Lesson Report for Thurs and Friday
Feb. 1st, 2004 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callistotoniI had an SCA lesson at Garrod's Thurday, and my usual lesson on Friday, so I got three lessons in this week. Pretty good, but I'd kinda hoped for a practice ride at the barn yesterday, but neither Shammy or Jokie was available. Oh well, mustn't get greedy. (Much lesson-fu detail follows:)
As it turned out, only Marguerite and I showed up for the Garrod's lesson. This was to my advantage, since it meant I could ask to focus on cantering, and I was able to choose my own horse. I chose Shamrock, an idiot-proof QH who *will* work off your seat. I've had good cantering experiances in the past, so I was setting myself up for success. One the minus side, the instructor was late, which is irratating, given that I had called to confirm, but we had our full hour so I can't really complain.
Most of this lesson was just cantering on a large circle. To the left this went really well. Shamrock picked up the canter from the walk and was on the correct lead, so there was no stopping and re-starting. To the right things were not so good--the transition was to trot not canter, and he wanted to drop out of the canter. The most important thing I took away from this is the need to stay perfectly upright in my transition. My habit is to lean forward, not just out of a percieved notion of balance but also out of a mistaken instinct that you have to tell the horse with your body to "come on, let's go!". But this time I really felt went the best of all so far: I felt like I was sitting into the rhythm and could relax, and that I was controlling Shamrock's curse/direction with my inside, leading hip. Unfortunately, I was holding on with my legs to feel secure, which I *can not* do on Shammy. That is a continuing problem with learning on Shammy. Shammy is not a "lesson horse" in the way that Shamrock is. Shamrock knows what he's supposed to do, despite the mistakes of the rider. Shammy will do *exactly* what your body tell him, which is not what I *want* him to do. In an ideal world I could practice cantering on Shamrock until I felt more secure, and then I could go back to Shammy. But with money and time availablity being what it is, I don't think I can do this right now.
Another issue worth mentioning--because it came into play on Friday--was that Shamrock's saddle did not fit me very well, so that my positon was not what I've been working on with Deb. Vickie, the Garrod's instructor, told me not to worry about it. But an hour of this was apparently enough to revive some bad habits, because Deb was really unhappy with my postion when I started on Friday.
Friday started bad, but ended much better. When I got there Deb had was still on the arab mare Maykala. This mare gave Deb a really hard time for the whole hour ride, so Deb was in an understandable foul mood. So I get on Jokie, mindful that I need to be assertive with him to get him moving. Honestly, I didn't think I was doing so bad; I thought it was going pretty normal, although not totally-on-everything-is-coming-together-yeah-me-wonderful. But Deb was all over my case. Now, she wasn't being rude or mean or yelling at me, don't get me wrong, but she strongly crabbed at me for being tight and posting incorretly and being all out of position, essentially saying that we'd been over this before, I'd gotten better, what happened? All I can think is that the Garrod's saddle had messed with me and I hadn't noticed. Now, by at least the middle of the lesson I was back to my good position and had Jokie in a nice trot, so it ended well. I was just surprized. I dunno, it may be that Deb is pushing me (it's her job, anyway), or I was really off, or that I'm just reassembleing my riding with all the new tools that I have. Learning for me is like that: things go well, I plataux, I get new tools, I play with them and I get worse, then things come together and I improve.
At the beginning of the lesson I told Deb about my cantering and how I needed to work on staying upright in my transions. Now, this *might* have irritated her as well, since she may have thought "we've been over this, you should know better by now". In any case, Deb told me that if I remember to keep the horse out in front of me I will never lean forward. This is were I learned of the lean-forward-because-you-want-to-have-the-horse-follow-you phenomena. Makes sense, because I don't lean forward the first time I ask, only when I don't get the proper response, as if I needed to re-enforce my desire with my body position. Another thing Deb went over was the tightening of the quads right before asking for the trot. This is akin to jumping up and landing on your feet as someone pulls a rug out from under you; it keeps you in the right position as there is a change of movement underneath you. Also need to think to sit about two strides before posting, again to make sure that I maintain that upright sitting position. Finally, Deb told me to remember and emulate what good dressage riders look like: thier torsos are relaxed and loose, but they don't move. The torso is separate from the seat and legs, and it is the seat and legs *only* that give the cues. One more thing: I need to think of the half halt before the trot as being the shoulders-in position. So we worked on walk/trot transitions on a 20 m circle, and I got crabbed at a lot.
Next we went large in order to get my posting back to correct. Here I was really trying to relax and use my high hips to keep my thighs light on Jokie so as not to block his energy, pushing my lower abs forward, pushing with my lower back muscles, and thinking of pushing my hips into my hands, all to get Jokie into a good trot. But Deb kept asking me what I was doing that was keeping him slow. Blah. After I told her I was doing everything I could think of, his trot *did* get better and Deb was pleased. I still don't know what I was doing wrong, or if it just took Jokie a while to warm up.
Once the trot was re-established to Deb's liking, we worked on leg yeilds accross the arena, which went well. Did head to the wall and haunches in, which also went well, especially wen I remembered to push out my lower abs to keep Jokie going. Haunches in has really gotten better--Jokie doesn't come off the rail anymore, and when he starts I can correct by pointing my hip back to the rail. Yeah!
Since Saturday was going to be a light work day, I stayed and helped Deb after my friday lesson. Just feeding and blanketing. I'll be glad when it gets lighter and I don't have to do so much "blanketing by braille". And Saturday was a beautiful day at the barn! I just fed Haylee and Jokie and took off serveral horses blankets. GOt to watch some lessons, which is always informative.
Saturday night I watched the kur video that Deb lent me. One thing that was really driven home to me is that the proper seat *is* like you are almost kneeling--those riders are really extended down in the hip joint! Their upper bodies are super relaxed so that they bounce quite a bit with the rhythm, and thier lower legs are visably loose and relaxed. Maybe I can incorporate this better, now that I've seen it.
As it turned out, only Marguerite and I showed up for the Garrod's lesson. This was to my advantage, since it meant I could ask to focus on cantering, and I was able to choose my own horse. I chose Shamrock, an idiot-proof QH who *will* work off your seat. I've had good cantering experiances in the past, so I was setting myself up for success. One the minus side, the instructor was late, which is irratating, given that I had called to confirm, but we had our full hour so I can't really complain.
Most of this lesson was just cantering on a large circle. To the left this went really well. Shamrock picked up the canter from the walk and was on the correct lead, so there was no stopping and re-starting. To the right things were not so good--the transition was to trot not canter, and he wanted to drop out of the canter. The most important thing I took away from this is the need to stay perfectly upright in my transition. My habit is to lean forward, not just out of a percieved notion of balance but also out of a mistaken instinct that you have to tell the horse with your body to "come on, let's go!". But this time I really felt went the best of all so far: I felt like I was sitting into the rhythm and could relax, and that I was controlling Shamrock's curse/direction with my inside, leading hip. Unfortunately, I was holding on with my legs to feel secure, which I *can not* do on Shammy. That is a continuing problem with learning on Shammy. Shammy is not a "lesson horse" in the way that Shamrock is. Shamrock knows what he's supposed to do, despite the mistakes of the rider. Shammy will do *exactly* what your body tell him, which is not what I *want* him to do. In an ideal world I could practice cantering on Shamrock until I felt more secure, and then I could go back to Shammy. But with money and time availablity being what it is, I don't think I can do this right now.
Another issue worth mentioning--because it came into play on Friday--was that Shamrock's saddle did not fit me very well, so that my positon was not what I've been working on with Deb. Vickie, the Garrod's instructor, told me not to worry about it. But an hour of this was apparently enough to revive some bad habits, because Deb was really unhappy with my postion when I started on Friday.
Friday started bad, but ended much better. When I got there Deb had was still on the arab mare Maykala. This mare gave Deb a really hard time for the whole hour ride, so Deb was in an understandable foul mood. So I get on Jokie, mindful that I need to be assertive with him to get him moving. Honestly, I didn't think I was doing so bad; I thought it was going pretty normal, although not totally-on-everything-is-coming-together-yeah-me-wonderful. But Deb was all over my case. Now, she wasn't being rude or mean or yelling at me, don't get me wrong, but she strongly crabbed at me for being tight and posting incorretly and being all out of position, essentially saying that we'd been over this before, I'd gotten better, what happened? All I can think is that the Garrod's saddle had messed with me and I hadn't noticed. Now, by at least the middle of the lesson I was back to my good position and had Jokie in a nice trot, so it ended well. I was just surprized. I dunno, it may be that Deb is pushing me (it's her job, anyway), or I was really off, or that I'm just reassembleing my riding with all the new tools that I have. Learning for me is like that: things go well, I plataux, I get new tools, I play with them and I get worse, then things come together and I improve.
At the beginning of the lesson I told Deb about my cantering and how I needed to work on staying upright in my transions. Now, this *might* have irritated her as well, since she may have thought "we've been over this, you should know better by now". In any case, Deb told me that if I remember to keep the horse out in front of me I will never lean forward. This is were I learned of the lean-forward-because-you-want-to-have-the-horse-follow-you phenomena. Makes sense, because I don't lean forward the first time I ask, only when I don't get the proper response, as if I needed to re-enforce my desire with my body position. Another thing Deb went over was the tightening of the quads right before asking for the trot. This is akin to jumping up and landing on your feet as someone pulls a rug out from under you; it keeps you in the right position as there is a change of movement underneath you. Also need to think to sit about two strides before posting, again to make sure that I maintain that upright sitting position. Finally, Deb told me to remember and emulate what good dressage riders look like: thier torsos are relaxed and loose, but they don't move. The torso is separate from the seat and legs, and it is the seat and legs *only* that give the cues. One more thing: I need to think of the half halt before the trot as being the shoulders-in position. So we worked on walk/trot transitions on a 20 m circle, and I got crabbed at a lot.
Next we went large in order to get my posting back to correct. Here I was really trying to relax and use my high hips to keep my thighs light on Jokie so as not to block his energy, pushing my lower abs forward, pushing with my lower back muscles, and thinking of pushing my hips into my hands, all to get Jokie into a good trot. But Deb kept asking me what I was doing that was keeping him slow. Blah. After I told her I was doing everything I could think of, his trot *did* get better and Deb was pleased. I still don't know what I was doing wrong, or if it just took Jokie a while to warm up.
Once the trot was re-established to Deb's liking, we worked on leg yeilds accross the arena, which went well. Did head to the wall and haunches in, which also went well, especially wen I remembered to push out my lower abs to keep Jokie going. Haunches in has really gotten better--Jokie doesn't come off the rail anymore, and when he starts I can correct by pointing my hip back to the rail. Yeah!
Since Saturday was going to be a light work day, I stayed and helped Deb after my friday lesson. Just feeding and blanketing. I'll be glad when it gets lighter and I don't have to do so much "blanketing by braille". And Saturday was a beautiful day at the barn! I just fed Haylee and Jokie and took off serveral horses blankets. GOt to watch some lessons, which is always informative.
Saturday night I watched the kur video that Deb lent me. One thing that was really driven home to me is that the proper seat *is* like you are almost kneeling--those riders are really extended down in the hip joint! Their upper bodies are super relaxed so that they bounce quite a bit with the rhythm, and thier lower legs are visably loose and relaxed. Maybe I can incorporate this better, now that I've seen it.
