callistotoni (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
callistotoni) wrote2003-08-28 04:16 pm
callistotoni) wrote2003-08-28 04:16 pm
Optimistic yet exhausting lesson
I've been coming home from my lessons feeling like a wet rag. Last week I thought it was because I haven't been sleeping well. Last night I figured out that I'm coming home exhausted because I *am* exhausted--I work hard for an hour!
Yesterday when I drove up I knew something was up. There was a group of people bringing horses to a truck. Turns out the stable was having an outbreak of streptococci equi, otherwise know as "strangles". So the stable was having a vaccination clinic. Strangles is not an airborne bacteria, but it is passed through mucus (kinda like how we catch cold). So I was under strict orders not to touch any horse but Shammy, who was still healthy :-) .
Deb had been helping with the clinic, so she was running behind and kinda stressed out. I told her I was in no hurry, so that she could do what she needed to do. And it turned out that my lesson ran long, so I benefited :-) .
A few comments before I write the nitty-gritty lesson details. One of the things I like about Debby is that she says things that I find really encouraging, even if she isn’t saying them that way. One thing is when she prefaces a comment with “When you show” or “When you go to your first show”. I find it super-comforting to think that Debby believes I can get good enough to show, even if it is just the lowest-level possible at a schooling show. Such comments are especially welcome considering that the more I learn, the more I know how much more there is to learn. (Like the closer you get to the mountain, the higher the mountain gets… :-o .) I also appreciated the comment D made the other day that my first saddle that I buy should be a dressage saddle, and that she uses hers to do trail rides in. I just think it’s cool to fantasize about having my own dressage saddle (and when I’m really dreaming I think about getting a “shadbelly” waistcoat and top hat :-) ). Apparently people don’t like all-purpose saddles because they don’t do anything well.
Another comment I appreciated last night was Debby saying that I was riding basically pretty well, so that now she was going to pick on me about being precise. I told her that that would just thrill my little Prussian heart.
Because of the whole strangles situation, Debby said it was a good thing I’d been practicing mounting by myself (D couldn’t touch Shammy, you see). Mounted well and kept Shammy still until I asked. After the usual warmup we started posting trot, making circles as D called them out. D picked on me to make S go all the way to the rail, and not cut in on circles. Did this for a while, then D called out for me to do 3 and 4-loop serpentines, thus forcing me to practice changing my diagonals. Turning to the left is still more problematic for me than turning to the right, which prompted a long-ish discussion about how I need to balance my leg and rein aids. Bottom line is that if the aids are not in balance, then the horse is being told to do different things and/or has his body unbalanced. Correcting this does not mean more of one, but usually less of the other. I’m thinking that my rein cues are too strong—I need to back off on my inside rein.
Next we worked on precise transitions, going from walk to trot and trot to walk. D said that the transition should happen when my shoulder hits the arena letter. Another tip Debby passed on was to get in the habit of always transition at a letter—that way you train yourself to not be sloppy and confuse your horse. Obviously one needs to prepare the horse for the transition before getting to that point. All transitions require getting the horses’ attention first. This is done by the subtle wiggle of the inside rein, and do a half-halt. I did pretty well with trot to walk, ‘cause that is pretty intuitive. My biggest problem was halting too early—I need to cue like half a stride before. Trot to walk wasn’t too bad. D did clarify how to do this w/o kicking: Do the “listen to me” rein wiggle, lighten my seat by slightly tightening my quads about a half a stride before, then ask w/leg squeeze right at the letter.
About half of the lesson was taken up with sitting trot on the lunge line. I told Deb that I felt like my progress was like a staircase: Improving my alignment got me up the first step, but I couldn’t figure out how to get up the next one, since I seem to have stagnated. The big issue is that I’m tensing my legs even though I don’t realize it—I’m trying to relax them! To fix this we did two things. The first was to take my feet out of the stirrups while D lead S around at the walk, and to just relax them, and feel how the horse’s movement is felt in my relaxed ankles (this would make more sense if you were there…) Then, with my legs staying limp, D moved my feet back into the stirrups and I worked on maintaining that feeling at the sitting trot. The other thing D had me do was to stand while S trotted. The idea was to stand with relaxed legs so that I’d feel the movement flex my relaxed ankles. This helped a lot, but one reason for the success was that my legs got so tired it was easier to relax them! (D had told me once before that one trainer she know would make her students post until they were really tired, and then made them sit the trot for just this reason).
We ran over, and D’s next student was waiting for her, so I walked Shammy around to cool him off by myself and then put him away. I hope he doesn’t get sick, poor guy!
Yesterday when I drove up I knew something was up. There was a group of people bringing horses to a truck. Turns out the stable was having an outbreak of streptococci equi, otherwise know as "strangles". So the stable was having a vaccination clinic. Strangles is not an airborne bacteria, but it is passed through mucus (kinda like how we catch cold). So I was under strict orders not to touch any horse but Shammy, who was still healthy :-) .
Deb had been helping with the clinic, so she was running behind and kinda stressed out. I told her I was in no hurry, so that she could do what she needed to do. And it turned out that my lesson ran long, so I benefited :-) .
A few comments before I write the nitty-gritty lesson details. One of the things I like about Debby is that she says things that I find really encouraging, even if she isn’t saying them that way. One thing is when she prefaces a comment with “When you show” or “When you go to your first show”. I find it super-comforting to think that Debby believes I can get good enough to show, even if it is just the lowest-level possible at a schooling show. Such comments are especially welcome considering that the more I learn, the more I know how much more there is to learn. (Like the closer you get to the mountain, the higher the mountain gets… :-o .) I also appreciated the comment D made the other day that my first saddle that I buy should be a dressage saddle, and that she uses hers to do trail rides in. I just think it’s cool to fantasize about having my own dressage saddle (and when I’m really dreaming I think about getting a “shadbelly” waistcoat and top hat :-) ). Apparently people don’t like all-purpose saddles because they don’t do anything well.
Another comment I appreciated last night was Debby saying that I was riding basically pretty well, so that now she was going to pick on me about being precise. I told her that that would just thrill my little Prussian heart.
Because of the whole strangles situation, Debby said it was a good thing I’d been practicing mounting by myself (D couldn’t touch Shammy, you see). Mounted well and kept Shammy still until I asked. After the usual warmup we started posting trot, making circles as D called them out. D picked on me to make S go all the way to the rail, and not cut in on circles. Did this for a while, then D called out for me to do 3 and 4-loop serpentines, thus forcing me to practice changing my diagonals. Turning to the left is still more problematic for me than turning to the right, which prompted a long-ish discussion about how I need to balance my leg and rein aids. Bottom line is that if the aids are not in balance, then the horse is being told to do different things and/or has his body unbalanced. Correcting this does not mean more of one, but usually less of the other. I’m thinking that my rein cues are too strong—I need to back off on my inside rein.
Next we worked on precise transitions, going from walk to trot and trot to walk. D said that the transition should happen when my shoulder hits the arena letter. Another tip Debby passed on was to get in the habit of always transition at a letter—that way you train yourself to not be sloppy and confuse your horse. Obviously one needs to prepare the horse for the transition before getting to that point. All transitions require getting the horses’ attention first. This is done by the subtle wiggle of the inside rein, and do a half-halt. I did pretty well with trot to walk, ‘cause that is pretty intuitive. My biggest problem was halting too early—I need to cue like half a stride before. Trot to walk wasn’t too bad. D did clarify how to do this w/o kicking: Do the “listen to me” rein wiggle, lighten my seat by slightly tightening my quads about a half a stride before, then ask w/leg squeeze right at the letter.
About half of the lesson was taken up with sitting trot on the lunge line. I told Deb that I felt like my progress was like a staircase: Improving my alignment got me up the first step, but I couldn’t figure out how to get up the next one, since I seem to have stagnated. The big issue is that I’m tensing my legs even though I don’t realize it—I’m trying to relax them! To fix this we did two things. The first was to take my feet out of the stirrups while D lead S around at the walk, and to just relax them, and feel how the horse’s movement is felt in my relaxed ankles (this would make more sense if you were there…) Then, with my legs staying limp, D moved my feet back into the stirrups and I worked on maintaining that feeling at the sitting trot. The other thing D had me do was to stand while S trotted. The idea was to stand with relaxed legs so that I’d feel the movement flex my relaxed ankles. This helped a lot, but one reason for the success was that my legs got so tired it was easier to relax them! (D had told me once before that one trainer she know would make her students post until they were really tired, and then made them sit the trot for just this reason).
We ran over, and D’s next student was waiting for her, so I walked Shammy around to cool him off by myself and then put him away. I hope he doesn’t get sick, poor guy!