Lesson Neep: Follow the Bouncing Ball
Oct. 24th, 2004 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseBreakthrough day today. Yay!
Joni was able to ride keed--her knee is very bruised but the doctor thinks she'll be OK, so while she wasn't up for a lot, she did manage a nice getting-reacquainted ride. He even offered her his best collected canter by way of apology for going splat last week. It was good for both of them.
Capria was Lesson Pony of the Week. She insisted on it. Strongly. Pushed the others out of the way and pushed her nose into the halter. We did basics again--have been schooling volte into shoulder-in, walk-canter transitions, and legyield zigzags, but the lesson was about quality of gaits and transitions again. Soft, round, engaged walk with balanced transition into soft, round, engaged trot and then back to walk again. Amazing how we could fill up 45 minutes and make it feel like 10. I've been wanting the Pooka feel lately--back very up and round and gaits rather collected--and Joni applauded the results. Capria has a long back and a sinkhole behind her prominent withers, right where the rider sits. On her own she can drop her back amazingly and then she gets off balance and that makes her upset and then she speeds up and then she's a runaway train. It's been a long road for me to learn how to sit, where to put my legs, and (last of all in this method) what to do with my hands.
Today we had it. I wasn't asked to shorten rein even once--first time since I started with Joni when Pooka was a baby, excluding longe lessons when I don't have reins to begin with. Did get asked for More Trot, but didn't get llama neck except at the very beginning. Thought Pooka, and rode her exactly the way I ride him, and wow. Back up, sinkhole gone (when she's on the longe that part of her back will come up several inches), rhythm the steadiest it's ever been. Big round bouncy ball feeling right under me. She broke a sweat--rare for her--because she was working so hard, but she was having a wonderful time. She looks Amazing now, all round and glowy and white.
The best part was the downhill dip where she always rushes. Instead of rushing she did a Pooka--sat down and raised her front end--and her rhythm stayed the same. Big deal there, after years of roller-coastering down that part of the arena.
The missing ingredients in my personal paradigm system were, instead of the usual "More hind-end action," or "More forward," if I think "raise the withers," my muscles automatically do the right things. And, also very important, the old bad habit of lowering my hands and stiffening my elbows when the horse's head comes up is pretty well gone thanks to Pooka's piaffing performances on the trail (if I don't get my hands up, he gets Very Pissed Off). Soft elbows, hands slightly raised, outside rein supporting, inside rein soft, inside leg (thigh actually) keeping inside hind in gear. Upper body upright, abs in gear, diaphragm engaged, ribcage open. (The image is the Spanish Riding School rider--that perfect posture.)
Additional notes: For shoulder-in, make sure it's not a neck-in. Outside aids in gear. Soften inside rein. Watch quality of gait. For leg-yield, make sure there's no bend. Don't let shoulder lead. Might be better to try half pass (think haunches-in on diagonal without exactly leading with the haunches). Never mind what it looks like. Feel it. Make note of how everything feels and what feels good and what feels weird or off. Spirit of scientific experimentation. Try things, see what happens. Feel free to make mistakes. In case of screwup, go back, regroup, try again. If that fails, try something else. Don't sweat it. Just play around with it.
(Official permission to mess around with my horses! Fun!)
Capria loves it. It's hard for her with her long back, but she really wants it and she really likes the way it feels. She's very comfortable doing second-level work in spite of her age, her medical history, and all the mistakes I've made. Collection, she says, feels good. She likes it.
Or, Why I stick with this even though it's difficult, slow, and gets sneered at by riders who get bored, dump the lessons, and go off to ride in shows. I want to show--I really want to get Pook out there and show him off--but I'm willing to wait a bit longer until I've got all my ducks in a row and playing their Sousa marches.
Soon. If his trot work keeps up at this rate, he'll be ready for Intro in a few more weeks. Training level has to wait until we have a solid canter, which could be be a while--baroque horses don't like to canter until they can collect the other gaits, which means you get a horse with second-level walk and trot but very rudimentary canter. Though Pook has so much talent on the hoof, he may overcome that. Joni was commenting today that he has it all. He can do the collected work he's bred for, but he thinks extensions are a gas and he loves to play with them. He's an all-purpose dressage machine.
I should note, apropos of show ambitions, that I got the Dehners out for the first time in months. They were kind of a nuisance before, but today they really helped give me a solid leg. Now if they'll just drop another quarter-inch so I can bend over in them, we'll be in business. They're almost there--they were amazingly comfortable considering how long it had been since I wore them.
After lessons, since the arena was free, I saddled up Pook. He was having a major attack of hormones, indicated by little nips at the rail while I saddled him--he'd never nip at me, but he was full of himself. I tried to ride without a free longe, but he swelled up and started thinking bad words, so I let him loose and he took off shaking his head and bucking, followed by some exuberant gallops. Then he was ready to think about work. Breakthrough there: when his neck got all archy and his back started to curl up again, I asked for bend-counterbend in the walk. Got his attention, softened him up, relaxed him and we were ready to go. We did lots of walk figures, moving off outside aids, bending around inside leg (new for him), then worked on walk-trot-walk transitions--going for the same feel I had with Capria. Worked like magic. He was lovely and bouncy under me, back up and round, transitions balanced--no throwing me on his neck. Took contact well for his level. Stayed in the leg. Gooood Pooka! He's developing a wonderful trot under saddle, light and forward and softly boingy. Like riding on a huge rubber ball. With, of course, warp engines.
Cool stuff. I like it that I was able to reproduce the lesson on another horse. That means it's nicely internalized.
Now back to Song of Unmaking. I will be so glad to be done with ongoing novel blitzes aka The Books That Turned My Brain to Prune Whip.
Joni was able to ride keed--her knee is very bruised but the doctor thinks she'll be OK, so while she wasn't up for a lot, she did manage a nice getting-reacquainted ride. He even offered her his best collected canter by way of apology for going splat last week. It was good for both of them.
Capria was Lesson Pony of the Week. She insisted on it. Strongly. Pushed the others out of the way and pushed her nose into the halter. We did basics again--have been schooling volte into shoulder-in, walk-canter transitions, and legyield zigzags, but the lesson was about quality of gaits and transitions again. Soft, round, engaged walk with balanced transition into soft, round, engaged trot and then back to walk again. Amazing how we could fill up 45 minutes and make it feel like 10. I've been wanting the Pooka feel lately--back very up and round and gaits rather collected--and Joni applauded the results. Capria has a long back and a sinkhole behind her prominent withers, right where the rider sits. On her own she can drop her back amazingly and then she gets off balance and that makes her upset and then she speeds up and then she's a runaway train. It's been a long road for me to learn how to sit, where to put my legs, and (last of all in this method) what to do with my hands.
Today we had it. I wasn't asked to shorten rein even once--first time since I started with Joni when Pooka was a baby, excluding longe lessons when I don't have reins to begin with. Did get asked for More Trot, but didn't get llama neck except at the very beginning. Thought Pooka, and rode her exactly the way I ride him, and wow. Back up, sinkhole gone (when she's on the longe that part of her back will come up several inches), rhythm the steadiest it's ever been. Big round bouncy ball feeling right under me. She broke a sweat--rare for her--because she was working so hard, but she was having a wonderful time. She looks Amazing now, all round and glowy and white.
The best part was the downhill dip where she always rushes. Instead of rushing she did a Pooka--sat down and raised her front end--and her rhythm stayed the same. Big deal there, after years of roller-coastering down that part of the arena.
The missing ingredients in my personal paradigm system were, instead of the usual "More hind-end action," or "More forward," if I think "raise the withers," my muscles automatically do the right things. And, also very important, the old bad habit of lowering my hands and stiffening my elbows when the horse's head comes up is pretty well gone thanks to Pooka's piaffing performances on the trail (if I don't get my hands up, he gets Very Pissed Off). Soft elbows, hands slightly raised, outside rein supporting, inside rein soft, inside leg (thigh actually) keeping inside hind in gear. Upper body upright, abs in gear, diaphragm engaged, ribcage open. (The image is the Spanish Riding School rider--that perfect posture.)
Additional notes: For shoulder-in, make sure it's not a neck-in. Outside aids in gear. Soften inside rein. Watch quality of gait. For leg-yield, make sure there's no bend. Don't let shoulder lead. Might be better to try half pass (think haunches-in on diagonal without exactly leading with the haunches). Never mind what it looks like. Feel it. Make note of how everything feels and what feels good and what feels weird or off. Spirit of scientific experimentation. Try things, see what happens. Feel free to make mistakes. In case of screwup, go back, regroup, try again. If that fails, try something else. Don't sweat it. Just play around with it.
(Official permission to mess around with my horses! Fun!)
Capria loves it. It's hard for her with her long back, but she really wants it and she really likes the way it feels. She's very comfortable doing second-level work in spite of her age, her medical history, and all the mistakes I've made. Collection, she says, feels good. She likes it.
Or, Why I stick with this even though it's difficult, slow, and gets sneered at by riders who get bored, dump the lessons, and go off to ride in shows. I want to show--I really want to get Pook out there and show him off--but I'm willing to wait a bit longer until I've got all my ducks in a row and playing their Sousa marches.
Soon. If his trot work keeps up at this rate, he'll be ready for Intro in a few more weeks. Training level has to wait until we have a solid canter, which could be be a while--baroque horses don't like to canter until they can collect the other gaits, which means you get a horse with second-level walk and trot but very rudimentary canter. Though Pook has so much talent on the hoof, he may overcome that. Joni was commenting today that he has it all. He can do the collected work he's bred for, but he thinks extensions are a gas and he loves to play with them. He's an all-purpose dressage machine.
I should note, apropos of show ambitions, that I got the Dehners out for the first time in months. They were kind of a nuisance before, but today they really helped give me a solid leg. Now if they'll just drop another quarter-inch so I can bend over in them, we'll be in business. They're almost there--they were amazingly comfortable considering how long it had been since I wore them.
After lessons, since the arena was free, I saddled up Pook. He was having a major attack of hormones, indicated by little nips at the rail while I saddled him--he'd never nip at me, but he was full of himself. I tried to ride without a free longe, but he swelled up and started thinking bad words, so I let him loose and he took off shaking his head and bucking, followed by some exuberant gallops. Then he was ready to think about work. Breakthrough there: when his neck got all archy and his back started to curl up again, I asked for bend-counterbend in the walk. Got his attention, softened him up, relaxed him and we were ready to go. We did lots of walk figures, moving off outside aids, bending around inside leg (new for him), then worked on walk-trot-walk transitions--going for the same feel I had with Capria. Worked like magic. He was lovely and bouncy under me, back up and round, transitions balanced--no throwing me on his neck. Took contact well for his level. Stayed in the leg. Gooood Pooka! He's developing a wonderful trot under saddle, light and forward and softly boingy. Like riding on a huge rubber ball. With, of course, warp engines.
Cool stuff. I like it that I was able to reproduce the lesson on another horse. That means it's nicely internalized.
Now back to Song of Unmaking. I will be so glad to be done with ongoing novel blitzes aka The Books That Turned My Brain to Prune Whip.
