Julie Lessons

Fun Day! Peri and I hauled up to Julie's farm for lessons. I rode Fleck twice. We started with a flat lesson. And WOW!!!! Fleck gave me the most amazing canter depart and then the most amazing canter. It was awesome. But first... we started at the walk. We worked on keeping him supple. No more inverting or being silly just because. He's a big boy now and he can put on his big boy panties and behave. :) So to help keep him soft and supple, I had to "row the boat". In other words, Julie wanted me to keep the connection with his mouth but be elastic in my elbows and shoulders. I kept wanting to alternate my hands rather than follow him with both elbows in the same rhythm. It was like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time only the opposite of what would be normal for most people. :) Egads... And then I needed to close my legs evenly on his sides, gently gripping, as if he had a small leak. No bouncing my heels on his side every few steps. That created too much static. Then I could gently squeeze him into the connection and then lengthen the reins. That allowed his head to bob gently. Duh!! I remember Cindy telling me this. (Ugh, why do I keep going in circles with my riding).
 
So then we moved onto the trot. Same thing. Only now I needed to really think about rowing the boat. And watching the mane, keeping it on the outside quarter line. And to do that, I had to make sure that I wasn't crossing my inside hand medially over his neck. I had to focus on riding with my legs and seat. I really end up not sitting on my right seat bone at all. Even when I dropped my left stirrup, I still had most of my weight in that left side. So I need to really sit on my right seat bone and to lengthen my right leg. Thinking of lengthening my leg didn't really do it for me. I end up pulling my leg up but by thinking lengthening it, nothing was really accomplished. BUT... if I thought of lengthening my leg by dropping my right seat bone and lengthening my leg, it worked. At least for a few seconds til it crept up again. Sigh. But by doing that I wasn't collapsing in my core too. And shockingly, once I did that, Fleck got off my right leg and bent around it. Aha!! It really helped to ride his withers with my upper leg - not pinching with my knee, but pushing him with my upper leg and lower leg. For the downward transitions, Julie had me envision pinching the beach ball with my knees to tell him about the transition coming and then using my core. I also had to post MUCH slower and smaller. I don't know if I have always been posting that fast and Fleck is catching up to me, or if I was catching up to him, but regardless, we are both WAY too fast. By slowing it down and getting him supple and bending, he could move in a nice ground covering trot rather than his mincy choppy pony trot.  

 
 And then we did a few back to back transitions, and then a transition to the canter, but by trotting, then walking, then trotting and thinking walk, but instead asking for the canter. The first time Fleck and I were both a little shocked at how nice the upward was and he bucked around a bit. So the second time, we were both ready and WOW!! The sun shone down and a rainbow appeared and birds sang. ;) It was glorious. He was rocked back on his haunches and the transition came from his hind end. He was up in the wither and stayed up in the wither and had this lovely upper level canter. And he could keep it. It was effortless too. I didn't have to squeeze the daylights out of him or cluck or kick. I just sat and rode the rhythm. Glorious!! Even Peri gasped and was excited for me. :) The right lead wasn't quite as nice but it was still a good canter. After that we worked on the stretchy trot and keeping him slow and in a good rhythm. Then it was time for a quick break and watch Peri and then we would jump.
 

So, despite thinking about rowing the boat and such, Fleck and I were hot messes in the warm up for our jump lesson. Sigh... He was inverted and distracted and I just let him be that way. So Julie yelled at me a bit and told me to not forget the flatwork. Yield him out into the outside rein. Row the boat. Use my voice and tell him "eeechhh" when he's not focusing. He's an awesome horse, so he needs to act like it. And that means behaving. So it took a minute but we got him settled. Okay, so a few minutes. Julie told me to just breathe and focus on my flatwork and not get so riled up. So then we were allowed to jump. ;) She had set up a cool grid. Basically a small vertical to a bounce pole to a small vertical to a bounce pole to a small vertical. BUT... it was on an arc. She said it was 6', 9' and 12' apart (from each pole/jump to the next so the shorter side of the arc was 6', the middle was 9' and the largest arc was the 12'). Fleck bounced on through like it was nothing, though it felt uglier than it looked. So then she set it up a hair and when I really thought about collecting him (Cavaletti, Cavaletti, Cavaletti!) it was easier. And didn't feel as icky. So then we carried on to a vertical. And then back to the grid again. So then she wanted us to do a few fences in a row. She said to just keep coming and going back and forth over whatever. The fences included a weird oxer made up of a skinny vertical and then a regular vertical, the round top, a bounce grid, and another vertical or two. She had us keep coming and keep coming and keep coming. I managed to do okay. My leg got weak and I had a hard time yielding him into my left rein. I really had to think about kicking my inside leg forward a bit and sinking my right seat bone down. But argh.. it's a lot to think about. We managed a fairly decent few jumps though. And Fleck never looked at anything. Even the crazy oxer thing. He took all sorts of different spots - long spots, tight spots, and a really really long spot! I'm happy with my lesson but still frustrated at myself. I know it's a process, but it seems like it's taking forever. At least Flecky is awesome :)

Late night fun

Take me!!!!! Take me this time!!
ha ha. I guess Flecky was feeling left out that he didn't get to go to Barlyn. :) So we loaded up and headed to the horse park for a nice ride.

We had a good time and finished just as the sun was setting. He cracks me up though. He was extra spooky today because he could hear a lot of the golfers but not quite see them. And so he kept wanting to go different directions than where I was aiming. We finally got back to the steeplechase field and he was wanting to go back out, away from the trailer. Goof! Either his sense of direction is as bad as mine, or he just really wants to keep playing. But we did get back to the trailer in time to enjoy the sunset.

Naked jumping!

So... my summer goal was to get to where I could ride Fleck without a saddle or bridle. Yeah.. that never happened. So I figured I'd give it a whirl today. Kelli wanted to jump and Fleck and I didn't really need to jump so I figured we could work on this. Plus it's "No stirrup November", so... Why not?! I threw on the bareback pad and up we went. I warmed him up and then practiced a bit without using the reins. I just tied the in a knot up on his neck. Yeah... not so much. It is not as easy as I was hoping. 

We did manage to get better at it and even got some decent lines with turning just from my leg and seat. :) I was able to not use the reins for some of it, and just barely touch the reins other times. He was a goof though. He'd be real good and quiet and then suddenly he'd take off with me and go bolting off! Doh! But it was fun.
 
We'll keep practicing! Then I hopped on Arwyn and jumped her around. And then I was able to hop on Tess too! Fun day. Then I rode Dan... at least I had my stirrups for the other three. Bareback and bridleless jumping is hard on the legs! They were like Jello. 

Moonlight dressage

Yesterday Fleck got another day off because I was at Dr. Browns' all day. So today, I made sure to ride! Unfortunately by the time I finished chiroing and getting hay... and then I rode Dan first.... it was getting dark! But never fear, the moonlight was awesome! It wasn't a full moon but it was close. 

I got on just as the sun was setting so we headed out to the XC field for a little warm up and to chase the sun. We didn't quite make it to the lake in time and my new phone doesn't have a sunset setting, so I didn't get good pictures. :( So we headed back up for some dressage work. 

He was good. Since it's "No stirrup November", I had pulled my stirrups off. It was good for me. I couldn't lift my heel as much so I was using my leg more. I think anyways. We worked on some lateral work and then worked on the canter to walk to canter stuff. He was pretty darn good!!

 

XC Grid Day Fun

So... I didn't get to ride Friday because I had chiro patients all day. And then Saturday Mike and I tried to go hiking. Ha! That was an adenture in of itself. It was the first cold weekend and we got snowed out of our hike! So I probably wouldn't have ridden anyways. So yeah... poor Fleck though. I put clothes on him and Roany and Dan Friday night because it was supposed to be Cold!! I was worried that Dan would pull his off because it didn't have a leg strap. Neither does Fleck's, but.. it's Fleck. But at least Danny has hair. Unfortunately when I woke up Saturday morning Fleck was butt (or is it buck??!) naked!!! No clothing what so ever. And he was fairly freshly clipped. Egads!! He was pissed!!! He was so cold and was all frolicky and dancy. I guess Danny had pulled his clothes off. Little turd!! So that night, I put leg straps on everyone. Sigh... But yeah, it was super windy and icky Saturday so I am not sure I would have ridden anyways. 

 So then on Sunday, it was a bit warmer and we had our XC grid day. It was super fun and helpful.

We started off over the ditch. Beth made us walk them. Again. ;) And like last time, if I didn't get into two point, Fleck would actually walk through them. So then we added some rails on each side to make it a bounce. No problem. Then we made them small fences. And were allowed to trot them. No problem! So then Beth made them bigger and then started angling the fences so they made a right angle going in and a left angle going out. The goal was to jump the ditch straight and angle the fences. Both Fleck and Rusty just bounced on through like it was nothing. :) 

  So then we moved on to the banks. Beth had us work on trotting up and down. And ugh... I don't like banks. I can't figure out how to stay with Fleck rather than jumping ahead or getting left behind. So we worked on it. What helped was counting and then getting in my sitting two point position. So... not quite two point, but not sitting... sort of a hovering/butt slightly touching the saddle two point. Then adding leg as the first leg left the ground and leg on landing. Then I was finally able to go with the motion instead of getting ahead or left behind. So then we added a small vertical at the bottom of the bank. We started by trotting down the bank and then jumping out. We had to close our leg as we went down and not completely drop the reins. Then leg over the jump too. It was a bit harder than I expected! Then we turned it around and went over and then up. The next step was a jump on top of the bank. Again, we started going down. So we had a nice collected but impulsed canter going down, with leg, and then out. Going up it was the same thing, but I definitely had to make sure I kept my leg on. We managed to do it okay. 

Next stop.. the water! Beth set up two poles going into/out of the water and had us trot over them first. Then they were raised up to small jumps. The trick was to keep the leg on so they didn't die going into the water, thus sending us into the water. Especially if we were jumping ahead. ;) We also trotted out of the water over them. That was hard to keep them at the trot. Once we got that down, we then cantered down the bank into the water, turned right, trotted, and trotted out over the bounce jumps out of the water. Ugh... I couldn't do it! I could canter it and canter out, with a nice arc to my line. But that's not what Beth wanted. She wanted me to go straight. Which my brain swore was going left, but... she pointed out my spatially challenged line vs the real straight line and then I was better. I never quite managed it super nicely, but we did manage it.
And we finished with a small course putting it all together. 

 

It was fun and very helpful. I need to make sure that if Fleck is ignoring my half-halts, then I need to make him hear them. BUT... I need to close my leg when I half halt so he has the power pushing him into my bridle, rather than just inverting him.
I also left my stirrups one hole longer. And man... my thighs are sore!!! 
But a great day!!

 

Dressage lesson

After the wild trail ride yesterday we opted for a dressage lesson, especially since we are jumping this weekend. Fleck was a good boy and I managed to stay on and not get run off with. ;) Hee hee. We worked on sending him forward and bringing him back with just my core and adjusting my post as opposed to using the reins. For instance, when I ask him to lengthen, I need to post more forward and back rather than up and down and when I ask him to come down to collected trot, I need to post more up and down. Same thing at the canter, although I found that I need to add LOTS of leg when collecting the canter. But he can get pretty darn collected. :) We also worked on the shoulder in to the renvers (or travers... I can't keep those darn words straight). When I'm tracking to the left, I need to ask for more flexion in the SI and in the travers I can let his head be straight. When tracking right, I need to keep his neck straighter with more outside rein and then when swapping to travers, I need to really use my inside leg and not ask for too much flexion so he drifts off the rail. I also need to make sure to use more leg so he doesn't get behind my leg. 

We had fun though. Then we went for a quick hack to the lake. :) Then it was Dan's turn. 

Fleck is such a goober :)