand.  That straightens Charlie's face out and doesn't let him evade the bend.  But then he tries to evade other ways, so I have to keep my leg on and keep him going - I had to use the whip.
Then John put on the draw reins.  I haven't used draw reins sinceWillig, so there was an incredibly horrible period where I couldn't figure out how to get them in my left hand, but then I gripped like there was no tomorrow so we wouldn't have to go through that again.
It was AMAZING.  All of a sudden, Charlie's shoulders were lifted, and I didn't have to fight with him, and it was just divine.  We worked on 20 meter circles, 15 meter circles, 10 meter circles, leg yield, and trot and canter. Our first canter was like that eureka heavenly moment with Mike - the sky opened up and angels sang and I was just riding on a cloud on top of Charlie's back.  It was amazing.
At the 10 meter circle, Charlie tried to get out of work again, and so I had to sit tall, and then put my butt down on him, and then use my hips to swing him up and forward (and leg and whip, of course), but I had to really keep him going.
John said I can use the draw reins by myself sometimes, but not all the time, because I am extremely unlikely to ever ride with them too short (he had to keep telling me to shorten them - again - again - again), and that is their risk.
Charlie's butt was so sweaty afterwards!  Even though I sponged him off, when we got back to the barn, he had that caked on sweat look and needed to be curried.
John also showed me a ground exercise for Charlie's topline.  He said that Charlie has never been a muscley horse through the topline, and that he is on the skinny side right now.  He showed me how to squeeze just behind his hunter's bump and at the same time push up under his ribs.  He said to get him to round up, hold it a few seconds, and then let him relax.