Amazing lesson with Beth - all kinds of things clicked!

I started my first clinic ride with Beth telling her that although I needed to keep working on all the things, I also felt like I was at the next step - a step that is so far out of my grasp that I don't even know what it is we'll be working on.
Beth told me.  :)  She said that it is beginning collection - getting Charlie to begin to step high underneath himself, and not go forward, but up.  And amazingly enough, that's what we started to do!
Beth was on fire with excellent descriptions of what was going on and how to adjust my body and what to feel, so it was just like:  Pow! Pow! Pow! with me "getting it".
We started with a walk (that marching walk that she doesn't call a march).  Tip #1:  If I lean a little more forward than I think is normal, the movement from Charlie switches from making me have a snaking back to hula hips.  Too far forward and I go back to snaking, but just a wee bit forward from normal, the movement goes left right left right in my legs and hips.  Once that happens, then I can squeeze/release (sometimes tap), and so long as I keep my hands firm so Charlie doesn't "leak out" the front, he starts rounding up and marching.  He is very good at getting me to open my fingers and let him stretch his neck out, though.
From a walk where I can halt or trot at any step - once it is at that walk but not while I'm still messing around with it - we can go to a trot.  Tip #2:  the crazy sashay I have in the posting trot?  Well, it is there in the sitting trot too.  I was in denial, but if I "tighten" my left side (easiest to do by putting my left elbow on my hip), *AND* let my right hip move (by thinking about it being equal with my left hip), then I quit sashaying so much.
Tip #3:  I can't feel it in my hips, but I can feel it in my legs.  So when I start trotting, if I check in on how each leg feels, I can even them out.  Generally, my left leg feels long and flappy (Beth says it kind of moves in a little circle but we'll fix that later) and my right leg is still all curled up tight like a tick.  If I think about making them feel symmetrical, then like a miracle, Charlie's shoulders balance up and he gets nice and fluffy to sit on.
We did some leg yields, and Beth says I am working too hard.  This was actually a theme throughout.  I give an aid every stride, so she made me lift my legs off and hold them off until I needed to give an aid again.  Especially to the right (off the left leg), I clench so tight I start lifting my heel.
An aid needs to have a beginning - middle - end, and most importantly, a purpose.  Charlie needs to react to it.  I can't get away much longer with my sloppy aids.  He was being bad today too, ignoring the trot aid the first time like he had no idea what I was asking for.
When I sat balanced and did a leg yield without lifting my heel, I could feel Charlie's whole body lift and move sideways instead of us just slouching sideways across the arena.
Charlie is a great horse to learn on because he makes you ask for it correctly, but once I do, he instantly rewards me by showing me how different it feels to do it the correct way.
Then we worked on canter.  Tip #4:  I need to close my knees and not let them flap on and off the saddle.  I'm not sure why (I was too busy concentrating on keeping them down to ask) but when I would rest them on the saddle, Charlie kept trying to use it as an excuse to trot.  Same thing with my aids too - I need to not ask every stride to keep him going.  He has to learn to keep himself going.
I also need to tuck my pelvis just a little, but that little bit helps me kind of root into his back.
Tip #5:  Then we worked on Charlie on a smaller circle at the canter.  This was pretty cool.  First, he would stick his neck up in the air, and my job was just to keep him on the smaller circle and not let him break.  Eventually, he would round his neck, and go from a hollow back hard to sit on horse to a round frame delightful to ride horse, and then we would make the circle bigger and then give him a break.  It was much more difficult for both of us to do going to the right.  His weak left hind leg, my crookedness.  (Although!  Tip #6:  if I turned just a tiny bit to the outside, I suddenly got balanced and everything got easier - it was a "eureka" feeling for what is happening with the sashay at the trot)  Anyway, what happens is he is figuring out that he can step under himself with his hind legs instead of shooting them out behind him (like that lesson with Asia), and when he tucks them under, he automatically gets round and soft in his back.
All in all, it was an amazing lesson.  Beth showed me exactly what I needed to start looking for and how to get it and how it felt.
There are probably a zillion other tips that were in the 45 minutes, but this feels like enough to work on for the next couple months!

Stitches out; dressage lesson

I took Charlie's stitches out today in his shoulder.  It was a few days early, but it looks good.  I accidentally knocked off the scab on the left shoulder, so it isn't looking as great.
I had a dressage lesson with John.  He gave me three jump exercises for homework while he is in Montana and then the next week, my Tuesday and Friday both have conflicts.
We worked on getting "more" of everything - more round, more connection, and more impulsion.  He said while he is gone, the most important thing I work on is getting that feeling of being on a 20 meter circle and then asking for more of everything.  He said if Charlie is stiff and won't bend at all, then I lift the inside hand (the direction he's not bending) until he gives, then put my hand back down.
We worked on 10 meter circles, leg yielding, and changing from canter to trot through the diagonal.  John said he was trying to get Charlie to use that inside leg.  Every few moves, we would get it right and it would all click, but I'm not at that point where it's reliable yet.
John also said he thought it progress from last year that I could see what was being tested on the courses at Whidbey (at least, I thought I could see it), and that now that I can see it, he can help me get faster at responding.  But I couldn't get faster until I could see what the test was.
The ride felt really good; it feels to me like we are much better connected and I have many more tools in my toolbox than last year.
I am jealous that we're not going to Rebecca, but only one more qualifying ride and we can go next year!

Flying change success!

During today's jump lesson, on approximately our third (but possibly 10th) try, we finally got a right to left flying lead change!!  Without any leaping, just a regular old, "oh, you wanted a change, ok here it is" kind of thing!  John clapped.
We also rode a few lines (a six stride, a five stride to a one stride, and a long four) quite well and forward.  When Charlie took off, I could feel my hips close like they are supposed to, instead of jumping ahead.
It wasn't perfect, but somehow I got him nice and forward and he was eager to jump also.
Then we went on a nice long walk on John's uphill trail to cool off.
Charlie is such a great boy.
The secret to the change was the 3-10 tries before that, the lesson earlier in the week, but most (?) importantly, I took a breath, I'd ask him to bend right, I'd do a half pass right (on a circle), then I'd change his bend to left, lift my right hand, and ask with my legs for the new lead.  I had to do each step and do each one precisely and calmly.
He did a little better too, after we jumped a fence and landed left, he'd remember left and be more likely to land on the left lead (instead of his usual 90% on the right lead no matter what) - but I am also doing a much better job looking, bending a bit a few strides out, but I still need work on my leg aids for the correct lead when we are taking off.
I also walked the lines when we were done, and the 6 walked one step short (4'), the 5 walked perfectly, and the 4 walked one big step long (4'+) so I can now apply that to walking the SJ course at the shows for when I need to ride big into one vs. ride regular vs. ride tight.

Progress on flying leads!

Today we worked again on our flying lead changes.  We took a break from it the last few months, but pretty much everyone I watched at Training and above for show jumping could do them, and I just can't see how I will be able to get around a prelim show jumping course without them.
It was great!  First, Charlie caught on to the concept almost instantly (where he started offering them), which was a huge difference, because that seemed to be a mental hold up for him for years.  He got the idea of doing them from left to right, but it was like he couldn't even wrap his head around the concept from right to left.
He was trying to do them, but in this huge lunging, kicking way, where he would leap up all gigantic and forward (actually, that is what I saw him doing with Shannon over a ground pole in a lesson with Mike several years ago), and so sometimes he would get the change during the huge leap, but sometimes he wouldn't.
As we kept working, he quit needing to do the huge leap, and could do them a bit more reasonably.
John felt that I was a lot stronger and more balanced, so I could sit up and give something to Charlie to press into.  We also added in the detail of using my inside hip to press down, like if we were on the right lead and changing to the left, I would press down on my left seat bone, and put my right leg back, and use the whip, as well as have him bend to the left.
We worked on this with a couple of exercises.  We would half pass from the corner to the center line, and then turn the opposite direction (so if we half passed in the canter from K to X on the right lead, then I would bend him left at "G" so that at C, in theory, we would be on the left lead heading back towards H).  We also turned on the diagonal, then half passed starting at X, so if I was on the left lead, I would go pass A, turn left at F, at X start half passing to the left, turn his head right, and ask for the change at H, so by C we would be on the right lead.
Charlie was soaking wet (it was also hot out) so I walked him on the trail afterwards.  It was a really great lesson.  It's too much for me to try to do on my own, because John said he has a couple ways to try to evade the work (and it took me a while to get him really half passing).  When he does the carousel horse, John says we have to nip that in the bud immediately.  At one point, Charlie got really frustrated and wouldn't listen to anything or bend left at all, so John had us halt, then bend him left, then do a turn on the forehand, then go back to work, and it seemed to reset Charlie's brain.  When he was doing the carousel horse, John had us quit working on the flying leads and work on some trot work and transitions instead.
I liked that there was a pattern that set Charlie up for success, and also helped him figure out what we were asking him for, and I also like that it is a pattern I will never do in a dressage test, so he won't get too exuberant and start trying it willy nilly.
I also asked John about my two flops where Charlie saved my bacon at Inavale.  He said for the water, that it starts out at about 6", but within one stride, is like 2' deep.  He asked Peaches, and she said pretty much every rider had issues in the water.  So that's why the jump felt fine, and then I flopped, it was the footing and Charlie scrambling in it.  He also said everyone had trouble with the triple, because when they removed the first hibiscus, it took the "round" out of the turn, and everyone ended up making an angled turn, where we drifted right toward the judge's stand, and didn't come in nice and straight.  He said if they had left that fence up, it would have helped make the turn more structured.  So it wasn't just me, but I was lucky to have good boy Charlie (and all those grids) work through it.
Charlie got a puncture wound on Tuesday.  Diane said his stall gate seemed to have gotten half shut, and then there was a bolt on the "inside" that Charlie could have done it on.  It was the only thing they found (and they took the gate out).  He seems to be doing ok.  I talked with her (and Bre) about whether Charlie was too much for them.  They said he is more than they are used to, but they have that young horse that isn't ridden and Kevin …
She also told me that on Wednesday (?), Deb Stevens came by looking for a place to board.  She said that Deb said that she used to be at Forest Park.  I told her I had never met Deb.  She said Deb wanted to hug Charlie, but so far as I know, the only time she would have met him was when he was a baby.