Charlie Jumping - 2 XC & SJ

Charlie's Dressage Test

Charlie the Champ!

At NWEC this weekend, Charlie was, like usual, a champ.  I was fair to middling, but he dealt with all the details and helped us stay in 1st all three days.
The big take aways are the same things I've been working on in my lessons - bigger canter for show jumping, better use of my back for half halts instead of my hands, and get my heels out of his side.  That lesson was clear to me in all three phases, but the good news is I could feel a lot of improvement from last year.
And I was so proud of Charlie.  It was hot all three days, but particularly on Friday and Saturday and he just worked his heart out.  He loves cross country, and I love him.

How many times does it take for me to learn?

Today I watched Shannon ride Charlie, while she told me what she was doing.  This made a lot of things "click" for me - things she has told me when I'm riding that I think I understand, but then, once I really DO understand, I realize I didn't understand before.  (The bright side of this is at least I am now aware of the next level of things I don't really understand.  Last year at this time, I was blissfully ignorant of the whole world I'm riding in now, and I thought I was hot stuff until I (slowly) began to realize I didn't know jack.)

So the big, big take away is the very closely related issues of too much hand and not enough leg.  This sounds so simple:  don't brake with your hands (close your leg, use your hands as a "soft stop", and then use your back/core to halt or half-halt or do a down transition).  But even though I know this, I am still relying far too much on my hands, which means that it is hard for Charlie to collect because he doesn't know if my hand aid means "come on the bit, please" or "brake!".  It's also harder for me to ride him, because I don't have his "engine" going well enough from behind to drive him into the soft hand, which, when done properly, results in those floaty down transitions and the big, lifted movement.

Second big take away?  I don't work him hard enough.  The theme of this post is that I know all these things, I've written about all these things, and yet I'm STILL writing about all of these things.  Each time it's like a miracle that I figure it out, and a few weeks later, I've forgotten again.  So - it is REALLY useful for me to watch Shannon ride Charlie, especially when she explains what she is doing and why (e.g. Charlie is stiff in the jaw, so she is bending him to the right, left, overflexing, and then releasing) but then I think "no, it's a better use of time to have lessons" and I stop watching, and then I watch again and I'm all "this is genius, I should do this every week, it would help me advance so much!".

Shannon puts Charlie to work right away - even when she walks, she has him walk round and over his topline, not dragging around like a camp pony.  She has told me this, and I thought I was doing it, but I definitely have not been now that I see how she does it.

Third was the light going on about his left hind leg.  Seeing her ask him to move it, and how he barely moves it across but mostly forward (especially contrasted with his right hind), and how hard she had to ask before he started doing it, just made all kinds of sense looking at it from the ground.  No wonder leg yield to the right, shoulder-in to the right, and haunches-in to the left are hard!  He's barely moving that leg!

So I need to:  a)  work harder right away, b) STOP using my hands as brakes and use my legs instead, but c) don't squeeze - give the aid, and give a smack if he doesn't respond, d) then work on flexion and softness, and e) then that pesky left hind.  It's so close, and yet so far away ....
It makes me crazy how slow I am to put this stuff into place.  I think I get it, but then another layer peels off and I realize I was only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

400 mpm & Charlie's take on jumping

With the first show of the season rapidly approaching, I've suddenly realized all of the things I didn't work on, that I am now basically out of time to work on.  Like my fitness, which was vividly illustrated today when I rode 400 meters (trying to time it for 1 minute, which, bizzarely, I accomplished) and by 1/4 of the way around, I thought "There's no way I can make this" followed by "But the show is at least 5x longer!".
Charlie definitely prefers to jump more challenging things - either bigger, more complex, or more intimidating.  His ears perk up, he gets engaged without a lot of effort from me, and he just floats over it when he puts his hind legs into it.
Some follow up from Major Beale:  legs push down from the hip, not heels jammed down.  This is, I think, almost the same as thinking "lift your toes".  But after I rode with him, my gimpy right hip was sore, and today George the rolfer suggested a stretch for each time after I ride to loosen it up.  Left knee is bent (knee over ankle), right leg is slightly behind you on your knee, then you move forward to lengthen the hip flexor.  It is crazy how tight it is on the right and how it's nothing to lean forward on my left. 
Shannon also pointed out that I need to start riding "like a trainer", which is like what John and Major Beale said - stop poking around and being sloppy and doing the same old pattern each time I ride, but RIDE him each time.  Don't plod along at the walk but make him do an energetic forward walk.  Don't accept a pokey, strung out trot - make him responsive to my aids.  And don't use the rail as my crutch for steering anymore.
I tried to do it yesterday on my own, but it wasn't nearly as successful as in the lesson with Major Beale.  Then I did a jump lesson today, and while Charlie started out sluggish, we did a three jump gymnastic and by the time Shannon made it big, Charlie was excited about it.  She says it's better to have the big canter, in front of the leg, than the dressage frame to the fence, and that I'm still using my legs way too much the last few strides - by then I should wait and let him do his job.
We did a couple little courses, and the good news was my steering was pretty good.  We also did a vertical and then an oxer at an angle (which is also about steering and staying on your line) but for some reason doing it at an angle totally throws me off.
And I think Major Beale was right about the vertigo not being to blame.  I think it was that I bought Charlie and Shannon is riding him less, so the timing just coincided with the vertigo.  Plus, I happened to read "The Simplicity of Dressage" by Johann Hinnemann and Coby van Baalen a few days after Major Beale, and it said, "[F]or amateurs like you who usually only ride one horse, acquiring good contact and a straight horse are the most difficult things to do.  This is because you become crooked with your horse and are so accustomed to it that it is very difficult to break the pattern.  I still have clear memories of times when I thought I couldn't get through a turn on a certain horse, that I'd run into the wall or some such thing. ... What can you do to break that pattern?  You can start by trading horses with another rider at your barn.  Get on another horse and feel if he's straight and on both reins.  Let your ... instructor ride your horse a few times.  The main thing is that you get a new feel."

Charlie can move!

Today's lesson with Major Beale was divine.  He didn't hold back, and Charlie (thanks to his wonderful training), totally rose to the challenge.
We started with yesterday's work - proper bend, using his shoulders to steer, and getting his transitions quick and responsive.
Then we jumped right into some leg yields along the wall, a half turn on the haunches, and immediately a leg yield the opposite direction.  While at first we kind of dragged along, by the end, Charlie was pretty much skipping down the side. 
Then he added a transition to canter or trot (depending on whether we were trotting or walking) and some lengthening and collecting on the canter circle.  Doing the leg yield first I think got Charlie's hind legs activated, so he could lift up into the next gait and push up into it.
We also did some counterbending, which helped make Charlie feel more "square" underneath me.
All the work getting him square and his engine going also had the side benefit of me not feeling like I needed to work on my heels.  While we were doing a lot so I couldn't concentrate on my lower leg (so I know I was doing some aids with my heel raised instead of squeezing), when we were riding in between a movement, I noticed my lower leg stayed solid without as much effort from me.
I don't bend him around my left leg enough - when I feel like he is overbent, he is barely even bent to the left, so I need to keep working on that and readjust my feel for what is right.  I have gotten so used to the feeling of wrong (like not sitting up in the saddle for dressage) that it is just going to take some time to readjust my sensors.
Major Beale said that I should ride him like this all the time - instead of plodding along at the walk, he should spring out the stall door ready for action.  It really was quite marvelous to feel and ride, and I was surprised that he could get it out of us with me on Charlie.  Charlie felt more like Shannon had just ridden him.
We also did walking around the corner, turning down the centerline, and then fast zig zag leg yields - left-right-left-right-left-right - and then a turn and transition into trot right away at the end.  I was very slow in my reaction time on these, but they really got Charlie listening.
We also did some lengthening and collecting up at the trot as well, but I am better at collecting the canter than I am the trot.
Charlie gave a few good grunts from the effort, which was pretty funny.
We also did some shoulder in and a little bit of shoulder out.
I tend to bend Charlie to the right when we're on the diagonal - he should be straight because we're going in a straight line.
This was an amazing ride - it has helped me feel that I can get there on my own and how good it feels to be there, so why it's worth the effort.  I am amazed that he got so much out of us today!  I wish I had it on video so I could watch it just before each show to try to get there again.

Day 1 with Major Beale

Today's lesson was, somewhat sadly, very similar to my clinic lesson in October with Major Beale - sad because we worked on mostly the same issues.
It was wonderful because, truly like peeling an onion, we worked on them in a far more refined and nuanced way than before.
We started with making Charlie responsive to the aids, by trotting, then walking one step (at E or B) and then trotting again.  This helped Charlie to "poof" up and feel like he was ready to trot when we were at the walk.
Then we worked on leg yield to the right (off my left leg) to work on getting his left hind leg activated.  Major Beale's opinion was that Charlie has always been a little lazy with the left hind, but that I fall into his trap, making us kind of a snowball rolling down a hill (that is not at all how he described it, by the way - purely my translation).
In doing that, Major Beale noticed that I don't turn Charlie from the shoulders - I almost always bend his neck, and then turn him from the haunches.  Which is how he got the light bulb to go off for me about riding from the outside hand.
Like a lot of other things, I had read about riding from your outside hand (especially inside leg to outside hand) in books, and thought I was doing it, but I wasn't remotely doing it at all.  And suddenly, all the times Shannon or John has told me to ride from my outside hand make sense.  They want me to do it because it turns the horse over his forehand - not because I am "blocking" the flow of water out that shoulder (which it also does).
So number one is working on transitions to make Charlie sharp and responsive to the aids - making him feel ready to spring up into the next gait.
Second is not "wasting" that energy by letting it spill out (mostly) through his left shoulder.  That hand doesn't just act like a block, but also steers.  We made circles, then rectangles, where instead of a bend in the circle, I did a mini turn on the forehand type thing.
Major Beale approached this from several angles - he had me work on the circle, stretch my body, stretch my heel, look over my left shoulder, adjust my shoulders while I rode, leg yields, change of direction, and probably other exercises I'm already forgetting because my brain got completely full and excited with the "ah-ha!" moment where outside hand became clear.
So now it is on to practicing that, and next up - impulsion - (well, at some point in the future, maybe not next) - and hopefully by his next clinic, I'll have made it slightly further along in my stuttering baby steps.
It was AMAZING.  I wish I'd been riding with him my whole life.

Lacking Impulsion lesson, Aspen derby

This Thursday we rode with John, and while I felt a lot of improvement, I am still totally flummoxed by how to generate impulsion. I now know that it is NOT by half halting around the corners on the way to the fence - unless you have a big canter. A half halt without enough canter just tips Charlie down onto his forehand, making him strung out, and resulting in pukey fences. I also know that it not just by riding faster (same thing happens as above). It matches the feeling of a canter piroutte, or a 10 meter canter circle, but how you generate it, I don't know. I know you have to use your hands as the "stop" but your seat and legs as the engine, and rely more on your back, but I'm missing what the "go" is. Charlie saved me, however, at Aspen, by being in a mood, which meant I didn't have to worry about the go at all. While our Novice show jumping and derby courses were not perfect - it was my first time ever going novice and it felt pretty smooth and like I knew what to fix and when (for the most part). Charlie loves his job and I love Charlie for loving his job. He is a total delight to ride.
Charlie's show jumping round 

Two great rides - a jump lesson with John and schooling at NWEC

On Tuesday, Shannon and I had a jump lesson with John. He had a little course built - a somewhat serpentine (left bend, right bend) line of three fences, with a right hand turn to a panel with an easy left bend to an oxer. The eerie thing about the lesson was that John pretty much told me exactly what Shannon told me on Sunday - to ride in a bigger canter, but in a dressage frame, because the slow, strung-out canter leads to pukey fences! Charlie gets used to the fences after about twice through, and he wants to take over and just do the job, so I have to be faster and more clear in sitting up between the fences to half halt and rebalance him - without so much hand that I slow him down. On the bending three fence line, the next fence came up so fast it was hard to do. The other big tip that really sunk in during the lesson was to look up and at the next fence, and get out of Charlie's way and let him do his job. I had an opportunity to put that one into practice at NWEC. It was nice because while they didn't have all the fences out, there was a small assortment, and it had been mowed (and we lucked out on the weather!) so we walked the whole thing to check it out, did a warm up, and then rode the little circle of fences near the parking. I was having trouble figuring out how to ride Charlie in a big canter forward when he was excited about being there, but not strung out - I tend to overdo it, and make him too slow. Shannon reminded me of what John was saying (two days ago!) that Charlie is experienced enough to know what he's doing, so while I want to keep the rhythm even (1-2-3-4) I also want to stay out of his way if I don't see the spot and trust that he's going to launch or put one in, but just to keep my eyes up and ride it. Charlie was great over the warm up fences, so then we went and did the water, with my first ramp in, then a ramp one stride to a log, and then a ramp in with a bank out. Charlie was ho-hum it was so simple for him. Then we went over and rode the little ditch and big ditch and again, Charlie was Mr. Ho-Hum; No Big Deal. It was really fun and I'm really glad we went ahead of time, just so those first jittery butterflies in my stomach and Charlie's excitement about being there were things I could feel and address without the extra stress of the competition. I am really looking forward to this season. Oh! And we jumped one training level fence. Just an inviting log, but woo-hoo!

New job for me!

On May 15, I will be joining Phillips Wesch Burgess, a boutique firm that specializes in business, real estate, land use, environmental, construction, and related insurance coverage law. I'm excited about the opportunity, and the firm, which is relatively new and provides a much-needed niche area for the Tacoma to Portland corridor.

Jump lesson

Yesterday I had a jump lesson with Shannon. It was a good mix of work on the flat and some small fences, but working on those very important details. The take-aways: First, use my leg FIRST then my back for the down transitions. I have been doing better about remembering to use my back, but they still kind of tip forward onto the forehand and it's because I'm not using my leg also. Second, work on using inside leg to outside hand, plus outside leg, for the turns. I am still having trouble pulling my right hand and I need to pay a lot more attention to get this right because now I can feel what a difference it makes in how Charlie is going. Third, in my efforts to get a big canter out of Charlie, don't let him get all strung out. We had a few really good obvious examples where I'd let him get a bit flat instead of in his dressage canter (the hard part is balancing the big canter without the strung out), and we'd launch at the fences every time we were flat and strung out. But if I rode him in frame and balanced, we didn't have those launchers and had much better fences. Fourth, when and if Charlie spooks, I have to break the habit of turning him in a circle and instead make him keep doing his job. Then, miracle of miracles, today I finally felt draped going to the right in the canter, for the first time since I had vertigo at Christmas. The right side is still messed up, but I could feel the progress. This was a great lesson - I felt like some of the things Shannon has patiently repeated for the last two-three years are finally sinking in so I'm able to do them - and I can feel them (sometimes) before she says anything!

Current top 5 areas of focus

1. Heels down and forward - For this, I think lifting my toes and at each step, pushing my heels down and forward 2. Hands even and steady - For this, I am using rubberbands 3. Work on 2-point at trot and canter - Just trying to practice each time I'm in the jump saddle to build up these muscles so I don't pant my way around the course. Also, working on feeling the difference between 350 mpm and 400 mpm. 4. Feeling the hind legs at walk and trot. For trot, I think it is when you sit if you're posting, but I need to check that. 5. Independent leg aids, especially felt at the leg yield.

Another lightbulb!

Today I was having a hard time with my lower legs, keeping them kicked forward instead of pulling them back and up for the leg aid. The good news is now I can feel it when my lower leg swings back and up, the bad news is I don't feel it until after it has moved. But I figure that feeling it at all is progress, and soon I'll feel it earlier and earlier and eventually stop it completely and transition to a correct leg aid. I also had trouble coordinating my inside leg to outside hand - the whole day was one of the days where mostly I felt like a scarecrow up there, with a few moments where I got it together and a beam of light shone down from heaven. Then we worked on the leg yield - I've caught onto the timing of the aid leg, but I was still having Charlie's shoulders lead. I had figured out that I needed a "blocking" aid to stop his shoulder from popping through, but I was trying to do it off my hand. When Shannon finally figured out that I wasn't really using my outside leg, and had me use it as well - which was a feat of coordination to use it while using the other leg in a different way - everything snapped into place and I got some nice leg yields. So that was really nice, and another moment where I don't know why it doesn't occur to me to try to use my leg yields and instead I just keep doing it wrong with my hands. I also have reverted back to forgetting to use my back as an aid - as Shannon pointed out, I don't have any problems doing it over fences, and it's really the same thing - and she's right - I don't know why riding fences is SO much easier for me than riding dressage. It was a good lesson - frustrating, but with a couple of break through moments, so that was a nice reward!

Riding correctly

Today is noteworthy only in that I could finally see a direct result of all the past lessons during today's lesson where I actually could feel and had time to make the changes. We rode a very similar course to last week's at John's, only the long line had gotten longer and was a big 5 now. The light bulb that finally went off for me was the feeling of riding a big canter, but using the half halt around the corners and in between the fences to turn the big canter from a strung out, on the forehand canter to a ready to launch canter. Charlie helped by making it totally obvious: first time through line - long and strung out - horrible jumping on both our parts and he knocked the fence; second time through the line - big canter down the long side, half halt in the corner, half halt in between while keeping the big canter - perfectly flowing and harmonious fences. I still ride timid, and I'm prone to scrunching Charlie up slower and slower instead of getting him back on his haunches, but the feeling was so obvious and different when we jumped off the haunches instead of the forehand that I'm going to work really hard to make sure we never go back to forehand jumping. The other thing I caught onto was the importance of the line and the distances - we still had the bendy line, and my last line through I snipped part of it off, and it put us there at the wrong spot. While Charlie is experienced enough to get himself over the fence, I could really feel the difference from when we rode it on the correct bend. John said if you feel that you're off the line but can't fix it, you can do a bigger half halt, and it solves the problem also. It was another great lesson, and satisfying because I felt like I am not impossibly slow and am finally starting to put this stuff together. Also, gray horses make Charlie anxious.

Continuing to fail to correct the obvious

Today I had a great lesson with John, but a couple more slices of humble pie. First, I forgot about riding a bendy line from center to center, and couldn't tell why sometimes I got it right, and why sometimes we were a half stride off. Then, I kept forgetting to look at the next fence around a roll back corner, even though by the time I forgot it the 10th time or so I wanted to kick myself for overshooting and having to scramble to fix it. Third, I couldn't remember to half halt around the corners, while maintaining impulsion (key to this problem? I have been using my legs last instead of first in the half halt, so I lose impulsion when I half halt), so that we came into the fences nice and round. And fourth, Charlie has hoodwinked me in the half halts. He has cleverly been tucking his head, so I feel him go lighter in my hand, but I don't feel the "poof" in his back. This is because he isn't really half halting (see above). These were all perfectly timed for what looked like it would be hard on the novice courses, and I'd way rather know what my mistakes are, but I would like, every once in a while, to not look like a solid D student. I was telling myself, "C'mon Martha, pull it together" but as soon as I focus on one thing, another one drops off my radar and when I focus back on the dropped one, I drop a new thing.

Aspen video - 2nd round BN

The Beginner Novice course had an up bank, down bank, 3 stride combination, and the usual twisty turns. It rode really well and Charlie was an absolutely reliable champ. I rode the first round a little nervous and tight, so instead of going novice, I rode it again, much better except for we came into the final fence a little long so I launched it instead of adding an extra stride. Next month we'll do Novice twice and be ready to go for this year's season! Much to my surprise, the novice did not look that much bigger or harder (although it definitely needed more control for tighter turns while going faster so I'm probably grossly underestimating how hard that will be to do), except for the last fence which was an enormous rolltop. Since Charlie jumps like a dream, and jumps even better when the fences get bigger, today really helped me build confidence - although I was a little disappointed that I immediately got nervous when we got there, I was really pleased with how much improved my riding feels from the end of last year. I felt like I could think about a lot more things and react a lot better and plan ahead compared to last year. And like my position was more solid. And much to my relief, I did not have any issues with the right hand turns. Charlie is dreamy. I loooovveeee Charlie!

More Aspen derby photos

Some photos from the derby at Aspen

Improvement on the right lead canter

We started taking away my crutches today, and Shannon made me ride off the rail, so particularly for the right lead canter, I can't use the three corners of the arena as helpful corner forcers. Everything works (somewhat awkwardly, but works) if I keep my left hand down and pull back, either with a squeeze with my fingers or actual elbow back. What doesn't work is when I fling my right hand open. We also took some video today, and while a lot of things look better to me, the relative improvement in those areas accentuates my constantly moving hands and how obvious it is when I quit thinking about my aids, and my heels swing back up instead of doing the pinch aid. But what was good about it is there are moments - short and infrequent, but there if you don't blink - where I've got it together. So my goal for this year is to make those moments last longer and come more often. We did 20 meter, 15 meter, 10 meter circles, and then some center line work (so she could see how straight we were) and then some shoulder-in. I'm really happy that the progress is showing in the right lead canter. My body still moves very awkwardly compared to the left, but it's slowly slowly fixing.

4 ground exercises to strengthen my left side

Shannon and I went to John's today for a jump lesson, and he had vertigo once, so had some ground exercises and very quickly identified what was going on. It was eerie how quickly he was able to identify everything (and explain it's source) without even seeing me ride, and that it was identical to Shannon's observations over the past month and a half or so. He suggested that I stand on one leg (the right one) and first hold my left leg out until it is stable, then start moving it around so that it is independent of my hand. Second, get a stress ball and squeeze it with my left hand (which is weaker than my right, and probably why those fingers are always opening). Third, put some big rubberbands on my left forearm with my sleeve pushed up, attach them to the breastplate/martingale strap, and then my left arm won't be able to cross over the neck or move too far up the neck without the rubber band tension reminding it to stop (in other words, the rubber band tells me what I can't feel, like Shannon can do in a lesson but that I reinforce when I'm alone because I can't feel where that arm is). Fourth, try doing more with my left hand. Like brushing my teeth or grooming Charlie - the left side is basically atrophying because I use the right side so dominantly. Then he had us warm up by riding in a circle in between two standards, so I HAD to steer Charlie properly. Then we jumped a cross rail with that same hard right hand turn through the standards to the right to the fence, so I had to make the right hand turn in a hard way three times on the circle. Then we jumped two fences in a modified figure 8. Same exercise here with the right hand, only I had more space, and to the left, the focus was on bending his neck to the left. This one was awful because out of, I don't know - 12-20 times - I maybe landed on the correct lead twice. Even a 50/50 chance would have better results. These exercises worked because of just the slightest difference in the wording of what I should do - pull my left elbow BACK. It prevents my left hand from crossing over his neck, it acts like a half halt, and it steers. But when I think pull on my left hand, I pull it up or forward or over. The other tip was to act like my right elbow was attached to my hip, making a hinge. I can still open my right hand, but I can't lift my elbow out. And then after I was able to turn to the right again, the next level of refinement was to ask for the canter to be bigger first, ask with my right leg, then pull the left hand back. This got Charlie to come around the corner very well balanced, and it made a huge difference in our approach to the fence. I think these are the same things as before - ride from the outside rein, bend, connect - but something about having vertigo suddenly accentuated all of it, and both Shannon and John were right in now that we've identified it, we can fix it.