Flat work and attempt 3 at the cavaletti

John started us today with some great flat work.  He had us work on 10 meter and 15 meter circles, and the instruction was to connect Duke.  As with the prior lessons, sometimes I had to use the outside leg, and sometimes bend him a bit to the outside.  John said that when I feel his shoulder start to pop out, that is when I use my outside rein and outside leg.
What was different about today's ride was that, for a brief moment, I used my inside leg to my outside hand - on purpose - and Duke responded - on purpose.  I felt it!  I did it!  I can do it!  I'm not going to be stuck at this level forever.
John said that some of our crappy circles would score a 3, and then we rode them better (after he gave me all the aids and Duke worked his sweet little heart out to get there), and then I could feel his back lifting and his hind legs engaged.  It felt great.
But - sadly - despite the glimmer of hope, it is still hard for me to do and hard for me to grasp.  It takes all my concentration to do like two things, let alone the six that John has mentioned (and I'm guessing there's an infinity more underneath those six).
From there we jumped, but John noticed that my spurs hang low, and so he got an extra spur strap, and used it to lift my spur up and then fastened it around my ankle.  With the spur up, I HAD to keep my heel down, but then I could use either my calf OR the spur, and so I got a much stronger response from Duke.  John said that especially in the new boots, with the two little spur holders, instead of the back one, the spurs get droopy, and then you have to lift your heel to use the spur.
So we did the cavaletti to a little vertical both ways, and another miracle occurred.  This time (our third time), I could finally see the line going to the right (the longer direction).  John described it as I could see where I wanted to ride, instead of seeing where we were going.
What HE was doing, however, was making it harder (which I didn't notice, because I was so excited about seeing where I wanted to go and making it more precise), which was to counter bend, bend, use outside leg to keep him on the circle, get him over the center, and not at an angle.
He said right now I'm mad because I go over the fence about where I want, but I land like a foot left of where I want.  He said in the future I'll be mad because I'll get within an inch of where I want for take off, and an inch where I want to land.  That will be a cool thing to be mad about.
Duke, bless his sweet heart, worked himself into a lather trying to figure out what I wanted and do it.
Oh yeah, on the 10 meter and 15 meter circles, John said that for the trot, I had to cross his front legs over each other (when he was stiff) and for the canter, to think about pushing his outside front leg into the center of his body (since it can't cross under).  These helped him - I would describe it as - square up his shoulders and then balance and then lift his back.
It was a good lesson.  Duke is staying for a week while I go to Cincy.  John said to go to the Kentucky Horse Park and then drive up and down the road in front of it and look at the horse barns, which are amazing.

* Levels

10 meter circles and leg yields

Today's lesson was a mental challenge to keep all the aids going independently.  John had me ride 10 meter circles, get Duke properly bent, then keep the bend off of the circle, leg yield over to the wall, and then do it again.
The easiest part:  to leg yield to the wall, if his hindquarters are drifting, use the outside rein to square him back up.
The rest of it:  inside hand even with outside hand, not pulling down and back; use my outside elbow behind my hip if I need to; while outside hand is half halting, use inside hand to bend, but not too much; use hips evenly to keep him moving forward (especially at canter or sitting trot); use inside leg to push him into outside hand so he doesn't fall in but stays bent; and etc. etc. etc. beyond my ability to keep up.
If I counted out loud, I could keep my hips going, but then I couldn't also keep in my mind not letting the inside hand slip down.
Every once in a while I would get everything lined up and then I could feel Duke's back up, and it was amazing.  But it was hard to keep all those aids in mind.  John said getting the hips and legs to be  rote is the key, and then I'll still have to think about my hands.

Cavaletti to vertical - take 2

Today we worked on the same three cavaletti to a vertical (3'3" at its highest).  Once again, going right it was easier to go over the cavaletti, but harder to line up over the center of the fence, and jump it on the 20 meter circle (instead of kind of angled); and going left it was harder to go over the cavaletti, then easier to go over the center of the fence.
To go right, I had to counterbend Duke for a few strides, then bend him back as we did the final quarter of the circle (if fence is at 12, after 9), but I went and walked it after the lesson was over, and tried to move my shoulders to see what it was.  John said that Duke bulges his shoulder out to the left (why we're counterbending) when we go to the right, but he doesn't bulge his shoulder out to the right when we go left, so that's part of it.
But going to the left, John had to stand so I would ride around him, and then he put out ground poles to make the shape of the circle, and then it was easier.  So going left, I was cutting WAY in to make the circle.
I think - maybe - these two differences have to do with the way the exercise is set up.  Going left, you go over the third cavaletti then there are 7 strides to the fence, and then 20 to the cavaletti.  So there's an obvious "line" from the last cavaletti to the fence, but then I lose the shape in the empty space that is 20 strides.  So it's hard to get back lined up for that first cavaletti.
And going to the right, the fence to the first cavaletti is only 7 strides, so again, an obvious line, but the third cavaletti back to the fence is 20 strides, so I lose the shape of the circle.
Huh.
So I think at home, the way to work on the shape of the circle would be to put out ground poles and then try to ride over them on a circle in the correct arc.
Eventually, going left, John took the cavaletti and moved them all about 6" "closer" to the first one, which changed the angle ever so slightly (instead of the middle cavaletti lined up with the corner of the arena, it was slightly off set), and then it got way, way easier to ride.  John said that the line just looks different - it looks more like a straight line instead of the arc of the circle, so I don't mess around with Duke trying to get the correct bend, I just ride through it.  Even though the distance is exactly the same.
John said that when Duke does the funny hopping skippity jump instead of just cantering over the cavaletti, I have to just deal with it (I was starting to get really frustrated, and I'd pull him off the circle and then walk and then fuck around with the trot for a while then fuck around with the canter for a while before I'd try again), I have to just confidently go to the jump anyway.  He said at prelim, especially corners to skinnies, the distance is usually just a little off, and that Duke is very good about going anyway, but I am going to have to put my leg on and ride it, even at the odd distance.
Duke got super sweaty, and was tired about half way through, but I think he liked the challenge.
John also said that it's different to ride that vertical at 3'3" and 3'7" - that the height starts making the turn and angle more significant.  I think maximum height today was 3'3", but since I struggled with the cavaletti and the right turn to the fence, we definitely weren't ready for the next hard step.

Sitting trot and transitions

We did a lot of sitting trot work today which, to my utter amazement, I did sort of kind of ok.  As in, I wasn't as absurdly stiff as I expected, and I could increase Duke's trot and still sit it.  It wasn't a work of art, but neither am I.
John had us work on forward and back in the canter and trot, and then transitions in the proper frame.  Inside leg to outside hand, and then bend from the inside hand is the short version.  But for god's sake, I don't know why I'm struggling so much with this.  John just gives me the necessary words, and then the very next lap I need all of them again.
He said that his goal in the lesson is to have me feel it, so I can remember the feel.  The feel is very distinct, but I can't put into words what makes it happen.  When I can connect those two, I think things will progress.
We also talked about bending aids, and why sometimes the aid is an inside leg (he's usually falling in over his shoulder; i.e. making the circle smaller) and sometimes an outside leg (I am usually bending his haunches into the circle with this aid) and sometimes the rein (John tries to tell me when he wants me to only bend his neck; he said we used to only bend with the neck, but now I bend his body and then use the neck).
We also talked about the inside seat bone for the canter aid, after I experimented with it in between my last lesson and this one.  It is not a forward and down, but a forward and up - John had to show me twice - it is like the motion of a sitting trot, but then a swoop up.  John said you can use it either to start the canter (when his hind leg is coming under?) or to finish the canter, if he is almost picking it up but then stalling.
I am also having a lot of trouble with my hands.  My outside hand wants to go forward (instead of elbow to hip) and my inside hand wants to drop down and back, which is weird that they're going two different ways, since I can't use them independently.
Riding Duke felt great, but I'm frustrated because I feel like I can only connect the dots when John is there, and I just freakishly get one step or so when I'm on my own.

Cavaletti to a fence

Tonight we did a new exercise.  John had three cavaletti set on a circle (so the insides were closer together than the outsides), and we rode them first at the trot, then at the canter.  My job was to bend Duke around my inside leg, get him lined up properly, keep my leg on, but then let him figure it out.
After we did that both directions, then we rode the cavaletti to a ground pole, over a vertical, over another ground pole.  First we went to the right, and I had a hard time with making the correct line to make the center of the fence be a circle with the cavaletti (even though I could totally see it).  When we changed directions, it was very easy.  Afterwards, John said that's because from the left, it was a seven stride line to the fence, but from the right, it was a 20 stride line.  That was pretty fascinating.  So my eye can see 7 strides, but not 20.
This was a straightforward looking, but not simple, exercise.  It highlighted how important it is to be precise.
From the right, John had me counterbend Duke, but if the jump was at 12, I did this at 9, so by the time I got to 10, I was bending him back and using that to bend us through the turn.  When I lined up the bend ahead of time, the cavaletti and the jump were smooth sailing.  If I messed up the angle of the circle or the bend, I could tell instantly.  It was a good exercise.

Draw reins & trailer

Well, I got my trailer bent funny in the driveway, and John had to drive it in and then help me back out.  That was ... well, inevitable.  I guess I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.  He said because Ford have a huge turning radius, and it takes a while for the trailer to move, that I'm overcorrecting, and instead, I should do little movements and trust that it's going to turn.  I tried parking it like that when I got home and it worked like a charm.

For our lesson, we worked with draw reins, because John said to ride with them every once in a while, but I'm too chicken shit to do it on my own.  Duke was great, and worked hard, as always.  We worked on bending him through his body (not just in his neck) to break up the stiffness.  This is sometimes with my inside hand (and leg), and sometimes with a half halt on the outside hand (and both legs), and sometimes, when he doesn't give, bend to the outside.
We did 10 meter trot circles, started 10 meter canter circles, then let him do 15 meter canter circles.  He got tired after the first set of canter both directions, but John had him keep going, and he didn't act up.
The transitions were hard - John made us redo them if he stiffened and put his head up in the air, so we had to do each one several times before we got it right.  He seems to pick up the canter better if I push the inside hip down and forward when I'm asking for the canter (with inside leg forward, outside leg back).  Transitions down, however, just feel like a crap shoot.  I am asking him to bend with my inside hand, but sometimes he throws his head up (mostly) and sometimes (rarely) he doesn't.
When he lifts his back up and is going round, I can squeeze him with my whole leg, it feels like I can wrap around him.  But when he's hollow in his back, if I squeeze with my upper leg, it just makes my lower leg swing.  John said yes.  I also have a hard time making my hands be independent; if my left hand gives, my right hand wants to also.

During my lesson, it's amazing, but like I've said the last few blog posts, afterwards, I just cannot repeat it (and can barely describe it) by myself.  John said to give when he bends (but I can't always feel it), and he kept having to tell me to take up the reins (especially with my left hand).
I think the last couple times though, I have done a little better the next couple rides by myself, so maybe it is slowly sinking in.  I hope this is another one of the learning stages where we're stuck on a big step up, but once we make it, we'll have a new view.  (And not the limits of how well I can ride.)

Two different types of bending aids

In our last lesson, we worked on bending Duke with the reins.  Tonight we worked on bending him with my leg.  John said that with a horse like him who thinks, it is best to mix it up.
I was trotting around on a floppy rein to warm up, like John and Ashley said (or so I thought), but John got on and rode him and showed me (which was awesome).  Instead of letting him do whatever he wants, it was pushing him forward, even letting him run just a little bit, then using outside aids to firm him up, then using inside rein and leg to bend him, and then pushing forward again, and then the second pushing forward pushes him up and round into the reins, and he naturally goes up and over his back.  It was kind of amazing.  So John rode him and described it to me a few laps, then I got on, and it was cool.
And then we did canter, and I don't know why, but I am just struggling with any roundness in the canter.  As in, I can't even describe what John told me, even though he said it just as simply (and even more recently) than the trot aids.
It is sitting down, keeping seat moving, legs on and off, breaking up his neck, but the aids from my legs to my hands just defeat me.
From there, we did some jumping through a grid, which was a ground pole, cross rail, ground pole, vertical, ground pole, and eventually the cross rail and vertical became oxers that were cross rail/verticals, and then John put placer poles in the middle to make us go straight down the chute and not drift.  Duke was great - he just powered through although he likes to land on the left lead.  My big instruction was to look ahead through the turn, then put enough leg on to get us through, which was usually leg over the first fence and in between the first and second fence.
John said he likes Duke, that he's got a good head and tries hard.

Sweaty butt (for Duke)

Our dressage lesson today was similar to the start of our jump lesson from Thursday, but was much harder.  And equally difficult to translate.
When I rode Friday, after the lesson, I remembered that one of the things John told me to do was to send Duke forward and back within the gait.  So if he was trotting, to slow him down to almost a walk, then go back to regular trot.  We did this at both trot and canter.  We did it again today.
We started with five minutes of trotting (I had been sitting around laughing) that John said was just throw away work - not to worry about getting him round, but just let him trot and loosen up.
Then we started working on a 20 meter circle, with a few changes of direction.  John did minor corrections here, a little more bend, a little outside leg.
From there we moved onto a smaller circle and John focused more on the precise aids - outside leg now - now - now, outside leg back, leg yield him out of the small circle onto the larger circle without changing my hands, taking up my reins (they slide out long and loose) - not looping the rein when I give, but just giving a little - but giving a little whenever he softened.
A few times we had to counterbend and then come back onto the correct bend, and then he had us switch sides of the arena and work on the right side.  Here, he had us working on a 10 meter circle, and then he had me canter on the 10 meter circle (as Duke's first right lead canter for the day!).  To my amazement, Duke did it.
John tightened Duke's noseband, which I have been leaving one hole looser, and he said that leave at least a hole for the show.
Duke had sweat under his chin and foamy sweat in his butt, but he seemed relaxed and happy.  He's a good worker and tries hard.
I could - sometimes - tell what John was about to say, and I tried to use my "cross" aids (inside leg to outside hand) without John having to say it, but it took a lot of concentration just to keep up, and I'm not sure that I feel yet when I need to give the aid.  I can feel the difference, after John tells me to, like I can feel when I put my outside leg back and use it with the beat of his steps, how he gets round and soft in the bend, but if I was just trotting around by myself, I would never think "oh, now is when I should move my outside leg back".  I am hoping that with time, this will start to sink in, but I imagine that whenever we start something new, it must be kind of frustrating to teach me, and just watch me struggle and struggle and struggle until I finally get it.  Please, please, let me get it.

Gymnastic

John started with some work on helping Duke to soften instead of jutting his head out (or up in the transitions) all stiff.  This is that same tricky - too many things happen at once - riding that I can't really describe, but I can feel when we get it right.
My best effort:
 - Reins should be short enough that when I ask for bend to the inside, I don't touch my own leg with my hand.  I did a lot of squeezing with the inside hand to try to get him to bend to the inside.
 - When he flat out refused, we'd bend him to the outside and then back to the inside.
 - Half halt still needed to happen on the outside, but I need to do a better job keeping my elbow connected to my hip.  I tend to push forward with the outside hand, I think especially when I am trying to use my inside leg.
 - I'd use outside leg pushed back to get him to put his haunches in, and then use it at the girth to keep him from drifting outside the circle.
 - I'd use inside leg to bend him.
 - I'd use both legs to push him forward, once he got soft and round.
 - For the canter, on the left lead, I was also putting more weight on my left seat bone and pushing down.
 - For transitions, I'd try to keep that inside bend going through the transition, so he didn't stiffen and toss his head up.
Duke got soaking wet just doing this part of the lesson, and I had to ride around most of the time with my tongue stuck out.  In fact, I have it stuck out typing trying to remember the feel of the movements and how to describe them.  Duke was moving great, and he felt fabulous, but my reaction time is still a little too slow for me to put all this together on my own.  What I think the take away was, though, was that I need to expect more from him and ask more from him, and not just be happy with what he offers.
Then we jumped.
We started with a little itty bitty vertical with a ground line in front of it, and one of the floppy jumps, John said that's the issue with show jumping at the shows.  I ask for the half halt, he blows it off, so I don't commit, and we come in at the wrong angle/speed.  John said to look through the turn, decide what I want, and ride it.  And so I did.  And it worked.
So then we did a cross rail, vertical, then an over that grew, and changed directions on the far side.  We haven't done this particular exercise since last winter, so it was interesting to see how we've changed over the summer.  I had to think heels down, back flat, and BOTH legs on, and I cut the right hand turn too short a couple times, but I think it was better than last winter.  One time Duke was a little slow, but other than that, he pretty much went through like a champ.  He likes to jump.  For this, it was me half halting before the turn to the fence, looking to the fence before we started to turn, and then closing my leg to ride through, and then over the oxer, looking the direction I wanted to go.
It's kind of frustrating that I still need to be told the basics (heels down, back flat) but if anyone can ever get it through my thick head, it'll be John.
It wasn't raining, so we got to do a quick walk around the back to cool off; Duke even had sweat under his chin.