Lesson Day, latest version
Nov. 16th, 2006 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseFirst, a few random hits:
Prehistoric Park on Animal Planet--cool. Just cool. Even where one can drive a Land Rover through the plotholes.
Ghost Hunters, those adorable geeks, went to Ireland and showed those idiots on Most Haunted how it should be done. (Research! It's all Research! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
Catching up on the DVR now I'm not panicking over pages, as you can see. NoNoWriNoMo proceedeth apace here.
And now for the lesson. We're concentrating on da Pook until January, and I'm schooling Pandora in between times, as Teacher will be riding her a couple of times in addition to her other rides. Teacher is kind of pleased, shall we say, to have a beautiful sporthorse Friesian, a great big giant Lipizzaner, and a lovely Anglo-Arab who looks like a Selle Francais to ride in the clinic.
I can't say I mind having this nice little Lipizzan stallion to ride, myself.
We kept on with the straightness thing and the keeping my hands together and elbows in gear thing, also fixed his saddle--it's old and needs reflocking, but a shim under the left side made a notable difference until we can get it to a saddler. No wonder I've been having trouble sitting up straight, the saddle has been collapsing me off to the left. Pook was pleased with the difference, as well.
After the opening bit with balance in hand (matching stride to his exactly) and mounted in halt (getting in contact with his hindquarters before moving off), exercises were in "feel the figure," in this case interlocking 15m circles in walk, maintaining straightness and accuracy. Bend isn't a concern yet; first he has to be straight. Keep him moving into both reins evenly, keep the elbows connected to his hips, and keep him from drifting in or out. When we moved to trot, he fell inward drastically--I needed my inside leg and elbow to really be in gear. He has to be reassured that I'll help him balance and he won't fall on his nose. Once he has that, his trot gets very light and boingy and addictive.
I noted to Teacher that he's a true Collectamatic--unlike keed and Capria who have the hardwiring for correctness but not the conformation to support it, and Pandora who has age and stiffness to contend with as well as a firm conviction that she's moved this way for 19 years and she doesn't see why she should stop now. They have more normal responses and more normal fixes for their crookedness and imbalance. Pook, like Camilla, is this mutant rubbery thing with a tropism toward sitting down and raising the front end. He will drop his back and go hollow, which is a normal evasion, but his default mode is collected. He needs me to be totally centered and totally there with all my aids, and he needs to be balanced before, during, and after. I need to be sure to sit back and keep my front open so he can get his withers up. It's like juggling a Slinky a lot of the time. The rest of the time, it's like riding an exercise ball with warp engines. Everything is much more Up with him, and there's a lot of air time especially in the trot. Big soft boingy trot. Boing! His walk is hunormous, too--big swoop and swing. With all this big massive neck out there in front, with leeeeeeeetle teeeeeeeny curly ears on the end. Which I have to watch to make sure they're level.
Homework: lots of walk-halt-walk transitions in hand. Really watch that he maintains the stretch over the topline and doesn't go hollow. Then under saddle, work more on transitions and move from there to figures, maintaining the shape and consistency of the figures and treating the changes of bend and direction as transitions in their own right even if there's no change in the gait. More "feel the figure" (feel the size and shape of each circle and keep the same size circle through the exercises). Don't drop rein in up transitions. Balance him constantly.
He'll be ready in January or bust.
Prehistoric Park on Animal Planet--cool. Just cool. Even where one can drive a Land Rover through the plotholes.
Ghost Hunters, those adorable geeks, went to Ireland and showed those idiots on Most Haunted how it should be done. (Research! It's all Research! That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
Catching up on the DVR now I'm not panicking over pages, as you can see. NoNoWriNoMo proceedeth apace here.
And now for the lesson. We're concentrating on da Pook until January, and I'm schooling Pandora in between times, as Teacher will be riding her a couple of times in addition to her other rides. Teacher is kind of pleased, shall we say, to have a beautiful sporthorse Friesian, a great big giant Lipizzaner, and a lovely Anglo-Arab who looks like a Selle Francais to ride in the clinic.
I can't say I mind having this nice little Lipizzan stallion to ride, myself.
We kept on with the straightness thing and the keeping my hands together and elbows in gear thing, also fixed his saddle--it's old and needs reflocking, but a shim under the left side made a notable difference until we can get it to a saddler. No wonder I've been having trouble sitting up straight, the saddle has been collapsing me off to the left. Pook was pleased with the difference, as well.
After the opening bit with balance in hand (matching stride to his exactly) and mounted in halt (getting in contact with his hindquarters before moving off), exercises were in "feel the figure," in this case interlocking 15m circles in walk, maintaining straightness and accuracy. Bend isn't a concern yet; first he has to be straight. Keep him moving into both reins evenly, keep the elbows connected to his hips, and keep him from drifting in or out. When we moved to trot, he fell inward drastically--I needed my inside leg and elbow to really be in gear. He has to be reassured that I'll help him balance and he won't fall on his nose. Once he has that, his trot gets very light and boingy and addictive.
I noted to Teacher that he's a true Collectamatic--unlike keed and Capria who have the hardwiring for correctness but not the conformation to support it, and Pandora who has age and stiffness to contend with as well as a firm conviction that she's moved this way for 19 years and she doesn't see why she should stop now. They have more normal responses and more normal fixes for their crookedness and imbalance. Pook, like Camilla, is this mutant rubbery thing with a tropism toward sitting down and raising the front end. He will drop his back and go hollow, which is a normal evasion, but his default mode is collected. He needs me to be totally centered and totally there with all my aids, and he needs to be balanced before, during, and after. I need to be sure to sit back and keep my front open so he can get his withers up. It's like juggling a Slinky a lot of the time. The rest of the time, it's like riding an exercise ball with warp engines. Everything is much more Up with him, and there's a lot of air time especially in the trot. Big soft boingy trot. Boing! His walk is hunormous, too--big swoop and swing. With all this big massive neck out there in front, with leeeeeeeetle teeeeeeeny curly ears on the end. Which I have to watch to make sure they're level.
Homework: lots of walk-halt-walk transitions in hand. Really watch that he maintains the stretch over the topline and doesn't go hollow. Then under saddle, work more on transitions and move from there to figures, maintaining the shape and consistency of the figures and treating the changes of bend and direction as transitions in their own right even if there's no change in the gait. More "feel the figure" (feel the size and shape of each circle and keep the same size circle through the exercises). Don't drop rein in up transitions. Balance him constantly.
He'll be ready in January or bust.
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 08:09 pm (UTC)I was reading Mary Wanless this morning, about talent being a process, not a thing. I sense I need to get more with the process ;). This is intimidating and inspiring all at once, and I can't wait to see you all work in person....
The in hand stuff really helps, doesn't it? Monday I had an afternoon and wanted to play with the horses, but was crampy and couldn't REALLY find my centre so I knew riding was done. So I did Connected-type Groundwork with Joy (JJ was all about here is the Peggy halter -- that was E. Nough, she said ;). And yesterday morning, when they all flew out the gate to the field like wild children, because it was windy, Joy was actually MUCH freer in her back end than normal - she could buck! And Kick! and twist! and get her hind feet above her ears. Which I've not seen before. I was pleased ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 08:35 pm (UTC)This is serious cool-juju riding we're doing. Pooka loves it. It's all about Him, you see.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 08:23 pm (UTC)I love Ghost Hunters completely. It's one of my favorite shows ever.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 08:34 pm (UTC)Nothing fazes them. But nothing. Throw Grant down the oubliette, get Jason out there being attacked by a negative entity--"Coooooool!" they say, and go right back in to try it again.
All those other ghost hunters shows suffer sorely for the lack of Jay and Grant.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 11:54 pm (UTC)As for Most Haunted, it's all theater. There's been all sorts of coverage in the UK about how their original resident skeptic planted fake evidence that Derek Acorah then proceeded to mouth back at everyone as fact. I was a big Most Haunted fan for quite a while, and then I began to get impatient, especially once Our Boys Grant and Jason showed up. They have my complete loyalty now. I'll miss them over the winter break.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 01:52 am (UTC)We can watch reruns during the break. I've kept a batch on the DVR. Still haven't watched the whole live ep yet. I plan to savor it.
There are Ghost Hunters fans everywhere.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 10:08 pm (UTC)But oh god, Most Haunted. I just want to reach through the screen and throttle every single last one of those silly, smug, shrieking buffoons. Watching that crap would make anyone a skeptic. :P
(But by far my non-scripted obsession of the moment is MythBusters. I can't get enough of Adam and Jamie, who are their own kind of adorable geek, the kind I would love to go get a microbrew with and discuss arcane fannish things. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-11-17 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-17 01:54 am (UTC)*ahem*
I need dressage knowledge dump... bad.
-=Jeff=-
no subject
Date: 2006-11-17 05:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 01:53 am (UTC)What do you need, Jeff? We live to serve.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-18 12:23 am (UTC)Sounds like you're having great fun.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-18 01:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 01:55 am (UTC)The only cooler thing would be living down the street from TAPS headquarters.