A few Aspen photos

Three day conditioning

This is the schedule I came up with to get Charlie ready for the Novice 3 day at Rebecca this July.  Each resource I looked at used a slightly different approach, and I also wanted to take into consideration what Charlie needs, which is a day off each week.  He's not the sort of horse who enjoys working 7 days a week.

Week 1:  4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, cool down* (= 10 minutes) (* cool down is as long as it takes, which was pretty long in the middle when it got warm and he really got working)
Week 2:  4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, cool down (= 15 minutes)
Week 3:   4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, cool down (= 20 minutes)
Week 4:   4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, cool down (= 25 minutes)
Week 5:   4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, cool down (= 30 minutes)
Week 6:   4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, cool down (= 35 minutes)
Week 7:   4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, cool down(= 40 minutes)
Week 8:  4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, cool down (= 45 minutes)
Week 9:  4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, cool down (= 50 minutes)
Week 10:  EI Horse Trials
Week 11:  4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes canter, 1 minute walk, 4 minutes trot, cool down (=55 minutes)

Switched weekly riding schedule to:
Day 1:  Dressage & hack
Day 2:  Show jump & hack
Day 3:  Dressage & hack
Day 4:  Show jump & hack
Day 5:  Condition
Day 6:  Off
Day 7:  Repeat Day 1

Week 12:  10 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 10 minutes canter, 4 minutes walk, 2 minutes at 470 mpm, 4 minutes walk, 10 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 10 minutes canter, cool down (= 55 minutes)
Week 13:  Aspen
Week 14:  12 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 12 minutes canter, 4 minutes walk, 3 minutes at 470 mpm, 4 minutes walk, 12 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 12 minutes canter, cool down (= 65 minutes)
Week 15:  Inavale
Week 16:  14 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 14 minutes canter, 4 minutes walk, 4 minutes at 470 mpm, 4 minutes walk, 14 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 14 minutes canter, cool down (= 75 minutes)
Week 17:  16 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 16 minutes canter, 3 minutes walk, 5 minutes at 470 mpm, 3 minutes walk, 16 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 16 minutes canter, cool down (= 80 minutes)
Week 18:  18 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 18 minutes canter, 2 minutes walk, 5 minutes at 470 mpm, 2 minutes walk, 18 minutes trot, 2 minutes walk, 18 minutes canter, cool down (= 85 minutes)
Week 19 = Rebecca!

Charlie's Novice show jumping round at Aspen

Ha ha, internet

Schooling at home (Forest Park)

Equestrian Institute Horse Trials

Although dusty, at least it wasn't raining in Cle Elum like it was on the west side.  We had a good time.  After dressage, we were on the bottom of a 5-way tie for 3rd in Rider Novice.  Cross country timing broke the tie, and we were in 4th.  We had a rail down in show jumping (totally my fault), but so did everyone else, so we stayed in 4th.
The great news is Charlie was a bit strong given the new location, so I had to ride him differently for cross country (and was able to do it successfully), but he was an honest champ, like always.
For show jumping, he was just absolutely 100% perfect in warm up, but my timing was off, so I had him wait a long time before we warmed up, then walk for a long time after we had a perfect warm up.  We did a bit of trot and canter before going in to ride, and he was awesome.  I had watched some of Training and had an idea what was giving people problems, so I didn't have any issues with those fences (and was immensely proud of myself for figuring it out).  However, I shouldn't have been too congratulatory because I applied my new found knowledge to certain fences, but not other fences (with exactly the same issue), so I didn't give Charlie enough forward out of a turn and knew the rail was coming down before we even got to the fence.  While disappointing, I did get 10 fences right, and could feel it, so I'm pretty happy with that.
Charlie had a horse-pooling buddy, Duke, which was nice too.  Duke's owner even got a few pictures!

My mom, Atom, me, and Charlie

June Major Beale clinic - two openings - call ASAP!

Major Beale will be at Peteton Farm on June 21 and 22, and there are (unusually) two extra slots.  Call Cynthia Dickinson ASAP if you want to ride, or if you want information about auditing:  (360) 357-5763

Major  Beale is a USDF gold medalist and a former Olympic eventer for Great Britain.  His lessons are phenomenal.

John's!

Today we braved a downpour and got fortunate enough for a break in the heavy rain for a jumping lesson with John outdoors.
The short version is I have not miraculously turned into a different rider without lessons from him over the winter (and fall and spring).
I need to:
- Sit up
- Get Charlie in front of my leg.  Think about where his poll is.  If it is up, I am good.  If it is down, I need to get it up.  When Charlie is in front of my leg, I can move him forward and backward easily, but if he is long and low, my only option is to lunge flat for pukers.  This means big canter going into a corner and then half halt and sit up coming out of the corner towards the fence.
- I need to get Charlie rounder, right from the start.  I let him warm up all long and low but then expect him to automatically work round.  Part of this is a steady outside rein and push into that rein from the inside leg.
- I also need to get him to flex his jaw and not tilt his head out to the left.
- I need to be more precise.  If I want a transition at M, it needs to happen at M, not three strides later (even if it is well done).
- I also need to ride the fences like I mean it.  My trick to make them bigger might be to make me work harder, and so I just need to channel that energy to the regular size ones.

I'm on track for the Rebecca Novice 3 day.  For the next couple weeks, I'll stick with my current conditioning, then we will switch to a 10 day schedule. The two weeks before Rebecca, we will switch again to get him ready to go.  He says Whidbey is fun, but is ok to skip it this year since it and Young Riders are both so close to Rebecca.

I wish his schedule and my schedule weren't so hard to find lesson times.  I really like riding with him - every time I feel like I learn more and get more tools to improve.

Sessions with Beth - 3 exercises that make a world of difference

Today I brought Charlie to Beth Glosten's, in Redmond, for a pilates session for me, and then a lesson on Charlie.  I have been struggling with how to try to fix a crookedness I can't feel.  Beth very patiently went through how I would describe how things feel, so that I can label them and fix them without getting confused.  For example, if I start looking in the mirror, I can see that my left leg is much longer than my right.  But my right seat feels much heavier than my left, so if I try to fix it by putting more weight in my left leg, I just make the problem worse. 
Beth identified three things for me to focus on:
1.  When going to the left at the trot, make sure my shoulders are in the direction I want Charlie to go.  I usually have to think to myself to put my right shoulder forward, and then I also turn my head, so I have to put my head back looking between his ears.
2.  Still going to the left at the trot, try to sit with my left seat bone as close to the center of the saddle as I can get it.  One way to do this is by putting my left hand under my butt so I have another way to feel where it's at.
3.  Use my core.  This is both to control my seat bone (for example, I use my core muscles to sit "softly" instead of slamming my weight down on the sitting step of the trot) and also to reduce the S curve in my spine. A side note here, I can get the lower part of the S correct, but I can't feel the upper part of the S.  I need to lean forward a bit, but not round my shoulders, and then put my head back.  So shoulders, you are on deck once I master this twisty pretzel thing in my hip.
When I first get on (or take a break), I look in the mirror, and if my left leg is long, I shorten the distance between my hip and my ribs on the left side (do a "hula").  This sounds simple, but is really hard to get those muscles to do their job.  My leg and my butt are far more willing to do the work than my core muscles.  I think the same thing trotting.
4.  Cantering right is also all about the core.  If I try to push my left sit bone towards the center using my leg, Charlie still flings out through his left side.  But if I use my core to hold my sit bone in the center, Charlie comes up balanced underneath me and stops bulging out.  It was like a miracle once I figured out the two different ways to try to move the sit bone and how differently Charlie reacted depending on which one I did.
We did 10 meter figure 8s at the walk, and then 20 meters at the trot.  Beth said the exercise without the left stirrup is a good one, but for now, I need to retrain the muscle memory so I don't panic and revert to the bad habits.  We also did 2 point, but a "correct" 2 point where I hinge at the hip, keep my leg back, and use the core in "plank" to hold me up, instead of just pushing my butt over the back of the saddle and letting my legs slip forward.
It sounds really simple, and I could feel the difference, but I just don't have very good muscle control yet to keep holding those movements.  I have my fingers crossed that with something this specific to focus on, I'll be able to see some progress by my next session with her.
Beth also had a couple other observations - she noticed my saddle is always tilting left, and since it is a Flair (with the air panels) I let some air out of the right side to try for the next ride.  The gel pad also shifts left.  She said she thinks that I am landing first on my right sit bone, and so I twist sideways to make up for it.  She thinks that I feel heavy on the right side because the sit bone is in a different place in the saddle - it rides much closer to center while the left one is way out to the left, so that is why I'm getting confused because the right leg feels strong and secure but the left one feels loose and flappy, even though it is the one bearing all the weight (proof is in the long stirrup).  She suggested also getting on from the right side instead of the left, just to make my brain have to flex a bit.
After she watched me, she could do a really good job mimicking the movement and then showing me how to change things to change the way the movement would work.  As a kinesthetic learner, this was spectacularly useful for me because I don't always get it with just words. 
She has also given me exercises (that are in her book) to work on at home to strengthen those core muscles and refine them so that I don't have to move in one giant block and can get the core working.  Right now, it is an embarrassing soft squishy marshmallow. 
I am inspired!  All is not lost and I don't have to quit riding!

Day 2 with Major Beale

Day 1 with Major Beale

Major Beale made just a few tiny changes that turned Charlie from a downhill slug to an uphill collected, balanced cloud.
First - when Charlie is being a slug, just quit whatever I am working on and gallop him, two or three times.  Then go back to work.  Then if he gets sluggish again, gallop again.  Charlie wasn't a slug today, but I've been struggling with how to get him going forward.
But ...
It's hard for Charlie to go forward, or use his left hind leg, because I am riding way over to the left.  Way, way over. 
Second - I stand up in my stirrups, stomp hard to the right, and sit down on the right side.  It feels insane, but when I look down, the zipper on my pants is lined up with his withers.  The other part of this exercise is, during warm up, to drop my left stirrup and trot around.  The difference between going right and going left is amazing.  Going left, it's just totally normal.  Going right is excruciating and close to impossible.  I didn't believe him when he told me how different it was going to be because the first way was so easy.
Third - Push my right hip forward and put the weight down in my right leg.  My right leg looks shorter than my left leg, and my left leg is ineffective because it is always reaching for the stirrup.
As soon as I made these little adjustments, Charlie could straighten out and come up underneath himself and actually move forward.
Finally - don't overbend to the right, and counterbend to the left.  Charlie is too bent going right, and then still bent right when we go left.  So if I counterflex for a bit to the left, it helps us get straight.  I also think of moving his shoulders to the left (when we are going right) instead of trying to put his haunches underneath him, because he is still in a C shape when we go to the right.
We worked on "double" up transitions (halt to trot, walk to canter), and head to the wall down the long side to trot or canter.  We also worked on halting and then flexing at the poll and jaw instead of Charlie grabbing the bit and rooting his head down.  Major Beale said Charlie never needs to lower his poll lower than his withers because it puts him too much on the forehand.
We did a bit of single loop at the trot, working on changing the bend but not starting it too early.
We had one absolutely incredible collected canter from the walk, but then I freaked out because it was so perfect and goosed Charlie forward.  At the canter, I can keep a bit more contact, so he doesn't fall forward and fast.
And when I finally got the bend and balance all figured out, Charlie was so confused he tried to do a flying change.
It felt divine.  And I could feel the difference and I understood the exercises, so they will definitely give me something to work on before Major Beale comes back.  He says tomorrow we'll work on counter canter.

Charlie's Inaugural Ride in His New Rig

New and improved rider pilates book is available for pre-order

Dr. Beth Glosten's rider pilates book is out!
The Riding Doctor
I can't wait to read it.  I found her prior book enormously helpful in identifying my body's tendencies and then providing the tools on and off the saddle to improve them.

Today 5 seconds ... tomorrow, well, probably also 5 seconds

But one day that 5 seconds will be a few minutes!
Charlie and I had our first lesson with Mike in a while.  It wasn't as bad as I feared, but it wasn't like we miraculously became rock stars either.
Lesson 1:  Left heel down, left toe up.  It takes a specific feeling in the back of my hip to get that heel down, but it is very different than my right leg.  And today's lesson showed it's not just the heel but my leg aids on that side too.
Lesson 2:  Get Charlie rounder.  Think "behind the vertical". 
Lesson 3:  Every time I am changing direction at the walk, work on turn on the haunches to get Charlie thinking about stepping underneath himself with his hind leg.  If he is reluctant to do it, do a head to the wall down the long side, turn it into a 20 meter circle with haunches in, and then a 10 meter circle.
Lesson 4:  Charlie needs to stop blowing me off.  He knows the aid, thinks about responding, and then decides against it.  He gets a sharp smack for that.  He also decided about half way through the lesson that he'd really rather NOT work, the way we've been doing things for the last year, than to work hard.
Lesson 5:  On the other hand, my leg aids need to be crisp.  One squeeze, he should spring forward, and then my legs stay off of him.  No more nagging and squeezing and contorting myself to try to get him to respond.  One squeeze, and then he gets a smack. 
Lesson 6:  Work on short steps, then longer, then short, then longer.  This works at both trot and canter.  At canter, we can also do a 10 meter circle next to the wall with a canter-walk-canter transition.  At trot, work on sitting trot for this.  Work on Charlie getting into shape so he can hold these for longer and longer.
Lesson 7:  Shorter reins.  I can't compress him if he's got his nose stuck out.  Similarly, don't let him fling his head up in the canter or plunge down in the trot.  He has to stay in his frame once he's in it until I let him out.
All of this combined made a miracle happen, and I could feel Charlie lift up in his shoulders.  Not consistently, but way more than we used to be able to do.  And it is so, so nice to ride him with that extra lift.  I can sit the down transitions (and he steps under into it, so it is smooth).  I could also tell a difference with being able to use my core muscles for the aids a lot better.  What I still can't do is control that left leg.  It has a total mind of its own. 
There were a lot of other little details - like on the right lead canter put my left shoulder back - even to the point where I look to the outside.  But on the left lead canter, make him bend left.  He had almost no left bend at all.  When he got round and forward, his neck also transformed into the swan neck instead of a plank neck. 
It was a great lesson, and gave me lots to work on with the good feeling that it's within reach if we keep working hard.  It was also really useful to recalibrate - what I think is forward and on the bit is totally not.  Charlie is good at tricking me and I am good at not asking him for more.

Charlie's soggy Novice round at Aspen derby

He was a solid, reliable champ, like always.  Gracious even when wet and after standing around a bit.

Aspen Farms Derbies

The Aspen Farms Derbies are quickly approaching.
The first derby is March 8, and I heard through the grapevine that it is expected to be full so no registrations the day of like in past years.
The second derby is April 5.
The entry form is available here:  http://www.aspenfarmseventing.com/afhorsetrial07.asp
The classes are jumping only, from hopeful to prelim, with beginner novice starting at 9 am and prelim starting at 3 pm.  Classes are $25 each.

Without NWEC, the first show this year is EI's horse trial in Cle Elum.  It is scheduled for May 23-25 with April 8 as the entry opening date.
http://useventing.com/competitions/omnibus-list?event=15476

After a long winter nap ...

Charlie got a much longer winter break than I was planning on, and although I've been doing a lot of planning, there are four things on my mind.

First, for today's lesson, Shannon rode Charlie and told me what she was doing (and why).  I think I want every lesson in my life to be like this from now on.  When someone says "bend his neck to the inside" or "keep it interesting, don't just ride him around the rail", it is easy to think on your own that you are doing a good job bending or shaking things up, but to actually watch someone do it their way is worth 1,000 words.  Of course, here, I am the one thinking I was knocking it out of the park with my dedication to my past lessons, when really I had just made the teeny tiniest change.  So for the next week, I'm going to try to warm up the way Shannon does and see if it makes a difference by the end of the week.  The way Shannon does is a little bit of stretchy to start, then a lot of changes in direction and overbending at the trot, then starting to get him going with some shoulder in and leg yields, then some canter and countercanter to straighten him out.  When I got on him, he felt like a million bucks.  I want, more than anything, to be able to make that feeling myself.

Second, I think the light bulb in the paragraph above went off because of something I read in Real Simple.  It was an article by Ann Leary, called "Consciously Incompetent."  The article talks about learning new things as you get older, but critically, had a diagram of the four stages of learning.  In Stage 1, you are unconscious and incompetent.  This stage, which I have spent most of my riding life in, is fun.  You are wildly oblivious of how much you suck, and you are just out there having a great time.  Stage 2 is conscious incompetence.  At this stage, you figure out you suck but can't fix it.  I have been in this stage for way too long and I'm getting sick of this stage.  I miss Stage 1 and Stage 3 isn't getting here soon enough.  I suspect that in riding, you can only see where you've been in the Stages, not where you're going and how long it will take to get there.  Stage 3 is conscious competence.  You have the tools you need, but you have to think about using each tool.  There are a few things I can do now with conscious competence, which I could not do a few years ago, so there is some hope that my skills are increasingly in Stage 3 and leaving behind Stage 2.  Stage 4 is unconscious competence.  This stage is basically professionals.  They are the people who have "feelings" and can ride off of those, instead of the memorized formulas that I use.  (I think.  This stage is out of my grasp, like imagining how time travel works.)

Third, the other obstacle is being a perfectionist.  I don't think that anyone (although that may be because I still have some ties to Stage 1 remaining) rides perfectly every time they get on a horse.  And yet, I am furious with myself for all of the time I have wasted, and I also wrestle with whether perfect practice makes perfect, so my horribly imperfect practice actually sets us backwards rather than helping us progress?  i.e. Do you only improve if you're naturally talented or if you can ride with a trainer all the time?  I think the standard to strive for is actually excellence (not perfection), but saying the words doesn't actually help me let go of the desire to be perfect.

Fourth, all that being said, I thought I should back out of most of this year's show season.  I've had a couple weeks where I've been thinking it's a waste of my time and money, and just unnecessary wear and tear on Charlie if I don't have the time to devote to really, really getting ready, and even without the shows, I have a calendar that is almost entirely full for most of the rest of the year.  I am feeling guilty because it's the end of February and at the end of December I SWORE that was it for the rest period and I was going to quit working so much and focus on my riding.  Embracing, and having some faith, however, that if I stick with it, I will move further into Stage 3, even if I don't rock this season, and that by doing so, next season will be even better, I think I'm going to work as hard as I can, as much as I can, recognizing that some weeks are not going to meet my goals, and try to have fun riding at as many shows as I can reasonably get to.  The future is uncertain, and I have wasted a lot of my life not riding enough already.

Impulsion impulsion impulsion

That is our next challenge.  Getting impulsion and then not losing it.
Today was a good lesson.  Because of various mishaps, it has been a little while since I've had one, and I was nervous that it was going to be a disaster - that after a few weeks on my own, I would have reverted back to my worst habits.
Instead, Charlie got to work pretty much right away (although frustratingly, I still don't know what the difference is between when I'm riding on my own and when I'm riding in a lesson that makes the magic happen) and we worked on spiraling in and maintaining impulsion.
Then we worked on riding trot to halt.  I have been drilling it relentlessly, and futilely, on my own, and again, the magic was there in the lesson.  The secret is coming in with impulsion, but a piaffey impulsion, and then doing the aids as leg, hips/lower abs, back, then hands (going along with back) in quick succession.  When Charlie flopped into it, Shannon had me give a few jiggles to get him to pay attention and square up.
Then we did a little bit of in hand work so I got an idea for what to expect for Rebecca next summer and so I can practice leading him around in hand and get him sharpened up for that.
Shannon pointed out that compared to last year, working on impulsion is a big step forward, and I'm really pleased.  I'm so pleased, I'm not going to look back (just yet) to my posts from a year ago and see that I was working on impulsion then too.
Charlie is a darling.  He is so patient.

Two sessions with Beth; one on a fjord, one on Charlie

I can now confidently say that I have spent my entire life not using my lower abs.  Much like you can't control the muscles that are making your heart beat (unless everyone else has always been able to do that too), I have little to no control over those muscles, although I know they're there because every once in a while they turn on.
So the takeaway from a pilates session with Beth up in Redmond, a mat class down here in Olympia, and two riding lessons is that I am going to be working very hard this winter on mastering those muscles and then getting them stronger (and under my control).
Because Charlie was still healing up and then beginning light work from his hock injections, Anne very graciously let me ride one of her fjords for my first lesson, and then I brought Charlie the second day.  First, a shout out to Charlie.  He has had almost two weeks off, it was very chilly, and yet Mr. Manners stood quietly and didn't go tearing around, even though all we did was mostly walk with a bit of trot.
It was very different, like always, to ride the two of them.  What I've noticed is that with Charlie, I tend to stick my left foot far further out (to the left) than on other horses - and I also move my hands a lot more.  I'm wondering if it's his shape, or the fact that he needs some encouragement to go - that causes me to react that way, since I'm clearly capable of remaining (relatively) still on other horses.
While they were different, my issues were the same:
1)  Sit on my seat bones underneath me, not pointing towards his back
2)  Sit on them evenly - not with the weight heavier in the left.  To correct this, I can either lift my hip (the left one almost always) - like a hula dancer, or push my waist to the right - which is also lifting my hip but a slightly different visual to accomplish it.  This has the secondary effect of making my legs even in the stirrups (which are even) instead of one leg hanging lower than the other.
3)  Reduce the "S" that makes up my back - make a Martha-pancake where I am flat and pulled together from front to back low (hips), middle (waist), and back (no rounded shoulders).  To get rid of the rounded shoulders, pull my shoulder blades together and down from the center of my back - not by rolling my shoulders up and back.  Then roll my shoulders back - like there is a strap that fastens one shoulder blade to the other, not DOWN, like suspenders.  However, the pancake comes from a set of front and back suspenders, with a solid wall behind me.  This is incredibly visual and difficult to explain (but easy to feel once I get it right) and I need to spend some time practicing with the minute movements to get it right.
4)  Keep my shoulders on the same plane as his.  My body's default position is to twist right (left shoulder leading) regardless of whether we're going right or left.  If I make my spine into a pole and swivel around it so my shoulders match his, I stay more balanced over his back.
We worked on walk/halt transitions without hands or legs - just from stilling my hips.  With Charlie, I also had to stay firm in my upper back for just a second at the end to keep him from popping his head.
Then we worked on leg yields where I kept my weight in the center - by thinking about pushing my waist to the outside - i.e. if we were leg yielding left, I pushed my waist to the right - to keep my weight centered instead of heavy on the left leg, and timing my aid with his inside leg lifting.  (Beth does this as when your seat bone slides back.)
The other thing to think about in the walk is getting aligned evenly (if I'm wearing a jacket with a zipper, I can look down and see the zipper going to the center of the pommel; if I'm wearing a shirt, I can look at where the wrinkles are across the belly), and then moving the motion from a front back with my chest and back, to the right and left coming out of my hips where my legs swing with his barrel.  There are some floor exercises that also help separate these two movements.  When I try to stop moving front and back, I make my whole body one stiff block from my shoulders to my knees, and I need to have better independent movement of each portion.
Then we did an infinitely harder leg yield where we came down the center line and did a couple steps left, a couple steps right.  This needs practice!  I can think of all the aids going one way, but my brain can't process fast enough to flip them back and forth.
Then we did trot work on two 20 meter circles where I kept a "wall" to my left to stay evenly centered over Charlie and then on the straight in between the two circles, tried to reduce the amount of time I spent switching directions, I started at 5 strides and got down to 3, but I couldn't get it down to 1.  Another practice area!  This is mostly to do with adjusting my shoulder plane rotation to the new direction, which sounds so simple when I type it.
On Anne's fjord, we worked on a lot of the same lower body control, including making my "pancake" firm enough that I control the trot tempo.  I could do this sometimes, but not consistently, and Anne helped by saying she thinks of it as lifting the horse up, which is the way it feels when I get it right - like their back is connected with a spring to my seat.  And for the first time - a light bulb went off and I could feel that on a left circle, I was facing right, and how hard that makes it for the horse to balance under me.  Much like with my lessons with John when I finally felt my hands pull at the last second over a fence, I finally FELT it, so now I can start fixing it without just memorizing each individual movement.  And, I have the tools to address it, so I know what to feel for, and then what to do to my body to feel instead.  Progress!

Dr. Revenaugh

Charlie has been a wee bit off, which is not like him, so Dr. Revenaugh saw him earlier this week.
He noted that Charlie's neck is sore (the chiropractor comes tonight) and his front feet were just a little sore, but that nothing seemed especially unusual.  His hocks are bothering him a bit, so he got hock injections - which we skipped last year because he didn't seem like he needed them.
Then I'm going to give him the pack of Adequan in December, and probably follow that up with another one in June, so he gets the packs twice a year.
If he's not feeling better by the end of December, we'll take him down for a bone scan instead of experimenting for months trying to find whatever is bothering him.
I also got three more weeks of the general antibiotic for his sheath, which accumulates crud faster than any gelding I've ever known.

Hind leg at trot; outside hand

With our busy competition calendar and my lessons limited to weekends, it's been a while since I've had a flat lesson with Shannon.  Yesterday we had a very satisfying one.  The lesson before that - which I never had time to recap - Shannon suggested a hip exercise, which I have remembered to do twice.  It was swinging it forward and back, and then across, to stretch out both directions of movement.
In yesterday's lesson, there were a few themes:  Keep the contact with my outside hand - especially with the left hand, I like to cross it over his neck still; For lateral work, keep the weight balanced and even - going to the right, I put all my weight in my left hip and my left leg and then the right leg sticks uselessly out like a rudder; and then we worked on feeling when the outside hind leg is lifting.  At the walk, it is when your inside hip is moving forward, and at the trot, it is when you are sitting in the posting trot - when his inside shoulder moves forward. 
The outside hand is huge - it is why on sharp turns, especially to the right - I lose it.  That left hand goes limp or crosses over, so I have to do a big sweeping turn off his face instead of through his body.  We practiced doing 5 loop serpentines, and that helped a lot to feel how different each side is and how much smoother the turn is when I ride him into the outside hand.
Shannon also checked my warm up and said the long and low is good, so long as his head is going down - not forward and out, but that I need to ride it more forward (instead of dragging his feet around), and not to warm up like that the entire ride, but to do a few laps then get to work.
The other thing was to make sure we are set up for transitions - he should be in the Major Beale round frame, ready to canter, and straight - not go ahead and lunge for the transition without preparing.

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) 

Help wanted

Forest Park Equestrian Center is looking for a part time worker to turn out horses, clean stalls, and feed.  If you're in the Olympia area and interested, please post your contact information in a comment (I won't publish it) and I'll forward it to the owner.

Caber Farms is also looking for an upper level working student.

Willig's eulogy

I'm sorry, Willig.
I'm not sure which of the images would be your future that would make you happy, but I hope you're at peace.
Willig was a difficult horse to love, but he had his charms - his cross legged bow, his bravery chasing off his biggest fear - the deer - to protect me, and doing his best at horse shows. 
This was a terrible decision and one I hope I never have to make again. 

Charlie's show jumping round

We had a rail down, which kept us in 12th, but I'm still considering the day a success because I could feel the rail coming, and *** I knew what to do to correct it!  I didn't do it in time, or successfully, but not only could I tell what was coming, I knew how to react.  So if I had just been a little faster or a little better at the correction, the rail wouldn't have gone down.  In theory.
That's huge progress from last year!

I'm a sore loser, but I like learning lessons

I rode like crap yesterday during our dressage test at Caber.  I was pissy most of the day - although trying hard not to be - because I couldn't figure out what went wrong.  I get it that I make all kinds of mistakes, and I am still blissfully ignorant of most of them, but usually, when I flop terribly, I have an idea why.  Yesterday was a total blank, and because it was such a big jump from our status quo so far, I wanted it to be blindingly obvious why.
The day started at 4:30 am, which contributed to the pissiness, but not the flop.  On the way there, through a random bit of conversation, I realized I learned the wrong dressage test.  Ok, not the end of the world, although I also forgot my USEA book, because I had ridden it once before.  I could remember the first three movements, but that was it.  So I wandered around the show grounds until I found a rider nice enough to let me borrow her book.  I refreshed my memory of the test, and then ran it through my head several times - but I had trouble focusing on the movements the way I had been doing on the other test.  Then - lo and behold, Shannon and I both read the schedule wrong, and realized we were there all day, not just half a day.  So then I tried to get through to work, feeling like a total ass, because I had promised them I'd be in towards the end of the day.  Caber barely gets a cell signal, so I was on top of Shannon's truck trying to get an email to send to them because I couldn't get the call to go through.
And then it was time to ride.  And I just couldn't focus.
The test wasn't that bad overall - it was just one big flub of a mistake really that ruined us.  I picked up the incorrect lead on the first canter, and then did a perfect counter canter the entire next three movements.  It really was a divine counter canter - perfectly balanced.  I had no idea we were on the wrong lead.  It was not an A+ test on the other movements, but I felt pretty good about it because I could feel the little issues and could work on fixing them during the test, which is huge progress from last year.
But that wrong lead tanked me.
Then today I started having trouble focusing again.  I thought today was going to feel like a cake walk because now that I was very very close to the bottom of the pack, all the pressure was off not making a mistake.  Who cares if you make a mistake if you're already losing?
But no, I couldn't focus again, and we even had a run out over the tiny log in the warm up.
And that's when the light bulb went off and it all became worth it.  I was trying to figure out what was the difference between the derby a couple weeks ago and this show.  I have Shannon with me, so I should be doing even better, but instead, I'm riding much worse.  And then something Shannon said yesterday finally became clear - it's all the people.  The derby was relatively low key and I was alone most of the time.  The recognized show is intense - we had people almost run into us - like a couple inches away - twice in the warm up.
And let's say I have 5 units of concentration - at the recognized show I spend about 3 of them - maybe 4 - watching the other riders and stuff going on, even if I'm trying to just ride and listen to Shannon.  Shannon's voice gets through, but it's like I can't get all cylinders firing.
So I wanted to try two things - one is focus on just three things to think about when I'm competing.  Today it was "heels down, turn from the outside rein, and ride like stink".  I think my heels did ok (you can see on video), we did better than if I hadn't been thinking about turning from the outside rein, and I took "stink" to mean super fast, which was not quite what Shannon meant, but was really fun.
And the other thing I want to try is when I feel overwhelmed, Shannon said first just let her know and we can walk until there's a break, and then we'll warm up in the breaks - those weird moments where there's only a few other riders in, and just walk when it's 10-15 of them.
Of course, what I want is now that I identified what is maybe the problem, for the whole thing to just instantly be solved.
Oh, and three - I'm going to take a few moments before each ride and channel the same energy I use when I'm in court and use that in the arena.  It's bravado, I think, and I fake it in court even when I don't feel it.
I'm really disappointed in myself, but it will have been totally worth it if we made another step forward in me actually learning how to ride.
And plus, Charlie loves cross country.  It is so awesome how he perks up and just loves doing it.  He's so amazing.

Charlie the slightly slowed down lightning bolt

Charlie the lightning bolt

Jumping with John; Flatwork with Erin

Erin started my lesson today with some flat work, and having a new person saying the same thing was just what I needed.  I noticed the two rides before this one that my legs felt more drapey, but I can't figure out if it is the pilates I'm doing with the Beth Glosten video, or just (FINALLY) all of the concentrating on my legs clicking into place, so I was really curious how it would look to John and in a jump saddle.
What made it nice was we could focus on the next layer of the onion - which is keeping the outside hand steady with the contact, so that I can bend Charlie on the inside into the outside rein, which then helps him lift up.  The other thing Erin said, when Charlie was lugging around, was "off-on-off-on" with my legs, which is a helpful way for me to think about it, because my natural tendency is to "squeeze-squeeze harder-squeeze-squeeze harder". 
The other thing we worked on was being clear with the aids for the transitions - do a half halt with the outside rein, then add inside leg, then add outside leg.  When I do them clearly and in steps like that, Charlie leaps up into the canter, instead of tossing his head and falling forward into it.
Then John started with one of the same ideas - hold that outside contact steady, do a leg yield off the inside leg - have the proper bend - and THEN ask for impulsion in the trot.  This way, visually (sort of), Charlie's withers are the high point, and the front of them sort of tips down while the back lifts up.  I can feel this when it's right, but it is harder for me to get all on my own.

Then we worked up to a little course, and although it was nowhere near perfect, it was wonderful because - for the second time - I felt some of the things John and Shannon have been telling me click.  And not just click, but click in time for me to do something about it.  And not just do something - know what to do!  It was amazing!  Like a couple lessons ago when all of a sudden I could feel my hands pulling a few strides out from the fence, and once I could feel it, I could stop doing it, and I had the immediate gratification of as soon as I stopped doing it, it cleaned up the lines and made them perfect distances.  This was similar - I could feel a few strides out what needed to be fixed, and I could at least start fixing it - even if I wasn't fast enough to fix it all the way.  John commented on it too - that instead of sitting up there passive, I am finally reacting.

We also talked about next year and some of the upcoming shows, and John is going to make me a five week training schedule to get ready for NWEC.  Then I watched someone's youtube video of their training level course in the spring and thought there's no way even with five weeks, or maybe even all next year, I'll be ready!  I know Charlie can do it, but man - what a step up.  Not on the height, but on the ... technical side?  The fences are closer together, there are more turns, and more combinations and it's faster. 

Also, I need trailer driving lessons.  Mark had to get me out from between the fence and ditches.  I didn't fit through the fence, and then was unable to back out the way I came.  It was mortifying.

Day 2 with Major Beale

Today we did some crazy collected canter that neither I nor Charlie had any idea he could do!  We worked hard the entire lesson, but the only thing I can remember, just a few hours later, is how bouncy that canter was.  It was basically like Charlie was a carousel horse, going up and down on his pole.  We alternated it with some medium canter, and Charlie made it clear that he prefers doing one or the other, once he figures out what you want, but not switching all willy nilly back and forth.  He got tired towards the end, and started using any excuse he could to break to trot.
And I gave him lots of excuses because what we worked on was trying to time the transition from canter to be on the "1" beat (first hind leg underneath) so that he could step right into walk.  It was really cool, because like yesterday, what is amazing when he starts to engage his hind end is how much better I can feel everything (in addition to him being easier to ride), but I can feel the 1-2-3-hang of the canter so I know when the "1" is.  The problem is I'm thinking 1-2-3-hang and so even if I give the aid at "hang", by the time my brain thinks it and translates it down to my leg, we're already at 2 or even 3 and the aid is at the wrong time.
The other mistake I make is that I still throw my hands forward right when he does the down transition, so he stumbles into a trot instead of easing into a walk.  That one is "easy" to fix (although I haven't fixed it yet, despite Shannon telling me I do it probably two years ago), because I just have to think about planting my hands when I ask for the transition and give them some of my attention so that they stay planted, until I reverse that muscle memory.
It was so amazing, though, to be able to ride that, and to have asked for it and gotten it by myself! 
We also did some half pass at the trot (half pass is a leg yield but with their head bent in the direction of travel - so if you are turning up the center line and half passing right, the bend is to the right), and ended with some shoulder in at the trot.
I think I forgot to mention that when we worked on lengthening yesterday, you have to give a little bit so he can stretch over the topline.  I used to do that, but I was throwing my hands away, so then I quit moving them at all, and a happy medium is much better.  Too much forward and he gets unbalanced and rushing, too tight and he can't lengthen.
It was really fun and useful, and I hope to make more progress before he comes back in October.

Day 1 with Major Beale

Charlie has had a bit of a cough and was a little cranky yesterday, so I wasn't sure what to expect in today's first clinic ride with Major Beale.  Well, a sick Charlie is a perfect Charlie, as it turns out.
We did four major exercises.  First, we worked started on a 20 meter circle (at the trot), then gradually brought it down to about 12 meters, and then did haunches out on the circle, brought it back out to 20 meters, and transitioned to canter.  The amazing part about this was when I could feel Charlie's hind legs start to cross underneath - it made his shoulders lighten and poof up, and it made for a delightful transition up into canter.
Then we worked on crisp transitions with just a few steps of each in between.  This is the type of "jazzing up" that Charlie needs to get attentive and responsive to the aids, and it made a huge improvement in the other gaits.  At the walk, Charlie should feel ready to spring into canter, but this is done with some leg and whip, but NOT the seat.  It was hard to not want to grind into his back with my seat, but Major Beale pointed out if I want him to lift his back, why would he do it when I'm smashing into him?
Our third exercise was, after some shoulder in, looking at my lower leg.  Major Beale took my leg and put it in the right spot so I could feel it - because at the shoulder in, I am swinging the inside leg way, way back (knee is a pivot, spur is basically at the saddle pad), and so the little hoppity skip I felt in shoulder in was not Charlie trying to do a lead change, but Charlie saying "holy crap that tickles".
We also worked on draping my lower leg, wrapping the heel around, and keeping my toe light in the stirrup (he actually put his finger between my toe and the stirrup - I was terrified I was going to smash it), which has the secondary benefit of not letting my knee swing open.  The problem here is I get tense and then make my thighs tense, and everything goes haywire.  This will be a good thing to practice until he is back in October.
Our final exercise was shoulder in at the canter, which is crazy hard.  I have no idea why shoulder in at the trot is easier, but now that I have tried shoulder in at the canter, I now appreciate only doing a shoulder in at the trot.  Here, again, my inside leg was trying to swing way back, and I also tended to overbend his neck instead of actually doing the shoulder in.  But again, when we got it correctly, I could FEEL his shoulders lift up underneath me.
It was another really great lesson.  Because Charlie and I had our A game going, we were able to start doing some new things that I've never tried before.  As we were warming up, Major Beale said the big thing missing is putting Charlie together, and those "jazzing" exercises did that, so that's something I can definitely work more on between clinics.  The shoulder-in at the canter was a bit advanced - I'm not sure I'd want to try it and perfect doing it incorrectly before he comes back next.

Three for one special (post): pilates, dressage, and jumping & special bonus - Crystal Gallo

Saturday morning I went to Redmond for my first session with Beth Glosten, the specialist in rider pilates.  It was totally worth it!  Because I was there sans Charlie, we got to focus on my posture instead of trying to ride at the same time.  (At the end of August, I will ride Charlie with her, so I wanted to see her first without him.)  She first checked out my movement on my own, and then gave me some exercises to do for my specific issues.  What was really, really useful about this was for someone to watch me, and then tell me how to do it correctly.  While I've done yoga and dabbled in pilates, I am very good at moving the wrong way, but feeling like I'm doing the position, until someone moves me a centimeter to the right.  Now I'll be able to practice doing it properly instead of fumbling in the dark, trying to figure it out on my own.
It also helped understand some of my quirks, and using a biomechanic explanation not only was useful for just another way of describing the same thing my other trainers have seen, but to see it explained for my body, kind of helped the light go off.
The same old stuff showed up, but now I have some tools to work on it at home too, so I'm really excited.

Then Saturday afternoon I had a dressage lesson with Shannon.  It was really good because finally the light bulb went off about haunches in.  Just like the pilates - another thing I have been practicing incorrectly!  I am very good at doing a leg yield, but have not been doing haunches in.  What makes it haunches in is a feeling of being a "joint" that Charlie bends around.  So if you're doing haunches in to the left, then your left leg acts as the pivot, staying on his side but only giving an aid to keep him moving forward.  Then your right leg bends his haunches AROUND the left leg, so his front legs stay on the track but his back legs twist.  When you get it right, it feels twisted - not moving sideways like a leg yield, but the best way I can describe it is that joint in his back is under your seat.  Then doing this on a 10 meter circle is so hard it makes my tongue stick out.  But when we did it, it engaged his hind leg and then he would bounce out with that underneath impulsion which feels amazing.
The other really useful (but simple) part of the lesson was to think about keeping my toes pointed in.  This helps keep my heels down and from digging into his side at every stride.

Then today we jumped, and the big challenge was getting Charlie moving forward off my legs.  He was sluggish and finally we had to go tearing around in a gallop to get him going.  He perked up as soon as the fences got a little harder, and then jumped like a rock star.  When his canter wasn't big enough, I still have a hard time deciding whether to launch it or if we can fit in one more stride, but when we do that last squished in stride, he jumps up and round and it's so much nicer than the flat launch.
Just like dressage, trying to get him going is actually shooting myself in the foot because I dig in, then dig in harder, so he ignores my aid, then ignores it harder.  So I have GOT to break that habit so I can start moving him off my leg.

 Crystal Gallo was Charlie's dam.  If anyone has one of her mares, would you send a comment to me?

Chehalis Valley Pony Club Derby at Caber Farm

Charlie is the best horse in the entire universe.

Eureka!

Yesterday in our lesson with John I had one of those light bulb moments.  We were warming up over a figure 8 exercise - a cross rail to a vertical to either the left or right.  Maybe the second time on the right line, I suddenly FELT (!!) my hands pulling the last few strides to the fence, even as my legs were kicking.  And then, because I felt it, I could stop doing it.  From that point forward (on that exercise), every line rode a perfect 5 strides, smooth as silk.
It took a long time - I don't even want to think about how long - and we've figured out work-arounds, like planting my hands in his neck, but I FELT it, and then immediately felt how much the correction improved everything.  It was like the skies opened up and angels sang.
Then John did his usual progression up to an exercise I would have thought impossible if we'd started with it, and I had to think a lot more so things weren't as genius.
But that's the genius part.  First, I love how he gradually increases each lesson and how well balanced they are.  But second, I realized as the lesson progressed, that I have so much more time to think than I used to.  Everything used to feel like it was happening so fast, and now, I can not only feel what needs to be corrected, but sometimes even still have time to correct it, in what used to be a mad rush between fences.  We're not going any faster, I think I've just gotten a tiny bit better about feeling, but a whole lot better educated and of course, way more comfortable and trusting of Charlie than I ever was on anyone else.
Have I mentioned lately what an amazing heart Charlie has?  He's so dreamy.
Of course, there's still tons to learn, which I dramatically proved, in case anyone had any doubts, by riding an entire loop on the wrong lead (John counted - 17 strides), but the difference between this year and last year was I knew I was on the wrong lead, but made a decision not to correct it.  It was the wrong decision, but it was a good mistake to make in front of John because he explained why.  First, we're there to school, not to ride a show, so fix mistakes so that me and Charlie learn from them.  And second, 17 strides is eternity, not a flash in the pan.  There are sometimes you wouldn't fix a lead - like in between fences on a line, or around a really hard corner without much space - but a 17 stride corner was not that.
Then I proceeded to screw up the last exercise, which was another golden learning opportunity.  Charlie lands on the right lead like 90% of the time, even if I'm looking left and thinking left over the fence.  Part of this - ok, maybe most of that - is me.  I am still squeezing with the right hand and right leg, even in the air.  But he's a little bit inclined that way anyway.  Which - see last lesson - makes it all the more critical to work on when we school.  So we did this fan, left U turn, oxer - and I could NOT get him to land on the left lead, or to change leads.  Again, it felt too tight so I wasn't committing, but I was also trying to cram it into one stride (because it felt tight).  The take away was that - it's important to make him do it even if it's ugly, there's a lot more space in there than I think, and a  lot more time, AND that even just the act of trying rocks him back on his haunches and gets him set up for a much nicer fence.
The other thing I heard John saying to Shannon was the importance not just of sitting up and balancing and half halting around the corner, but to keep your leg on, otherwise, what's the point of doing all that (that latter half is mine) if you're just going to kick the horse forward and get it all strung out again.  And I realized that's what I've been doing.  I focus so much on the "collection" (not used the way a dressage rider would) that I lose the impulsion.
So one of my at home exercises is to work on making those canter transitions snappy and efficient.
The other benefit to sharing a lesson with Shannon is not only do I get to watch her working with a green horse which is really educational, but she can also tell me what she sees afterwards.  She said I'm still really digging in my heels all the way around, so we really need to keep working on that, that I rarely pat Charlie or tell him good job even when he's putting his heart into figuring it out, and she also emphasized the importance of making him do it properly because it's schooling.
I was on top of the world because of feeling my hands pulling, so now I'm hopeful that one day - maybe even for poor Charlie - I'll be able to feel my heels digging in and get them out.
What a great day.

One correct feeling; Back exercises

After a couple weeks off, we had a lesson with John today.  After some warm up, John's first instruction to me was not to let Charlie just puke over the warm up fences.  Our second task was to switch right to a hefty* line and oxer.  After a few rounds of that, Shannon rode some other lines, and then we did a new set of lines that were even heftier.*  Those four fences were amazing.   Afterwards, John said that's how to ride every fence, no matter how big it is.  He said when they're bigger and I'm a little nervous, I naturally sit up and collect Charlie, like I should for every fence.  Instead, when they're small, I let Charlie take the lead, and then he puts forth minimal effort and they're uncomfortable pukers.  I agree that Charlie is easier to ride when he's bigger and the fences are bigger, but I'm still really wrestling with how to get him big without letting him get flat. Shannon said she noticed that I ride with my heels just dug into his side, so she thinks that I can't use my hips and upper legs very well and that I need to get him in front of my leg and responsive first.  So we'll see - it's a lot of interlocking pieces that I feel like I am close, after a lot of years of sweat, to figuring out.
The other thing I asked John about was exercises for my lower back.  He recommended laying on a pillow, just to stretch it out, and then to use my pecs to pull my shoulders back (not lean backwards and roll my shoulders back), and then third to think about pushing OUT right under my rib cage, which also pushes my back out.  He said it's actually the back under the shoulder blades that needs to be improved, not the low back where it looks the worst.
So I've got the good feeling imprinted in my head now, the next task is just cementing how to get it and then consistently get it.  Baby steps.  But man, Charlie feels like a dreamboat when I get it together.

Bank, Ship, and Water at Aspen

You can't tell, but we are actually going fast.

Day 2 with Major Beale

I had an incredible workout today with Major Beale; so much of a workout that even my socks got sweaty.  Thank goodness that I've been increasing my workouts, although I still have a long way to go.
The high point of the lesson was the collected canter. 
The low point was my brain's incredible thickness in understanding an exercise that was a circle haunches in to a circle haunches out (basically turn on the forehand, turn on the haunches, although I might not even have that right).
We started with a lot more transitions and obtaining the feeling of Charlie being ready to go up a gait at any moment.  Even though I thought I'd been increasing my work at home from just plodding around in a lot of circles, I am not doing nearly as many transitions (or difficult transitions) as we did during the clinic.  I think that part of this is I'm so afraid that I'll do it wrong and make it worse, that I stick with what I'm comfortable with.
Charlie was once again an absolute champ, trying hard to figure out what I was asking him to do so I could do it.  I was a frustrating communicator today.
Then we worked on the correct bend - I am still riding Charlie bent to the right, so going to the right he is overbent (and bulging out through his left shoulder) and going to the left, he isn't bent at all.  So to work on this, we did some counterbend going to the right (bent left), and then going to the left, tried to just get him bending around my leg.  We also worked again on the right lead canter first standing up, shifting over, and then trying to feel that saddle under my right hip.  These were hard exercises because my body's feeling needs to readjust - I feel like we are bent all wild and my shoulders are going the wrong way, respectively, with those exercises, when in fact, he still isn't anywhere near correct.
Then we started working on what led to the high and low points.  I haven't seen anyone ride those particular exercises before, so it was also a good lesson on how I learn, in that it's a lot easier for me to mimic something I've seen, than just listen to it.  And it was new, and it was HARD - riding on a circle and then doing haunches in or out on the circle but staying on the circle is hard enough!!  My brain got totally clogged up trying to think of everything, although perhaps that is also part of the lesson - I don't think I should need to think of everything - instead of sticking my tongue out from concentration, I should just feel what the correct movement is.
Regardless, struggling through that led to some simply brilliant collected canter.  Charlie could leap up into it straight from the walk, and I could slow him down until it felt like he was almost cantering in place.  It was so amazing.  And I got the "poof" - the collection - all by myself!  So it IS possible!  Another year of working this hard and maybe we will be able to do second level.
I had no idea Charlie could move like that, or that I could get a horse to move like that (of course, Charlie has already been trained to do all of this, and it is also amazing he has known all along how to do it, and I have just never asked him to do it), so that was really cool.  Of course, it came at the expense of a soaking wet body, which was disgusting, but that is just more motivation to keep cracking the whip at the gym.
I also got my copy of Jeremy's book, which I can't wait to read and study up on before he is back in August.
My goal is to have my back flatter and to be enough more to the right in my seat so that he can focus on more work like that collected canter.

Clinic Day 1 with Major Beale

There was a major breakthrough for me, and then a lot of really cool stuff that I think is still a bit out of my grasp.
Major breakthrough:  One reason I prefer jumping to dressage is how much more comfortable I am in my jumping saddle.  Well, lo and behold, that's because I trot behind the motion in my dressage saddle.  Which is likely why, despite my clumsy sitting trot, I feel like I have better control over the delicate movements when I'm sitting.  In my efforts to have a dressage posture, instead of posting over the movement, I have been launching my shoulders backwards at the top of each post, and therefore, falling behind the motion on every single step.
One teeny tiny correction (thinking of posting up and over my hands) not only made me feel like I was moving with Charlie, but also let my toes turn in and kept my legs from jamming so far forward.  It was huge.  Because I wasn't lurching around, Charlie could move better, and I could do more because I wasn't always behind.  It was really amazing.
Moving into the harder to capture, we worked on my position and posture.  There were three things going on here.  At least, to be kind to myself I'll clump them in three categories.
First, I have this big hollow in my back.  Major Beale was too nice to call it swayback, but that's what I'd call it.  It makes me look like I'm riding titlted forward onto my pelvis with my belly pushed out, which maybe I am, but when he took a whip and set it behind me in the saddle, and there was a huge fist sized gap between my lower back and the whip - I could NOT make the hollow part go flat.  Afterwards, Shannon showed me how she can.  And I can't in yoga or pilates either, so I don't know if it is a function of poor posture, or if it's the way I'm built and I'll never be able to get it back.  But I need to try to think of lifting my rib cage, sucking my belly button into my spinal cord, and then relaxing my hips and legs.
Doing that leads to the second, which is my toes.  In a dressage stirrup, you should think of lifting your toes, not pushing your heels down, because someone should be able to put their finger between your toes and the stirrups and you wouldn't smash it.  Toes should be the part on the stirrup, and your pinky toe should be near the outside of the stirrup bar (big toe to the inside when you jump).  Thinking heels down pushes your lower leg forward (into a defensive jumping position actually) but is hard to use for delicate dressage.  And when you point your toes all crazy in like you're pigeon toed (if you're me) and look down, they're just barely straight.  So when they feel all crazy and pointed in, with loose hips and soft but light touch legs, and the pelvis tucked under and the ribs lifted, for a moment - sitting there still - I could feel that wrap around softness and how if I could stay like that, I could ask Charlie for anything.
Third - my hips.  I'm crooked.  I post crooked - like a snake wiggling back and forth above the saddle (video coming eventually).  I put more weight in my left stirrup.  I sit off to the left, which makes going to the left fine, but is part of why (maybe all of why) we're having such a hard time when we try to go to the right.
Major Beale thinks if I fix my posture and toes, most of that will correct itself, but I need to stand up, shift to the right, and sit down again before cantering to the right.  Until that horribly, horribly awkward canter feels as good as the left side.  This exercise really helped me feel the difference in the weight between my feet also.
Charlie was an absolute dreamboat for the work, which was a lot of transitions and a lot of changes to keep him sharp.  He made it easy for us to focus on me.
Oh, and focus on him.  Instead of sitting there thinking about where my body is supposed to be, look at Charlie (use soft eyes) and see how he's reacting to me and then fix myself using his reaction.
Also, Major Beale said I can get away with this for now, but it's going to catch up with me, and I agree, although I think it already has with all the right turn stuff.
It was really eye opening, maybe a little too eye opening for me to fully absorb it all - especially the parts I can't feel I'm doing - but some of it I could feel a huge difference right away. 
The only downside is how did I get this old and not know how crooked I was?!?
I'm going to see my rolfer to talk about that gap in my back to see if there's anything we can do.

Aspen recap

Aspen was our second show this season, and like always, it was incredibly professionally done.  Everything ran on time, the fences were gorgeous, the courses were fun but challenging, and it was top notch all the way around.
Charlie had his A game on for dressage, and thanks to the very specific tips and exercises from John and Shannon after my NWEC dressage test, I had concrete things to focus on and practice and it really made a difference.  I felt like I fixed almost all of them - except the halt.
For show jumping, I dropped the ball.  I focused so much on going fast, that I didn't think about keeping Charlie put together until we started puking over and touching all the fences.  By then, he had taken over, and I didn't have enough space/time in between the fences to really put him back together.  He saved my bacon and we got lucky, but this is definitely where we need to work - how to ride a big canter without it being strung out.
Then, our last day was cross country, which is of course my favorite.  And Charlie was, of course, an absolute rock star.  We just cruised it!  Shannon had given me exactly what I needed to think about, but only for a handful of places so I could remember it all.
What I found really helped was that for both dressage and cross country, I visualized my ride over and over again ahead of time.  It seemed to kind of store some of the actions so that I could focus on more things during the ride.  I'm going to try to work on that more for show jumping too, and see if that helps.
The other thing I want to do is shout out to John Camlin and Shannon Morris's patience.  Without them patiently watching me struggle to catch on in little tiny baby steps, I wouldn't be nearly as far as I am today.  And I can really feel the progress from last year.  I appreciate their confidence and patience with me because I'm definitely not a natural rider, but I really want to learn how to ride well, even if it takes me the rest of my damn life.

A thankfully very fuzzy view of our show jumping round

I accomplished the fast part of my three goals, but not the "put together" part so we shot around like a loose rubber band and touched every fence.  I pretty much looked like I'd never ridden before.
http://youtu.be/GpXeX9kKb9k

Conditioning exercises

I talked with John about conditioning exercises at our lesson this week, and he recommended 3 5-minute trot sets (with a 2 minute break in between each) and 4 3-minute canters.  We started today with 2 5-minute trots and 2 3-minute canters.  For each, I started in a two-point for the first minute, then posted the trot, then went back to a two-point.  Charlie and I were both pooped by the final minute of the last canter.
John also recommended building up to an 8 minute wall sit, and emphasized that it's especially important once your quads start burning to stay in the sit because that's when your hip flexors start to work.  I didn't have my watch on, but I'm pretty sure I didn't even make it a minute for the first one.
Our lesson was another great one.  We did the same two lines as last week, a 4 stride and then an angled 4 stride, and of course, Charlie was an angel.  Then we worked on coming around a corner to an oxer, jumping it to the left of mid-way to make a right turn around another fence to a hard right to a wall.  It took me many tries to get this right, but it was a great exercise because the Aspen show jumping courses tend to have a lot of turns around fences.
John said at the show to focus on getting Charlie's canter big enough in the warm up, and the jumping would follow, and that now that I know I can bring Charlie back, I can be more confident about riding him forward.  It's amazing when we get a jump right how incredible it is, but I'd wager we're hitting them perfect at maybe only 25% right now.
Charlie is such a trooper.
Also, there are actually 5 things to think about when jumping, not 3, but they are beyond my skill set right now to even list them all.
The big things to think about are riding in a big enough canter, sitting up and rebalancing around the corner, then getting out of Charlie's way the last three strides - I don't do anything but make things worse if I start messing around the final stride.  John said to think about how Charlie feels going cross country (which he loves) and then try to get that feeling for show jumping.
I love the lessons with John.  They're amazing.

"If you have to think about it, you're too late."

- David O'Connor

Two lessons this week, both excellent.
Some jumping at John's.  This week's issue was flopping forward after the fence.  I have been working much, much harder after the last lesson, and John said it showed - I seemed "crisper".  He also said that now I'm starting to be able to choose what Charlie does, instead of just ride him around the arena.  It's like I have more time to think and more tools in my tool belt to choose from.  While I had a couple flops, I also had a few fences that were just exactly right on, which felt great.  We also jumped the narrow skinny triangle, which was new and fun (for me).

Then today I had a dressage lesson with Shannon.  Again, she said the effort from last week was showing.  I was able to get Charlie rounder, had some nice consistent right circles, and did some really nice leg yields at the end.  Although Charlie started out like a total slug and heavy as a rock in my hands, he ended up moving really great.  The big difference was riding him with a lot of transitions and activity so he had to pay attention.  Transitions in the circle, to a spiral in, changing direction, to another transition ... The other big one was not to do one puny whip and then say "oh, I guess that didn't work" and give up, but to follow it up if he doesn't respond.  If I do a whip smack and he ignores it, I do a second, harder whip smack, and that usually motivates him to get going.  We also did some work without stirrups, which was torture, so I definitely need to incorporate that back into my daily routine.