no grunting or groaning... i could focus on my hands not my legs. beth liked it. fleck liked it. I liked it.
Team Awesome: Follow me and my goofy horse on our adventures in Awesomeness!
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Beth lesson
In the new saddle, thanks to Cindy.
no grunting or groaning... i could focus on my hands not my legs. beth liked it. fleck liked it. I liked it.
no grunting or groaning... i could focus on my hands not my legs. beth liked it. fleck liked it. I liked it.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
We just might be getting it!
Fun lesson today. We just might be getting it! It's hard, but my body is cooperating more with what I want it to do and Fleck is responding. We're getting some bigger loftier trot and straighter canters. :)
We worked on straightness, throughness and roundness today. I rode more with my core up and that seemed to make a big difference. I was riding for BIG and UPHILL with my belly button and... for whatever reason, that helps Fleck go big and uphill.
Good stuff
We worked on straightness, throughness and roundness today. I rode more with my core up and that seemed to make a big difference. I was riding for BIG and UPHILL with my belly button and... for whatever reason, that helps Fleck go big and uphill.
Good stuff
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Kelly Lesson
Prelim speed, not intermediate speed.
Work on counting... 1, 2, 3, is what works for my brain, not 1,2, 1, 2. Be confident about counting.
Opening rein to turn and land on the right lead.
HOmework...
slow it down
count confidently
maybe wear spurs... shock and awe a few times in between fences, but wrestle it back down
give it a month with this, and then decide if he needs to take off farther back or not.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Sat ride
Today was a nice chill day. We rode with Kelli and started with a quick little loop around the lake to warm up. Then we headed to the arena for some dressage. Fleck felt pretty darn good today! There was no wobbliness. Yay! We got some nice work and mostly just played with connection and roundness and focused on me not using my outside leg to straighten him and instead using my inside leg to outside rein with a shortened outside shoulder to keep the bend. It worked. He was nice and we even got lots of lip foam.
After that we went on a nice long walk hack. It was lovely out although it's starting to get cold once the sun starts setting.
Pony Party
Poor Dan! I hauled both boys to Ashland and rode Fleck first. It was a good group. Kelli and I got there first and did some flat work. Judy ended up showing up too and joined us. Then as we were finishing up, Peri and George showed up. We all went out for a nice hack. It was fun.
I ended up not having time to ride Dan so he basically came along and sat in the trailer eating hay, missing out on the pony party. Doh. But Fleck enjoyed the pony party.
I ended up not having time to ride Dan so he basically came along and sat in the trailer eating hay, missing out on the pony party. Doh. But Fleck enjoyed the pony party.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Dressage aha's
Today was a very good dressage day! I had lots of aha moments. Although sadly, you'd think this would be stuff I already know and do. Alas... ;)
So anyways... what did I learn?!
We were just trotting around and Fleck kept feeling like he was really falling in. We were tracking left and it felt like his right shoulder was really flinging out to the right. My inclination was to correct this by closing my outside leg and asking him to step up underneath himself straight. And... yes, it works, but... it's not exactly what I want. Because then he's counter bent and falling to the right instead. I mentioned to Cindy that I felt like I was constantly riding counter bent and she told me to focus more on correcting the lean by shortening that outside arc and pushing him into that rein. You know.. inside leg to outside rein. ;) But really.. my brain needed to hear the shortening the right side of his body part for it to get in my brain. So... rather than closing my outside leg, I close my inside, shorten the right side of his body while suppling it, and create the upright feeling that way. The correct way! But man.. it's such a hard habit to break that outside leg correction. At least now that I've realized what I was doing and the better way to do it, I seem to be able to catch it more and correct it. And.. shocker... Fleck goes way better the correct way than my twisted attempt to fix it. Sigh... One of these days we'll get it all together.
Another good phrase for me, in concert with the above, was to focus on riding the train tracks. I need to ride the hind end but it works better for my brain when thinking of riding the hind end up to and parallel with the front end. This helps me keep his butt behind him, pushing his shoulders straight and then keeping his cheekbones straight and in line. This keeps his whole body straight and helps me focus on bending him, not just his neck.
When riding shoulder in, I think half pass but don't add in the seat aids. It's the same body aids without the weight going laterally to get the shoulder in. Then to make it a half pass, I add the weight aids laterally. Cindy said Fleck and I got some really good shoulder ins. :) YAY!
BOUNCE! When Fleck gets hollow and inverted, I tend to tense up too and brace against him. Which makes it worse. So... if I focus on BOUNCING and creating bounce, I get him back much quicker. I just think of making my seat and core ... bounce... and bringing his back with me. It really does work. I'm not sure quite how, but it does. And he's happier that way too.
I didn't get any lesson pictures, but we had a beautiful sunset. :)
So anyways... what did I learn?!
We were just trotting around and Fleck kept feeling like he was really falling in. We were tracking left and it felt like his right shoulder was really flinging out to the right. My inclination was to correct this by closing my outside leg and asking him to step up underneath himself straight. And... yes, it works, but... it's not exactly what I want. Because then he's counter bent and falling to the right instead. I mentioned to Cindy that I felt like I was constantly riding counter bent and she told me to focus more on correcting the lean by shortening that outside arc and pushing him into that rein. You know.. inside leg to outside rein. ;) But really.. my brain needed to hear the shortening the right side of his body part for it to get in my brain. So... rather than closing my outside leg, I close my inside, shorten the right side of his body while suppling it, and create the upright feeling that way. The correct way! But man.. it's such a hard habit to break that outside leg correction. At least now that I've realized what I was doing and the better way to do it, I seem to be able to catch it more and correct it. And.. shocker... Fleck goes way better the correct way than my twisted attempt to fix it. Sigh... One of these days we'll get it all together.
Another good phrase for me, in concert with the above, was to focus on riding the train tracks. I need to ride the hind end but it works better for my brain when thinking of riding the hind end up to and parallel with the front end. This helps me keep his butt behind him, pushing his shoulders straight and then keeping his cheekbones straight and in line. This keeps his whole body straight and helps me focus on bending him, not just his neck.
When riding shoulder in, I think half pass but don't add in the seat aids. It's the same body aids without the weight going laterally to get the shoulder in. Then to make it a half pass, I add the weight aids laterally. Cindy said Fleck and I got some really good shoulder ins. :) YAY!
BOUNCE! When Fleck gets hollow and inverted, I tend to tense up too and brace against him. Which makes it worse. So... if I focus on BOUNCING and creating bounce, I get him back much quicker. I just think of making my seat and core ... bounce... and bringing his back with me. It really does work. I'm not sure quite how, but it does. And he's happier that way too.
I didn't get any lesson pictures, but we had a beautiful sunset. :)
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