Happy pony!
Not bad for a drafty, right?
"Yeah, I totally got this."
Lookit my pretty trot
Day 1 & 2
8 years ago
Showing posts with label cantering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cantering. Show all posts
Monday, May 28, 2012
Cantering Courses
Well, without any changes of direction. But you know, still. :) Basically, today was about cantering a nice even rhythm over all of the jumps and making nice turns and staying balanced. We also didn't have so much trouble today with using the right lead so...that was good. Anyway, screencaps and video!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Flying
Kieran was seriously full of beans today. I mean, as much as he ever gets full of beans...he totally was. Even got a little happybuck when I first asked him to canter while we were warming up. Of course, it was a bit cooler today than is typical for almost-June in Georgia so there's that factor, too.
Anyway, last week (well, Tuesday, it was raining on Sunday), Jessica set up the jump blocks so that to go over them all in one go, I'd have to make a backwards "S" shape. She had us trot over all of them, then trot over the first one and ask for the canter after a stride or two out so he'd be cantering (on the correct lead) over the last two. It was seriously hard work but Kieran did pretty well with it and I was happy with how the lesson went.
That's just background to talk about today, of course. :)
Today, the ring looked something like this:
The plain lines are just poles on the ground, the other ones were the jump blocks. The blocks started as just teeny crossrails but as the lesson went on they moved up so that the ones on the long side were "oxers" with poles in each cup when they lay on their sides (like this, except just one block high) and the one at X as a vertical on the highest block setting (so 2').
The was, when I started, that I came in from the right side over the jump at X while trotting and then was supposed to ask for the canter as we got to the jump, and direct him toward whichever pole on the ground I wanted to head for so that he had to pick up the correct lead over the jump. Jessica was like, "this might actually take most of the lesson for him to 'get' but it's really about you learning to plan ahead and know what you're asking for". Would you believe he got it perfect on the first try? So we did that with the poles from both directions and moved on to doing it over the jump blocks.
He very quickly after that started smacking the teeny crossrails with his feet. He wasn't interested. He thinks crossrails are boring. So that's when they got moved up to the "oxers" and for a while the X jump was a medium vertical before Jessica made it the 2' vertical.
We were able to do it come in from either one of the jumps in the corners and around to the one at X or from the one at X over to one of the jumps in the corners. Kieran was so game for this we even went around in big circles a couple of times or I'd go over the one at X then come around and do the whole long side.
As the lesson went on and we started to get tired though, he stopped picking up the correct lead over the X jump. I'd want to go right and he'd pick up the left lead and I think I've mentioned this before....once upon a time he was so unbalanced that when he got the wrong lead, it was easy to feel. Now? I'm still cantering along up there merrily thinking about what a nice canter he's got and Jessica's on the ground going, "CAN'T YOU FEEL HE'S ON THE WRONG LEAD? (but at least he's staying balanced through the turns....)". I suspect there are longe lessons in my future. But anyway....finally after trying a bunch of times and just not getting it right, I asked Jessica to get on him so I could see what he was doing.
Man. In the past I know you could kind of see him be like, "bwah? who the heck are you putting on me? this is weird..." when someone else got on Kieran but with Jessica...he really doesn't like her on his back (and she wasn't doing anything wrong...he just didn't Approve). He went from, head down, ears out relaxed, doing whatever I asked to...head up, eye tense...and just generally saying "eff you, lady," whenever she asked him for something. Also, it was kind of hilarious how tiny she looks on him. She did, at least, manage to just get a right lead canter out of him so then we switched back and immediately he was like, "oh, this is the right person again. Cool."
So went back and this time was asking him to canter before the jump at X and then was going to continue cantering to the right for the pole in the bottom corner. Apparently he still picked up the left lead going in to the jump at X but when I was like, "Yo, dude, we're going right" over the jump, he did a change and landed on the correct lead and hopped right over the corner fence.
He totally got told how amazing he was and we ended there. :)
Anyway, last week (well, Tuesday, it was raining on Sunday), Jessica set up the jump blocks so that to go over them all in one go, I'd have to make a backwards "S" shape. She had us trot over all of them, then trot over the first one and ask for the canter after a stride or two out so he'd be cantering (on the correct lead) over the last two. It was seriously hard work but Kieran did pretty well with it and I was happy with how the lesson went.
That's just background to talk about today, of course. :)
Today, the ring looked something like this:
The was, when I started, that I came in from the right side over the jump at X while trotting and then was supposed to ask for the canter as we got to the jump, and direct him toward whichever pole on the ground I wanted to head for so that he had to pick up the correct lead over the jump. Jessica was like, "this might actually take most of the lesson for him to 'get' but it's really about you learning to plan ahead and know what you're asking for". Would you believe he got it perfect on the first try? So we did that with the poles from both directions and moved on to doing it over the jump blocks.
He very quickly after that started smacking the teeny crossrails with his feet. He wasn't interested. He thinks crossrails are boring. So that's when they got moved up to the "oxers" and for a while the X jump was a medium vertical before Jessica made it the 2' vertical.
We were able to do it come in from either one of the jumps in the corners and around to the one at X or from the one at X over to one of the jumps in the corners. Kieran was so game for this we even went around in big circles a couple of times or I'd go over the one at X then come around and do the whole long side.
As the lesson went on and we started to get tired though, he stopped picking up the correct lead over the X jump. I'd want to go right and he'd pick up the left lead and I think I've mentioned this before....once upon a time he was so unbalanced that when he got the wrong lead, it was easy to feel. Now? I'm still cantering along up there merrily thinking about what a nice canter he's got and Jessica's on the ground going, "CAN'T YOU FEEL HE'S ON THE WRONG LEAD? (but at least he's staying balanced through the turns....)". I suspect there are longe lessons in my future. But anyway....finally after trying a bunch of times and just not getting it right, I asked Jessica to get on him so I could see what he was doing.
Man. In the past I know you could kind of see him be like, "bwah? who the heck are you putting on me? this is weird..." when someone else got on Kieran but with Jessica...he really doesn't like her on his back (and she wasn't doing anything wrong...he just didn't Approve). He went from, head down, ears out relaxed, doing whatever I asked to...head up, eye tense...and just generally saying "eff you, lady," whenever she asked him for something. Also, it was kind of hilarious how tiny she looks on him. She did, at least, manage to just get a right lead canter out of him so then we switched back and immediately he was like, "oh, this is the right person again. Cool."
So went back and this time was asking him to canter before the jump at X and then was going to continue cantering to the right for the pole in the bottom corner. Apparently he still picked up the left lead going in to the jump at X but when I was like, "Yo, dude, we're going right" over the jump, he did a change and landed on the correct lead and hopped right over the corner fence.
He totally got told how amazing he was and we ended there. :)
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Huh
I don't know when it happened but somewhere in there Kieran got so balanced I can no longer feel when he's on the wrong lead.
This is good because. Hey...balanced!
Bad because now I have to learn how to be more cognizant of it.
Otherwise it's entirely possible we might canter a whole circle over cavaletti and it'll be a little awkward but it's only once we get done that someone tells me: ".....you were on the wrong lead the whole time!"
Luckily, that only happened once.
This is good because. Hey...balanced!
Bad because now I have to learn how to be more cognizant of it.
Otherwise it's entirely possible we might canter a whole circle over cavaletti and it'll be a little awkward but it's only once we get done that someone tells me: ".....you were on the wrong lead the whole time!"
Luckily, that only happened once.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Breaks are good things, apparently
So it's been over a week since I last rode Kieran and I had a lesson today (we didn't have one last weekend, long story).
I was going into it this morning thinking, "hmm...maybe we could just go on a trail ride? Maybe I should call Jessica and tell her I think I'm getting sick and not to bother coming over?
You get the idea.
But I didn't do any of that. And I'm glad I didn't! Even warming up, Kieran was really ready to go and listening and he gave me two gorgeous canter transitions and nice, collected, uphill canters.
Today's lesson involved a canter grid of poles set something like so:
------------------
------------------
------------------
------------------
------------------
Sort of like a bounce, one stride, one stride, bounce. The idea being to get Kieran figuring out how to negotiation things that aren't set nice even distances apart.
We started with them just trotting through on the ground. Then cantering through on the ground. Then slowly raising a few up as if they were cavaletti.
Oh yeah, and we did some nice trotting spiraling circles during the warmup and also when Jessica was re-arranging poles as needed we'd do some trotting around encouraging him to stretch out and that was nice as well.
Anyway, by the end of the lesson, it looked more like this:
===============
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===============
Basically a cavaletti at the top with a "bounce" to a low (like...a foot) crossrail and then two strides to another cavaletti.
He'd had some trouble previously, either between me not getting my timing right, him being lazy, or some combination of the two.
The last time through it was just about perfect. Jessica said she could tell I saw my "spots" just right, that I pushed him forward or half-halted at just the right times, and Kieran cantered over everything without knocking anything. Seriously beautiful. (no pictures, hah!)
Anyway, I was grinning ear to ear and we ended the lesson on that note.
Obviously, a bit of a riding vacation agreed with him! :)
I was going into it this morning thinking, "hmm...maybe we could just go on a trail ride? Maybe I should call Jessica and tell her I think I'm getting sick and not to bother coming over?
You get the idea.
But I didn't do any of that. And I'm glad I didn't! Even warming up, Kieran was really ready to go and listening and he gave me two gorgeous canter transitions and nice, collected, uphill canters.
Today's lesson involved a canter grid of poles set something like so:
------------------
------------------
------------------
------------------
------------------
Sort of like a bounce, one stride, one stride, bounce. The idea being to get Kieran figuring out how to negotiation things that aren't set nice even distances apart.
We started with them just trotting through on the ground. Then cantering through on the ground. Then slowly raising a few up as if they were cavaletti.
Oh yeah, and we did some nice trotting spiraling circles during the warmup and also when Jessica was re-arranging poles as needed we'd do some trotting around encouraging him to stretch out and that was nice as well.
Anyway, by the end of the lesson, it looked more like this:
===============
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===============
Basically a cavaletti at the top with a "bounce" to a low (like...a foot) crossrail and then two strides to another cavaletti.
He'd had some trouble previously, either between me not getting my timing right, him being lazy, or some combination of the two.
The last time through it was just about perfect. Jessica said she could tell I saw my "spots" just right, that I pushed him forward or half-halted at just the right times, and Kieran cantered over everything without knocking anything. Seriously beautiful. (no pictures, hah!)
Anyway, I was grinning ear to ear and we ended the lesson on that note.
Obviously, a bit of a riding vacation agreed with him! :)
Saturday, January 7, 2012
CHECK OUT ALL THE PROGRESS (videospam)
So I guess...for comparison...this is us riding in a schooling show in May 2010:
Here's some videos from today:
Here's some videos from today:
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Year's Day? Lesson! :)
Just a couple of short clips from today. The whole lesson was really a lot of hard work. We started by doing figure 8's in each half of the ring (so figure 8's on the top half, then figure 8's on the bottom half) at a trot. Which was harder than I thought, to really get the circles round and not make one small and the other big (i wanted to do a long diagonal between them instead of making them circles that happen to touch). After that, Jessica had use the whole ring to do canter figure 8s (with a few trot strides in the middle, we don't do flying changes yet!) and that was even harder because I really had to plan how I was going to make my canter turns and when to trot in the middle and ask for the other lead canter. That's our homework for the week.
Then she had us canter over some canter poles, down to the fence, come back to a (forward) trot and around over a crossrail with the idea that the canter poles would remind Kieran to pay attention to his feet (we don't keep cantering because she doesn't want us cantering into fences yet). That crossrail he doesn't really like though because it's pretty airy and bare (balanced on a couple of traffic cones, I can't wait until my jump blocks get here!) so he never puts in much effort over it. The other crossrail where we use barrels laying on the ground as "standards" he tends to actually jump (instead of trotting over and hanging his feet) because it looks more solid.
So then we had to canter around down to the barrel crossrail and all I was supposed to focus on was encouraging him forward (she stresses "allowing" and not pushing, because we can't make him think this is a fun thing to do) and just staying straight and getting out of his way when we go over.
That was one of the first times over the barrel jump. Then we had a couple of awkward tries and then we ended on this note:
Then she had us canter over some canter poles, down to the fence, come back to a (forward) trot and around over a crossrail with the idea that the canter poles would remind Kieran to pay attention to his feet (we don't keep cantering because she doesn't want us cantering into fences yet). That crossrail he doesn't really like though because it's pretty airy and bare (balanced on a couple of traffic cones, I can't wait until my jump blocks get here!) so he never puts in much effort over it. The other crossrail where we use barrels laying on the ground as "standards" he tends to actually jump (instead of trotting over and hanging his feet) because it looks more solid.
So then we had to canter around down to the barrel crossrail and all I was supposed to focus on was encouraging him forward (she stresses "allowing" and not pushing, because we can't make him think this is a fun thing to do) and just staying straight and getting out of his way when we go over.
That was one of the first times over the barrel jump. Then we had a couple of awkward tries and then we ended on this note:
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Riding with Tracey
One of the other boarders and I both rode today. She was trying out an English saddle she'd just gotten (she's ridden Western for years) and I was just toodling around with Kieran. :)
I think my position has improved light years from what it used to be.
I didn't expect him to actually jump this but I think I managed to get properly out of his way.
Good pony!
Yes, we briefly switched horses :)
Canter departure
Hopping over the crossrail. Ignore us dorking out about it afterward, LOL.
Longer video, just riding around. There's a nice canter departure at about 2:33
I think my position has improved light years from what it used to be.
I didn't expect him to actually jump this but I think I managed to get properly out of his way.
Good pony!
Yes, we briefly switched horses :)
Canter departure
Hopping over the crossrail. Ignore us dorking out about it afterward, LOL.
Longer video, just riding around. There's a nice canter departure at about 2:33
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Riding today
Just riding around with some cavaletti and poles. :)
No, not with the new saddle, it hasn't gotten here yet.
No, not with the new saddle, it hasn't gotten here yet.
Friday, November 11, 2011
He's so amazing
Got in a lesson with Jessica this morning. Had plenty of time to warm up before she got there. Started by putting him on the longe line for a quick trot around each direction to see what sort of mood he was in. Despite the fact that the other horses were getting breakfast, he actually was listening very well so I went ahead and got on and we started walking around.
Just did a lot of changes of of direction and a bit of trotting, threw in some cantering each way and thinking about not using rein but trying to use more seat and leg and to keep my shoulders back and my calf on and not pinch with my knee. Did a bit of dropping the reins and letting him walk around while I closed my eyes, too.
So anyway, by the time Jessica got there, we jumped right into the lesson and started with just trotting around with the idea that I should take up the reins and work on pushing him into the bridle and see if he'd do that instead of raising his head and trying to evade.
See, this was our first lesson back off the longe line in the past couple weeks with the idea being that the longe helped me "reset" myself and rely less on the reins and to "reset" him so he'd learn that he could trust the bit. Anyway, she ended up making me drop my stirrups and sit the trot and when I did that, once I relaxed into it (she had to keep telling me, "you did this on the longe line! This is just a bigger circle!!) and sat deep with my seat, he relaxed into it too and put his head down.
So we did that for a bit, working on getting a nice forward trot (a "woodchuck" trot) with me posting and then she'd tell me to sit and drop my stirrups and go with him. I won't say it was perfect, because it wasn't, and it definitely took several repetitions until something clicked in me and went, "oh yeah, you have done this and you can do it. So just do it."
After that, she had us do some cantering wherein we'd really push forward (hand gallop, pretty much) on the long sides and then ask for him to come back down on the short sides. My task was to use my seat and legs to ask for most of this and not to use the reins (or my "exhale heavy" trick he's learned when I want him to stop). Anyway, we started out going to the left and it was pretty darn good. He did break to a trot a couple times when I just wanted him to give me a slower canter but he went right back in the canter when I asked (I didn't have to beat him to get him to go forward, hah) and I never felt like I needed to grab hold of anything to stay with him.
Before we switched directions, Jessica let us take a walk break (that was hard work!) and we talked about half-halting. Now, Kieran and I both have some idea of what a half halt is but for cantering, I'd never heard it explained this way so I'm recording it for posterity. Of course, she talked about how with a full halt, it's like you're holding your body against the motion to get the horse to halt but with a half halt, you're doing it for a moment, then pushing the horse forward so he doesn't actually stop. In the canter, she said, the halt part of the half halt that you do with your body you should do as the horse comes up and its feet are in the air and then as you come back down again is when you push him forward. Because, of course, the transition down has to start in the back end too so if you're asking 'halt' when the horse is in the air, he gets that "okay, we're going to halt" but then you come down and you ask "forward" and you get the half halt whereas I guess if you asked halt when coming down, you'd be more likely to get a real stop or at least a down transition. I don't think I'm explaining it as well as she did, but that's the general idea.
So with that in mind, we went and started cantering to the right and ohmylord. The first one was so lovely, he really opened up on the long side and it was beautiful but then I asked him down the short side to come back to me and collect up a bit and he was right there and then we'd hit the long side and I'd squeeze my legs and push with my seat and we'd push forward again and just. Gah. I love my pony.
Oh yeah, and his downward transitions from the canter were pretty lovely too. Usually he kind of pile-drives through them but this time he really settled into them nicely.
After that, we didn't do any more canter work because that was so freaking beautiful but instead Jessica set up some trot poles at X for us to go over and get Kieran's mind working since so far in this lesson and for the past couple we'd been focusing more on me than him.
First she set the poles (four of them) up for really short trot strides but she had us come in at a working trot and told me not to do anything but follow what he did and keep him straight. The idea being that he'd have to figure out on his own how to adjust.
The first time through he hit and or stepped on every single pole. *facepalm* So we did it again a couple times until he was going through nicely. Then she changed it so the poles were about twice as wide apart as they had been (long trot strides) and we had to go through again. The first time he was like, "wait...weren't these closer together? WTF?" but then he figured it out. :)
So to make it more interesting she put them in an M shape, zig-zagging one right next to the other. The end result was that if we went down the center, he really didn't have to change his stride at all.
So we did that twice and he did it perfectly each time. So then she asked us to go through it but for me to ask him to stay a step or so over to the right side of the poles so he had a short trot stride a looong trot stride, and then a short again.
Another "wtf??" from Kieran the first time through. The second time he shifted just a bit over so he didn't have to go over them at all, and Jessica was like, "hah, he's trying to do the smart thing and avoid the weirdness, but he needs to learn if you're asking him to go straight at a certain point...that's what he does."
So we went back around and did it again a time or two and by the time we finished he was doing the striding just right on the front end but he hadn't quite figured out how to get the back feet to follow along so he knocked a couple of poles. We ended there, though, because he was getting tired and also...getting the point of the exercise, probably when we go do it next time he won't have a problem at all.
Anyway, all in all it was a really good, really productive lesson. He stayed focused and with me the whole time and just generally in "happy pony" mode with only maybe once trying to stick his nose to the outside and evade but I just shortened the inside rein a bit, opened the outside rein and kept my inside leg on and we pushed through it.
Jessica said she could see that the longe lessons had definitely helped as I wasn't falling forward on his neck in downward transitions (except I've got a terrible habit of after a really hard workout when we come down to the walk of letting myself go forward and rest my hands on his neck but that's different since I'm consciously meaning to do it and I need to break the habit) and I was keeping my back straight and my shoulders back where they need to be. My leg she still had to remind me to not pinch with my knee and keep my calf on but I think it was way better than it was previously.
So...happy me and happy pony and next week Jessica said we'd probably (along with some of the other transitions-within-gait thing) add in some low jumps to send him over. See, there's a farm over in Aiken that's doing a schooling show in a few weeks. We decided we probably wouldn't enter in the show because I'm not sure he's ready (it's a combined test with jumping and dressage) but it's possible we can just pay a fee to bring him out there and let him school without being judged so he can go to a new environment and we can see how he reacts there. Plus they have "puddle jumper" sized jumps on their cross country course so the idea would be to take him out there and see how he does with that because, even though he's done some of the show things before, we've never done anything quite like that. I'm excited. :)
Just did a lot of changes of of direction and a bit of trotting, threw in some cantering each way and thinking about not using rein but trying to use more seat and leg and to keep my shoulders back and my calf on and not pinch with my knee. Did a bit of dropping the reins and letting him walk around while I closed my eyes, too.
So anyway, by the time Jessica got there, we jumped right into the lesson and started with just trotting around with the idea that I should take up the reins and work on pushing him into the bridle and see if he'd do that instead of raising his head and trying to evade.
See, this was our first lesson back off the longe line in the past couple weeks with the idea being that the longe helped me "reset" myself and rely less on the reins and to "reset" him so he'd learn that he could trust the bit. Anyway, she ended up making me drop my stirrups and sit the trot and when I did that, once I relaxed into it (she had to keep telling me, "you did this on the longe line! This is just a bigger circle!!) and sat deep with my seat, he relaxed into it too and put his head down.
So we did that for a bit, working on getting a nice forward trot (a "woodchuck" trot) with me posting and then she'd tell me to sit and drop my stirrups and go with him. I won't say it was perfect, because it wasn't, and it definitely took several repetitions until something clicked in me and went, "oh yeah, you have done this and you can do it. So just do it."
After that, she had us do some cantering wherein we'd really push forward (hand gallop, pretty much) on the long sides and then ask for him to come back down on the short sides. My task was to use my seat and legs to ask for most of this and not to use the reins (or my "exhale heavy" trick he's learned when I want him to stop). Anyway, we started out going to the left and it was pretty darn good. He did break to a trot a couple times when I just wanted him to give me a slower canter but he went right back in the canter when I asked (I didn't have to beat him to get him to go forward, hah) and I never felt like I needed to grab hold of anything to stay with him.
Before we switched directions, Jessica let us take a walk break (that was hard work!) and we talked about half-halting. Now, Kieran and I both have some idea of what a half halt is but for cantering, I'd never heard it explained this way so I'm recording it for posterity. Of course, she talked about how with a full halt, it's like you're holding your body against the motion to get the horse to halt but with a half halt, you're doing it for a moment, then pushing the horse forward so he doesn't actually stop. In the canter, she said, the halt part of the half halt that you do with your body you should do as the horse comes up and its feet are in the air and then as you come back down again is when you push him forward. Because, of course, the transition down has to start in the back end too so if you're asking 'halt' when the horse is in the air, he gets that "okay, we're going to halt" but then you come down and you ask "forward" and you get the half halt whereas I guess if you asked halt when coming down, you'd be more likely to get a real stop or at least a down transition. I don't think I'm explaining it as well as she did, but that's the general idea.
So with that in mind, we went and started cantering to the right and ohmylord. The first one was so lovely, he really opened up on the long side and it was beautiful but then I asked him down the short side to come back to me and collect up a bit and he was right there and then we'd hit the long side and I'd squeeze my legs and push with my seat and we'd push forward again and just. Gah. I love my pony.
Oh yeah, and his downward transitions from the canter were pretty lovely too. Usually he kind of pile-drives through them but this time he really settled into them nicely.
After that, we didn't do any more canter work because that was so freaking beautiful but instead Jessica set up some trot poles at X for us to go over and get Kieran's mind working since so far in this lesson and for the past couple we'd been focusing more on me than him.
First she set the poles (four of them) up for really short trot strides but she had us come in at a working trot and told me not to do anything but follow what he did and keep him straight. The idea being that he'd have to figure out on his own how to adjust.
The first time through he hit and or stepped on every single pole. *facepalm* So we did it again a couple times until he was going through nicely. Then she changed it so the poles were about twice as wide apart as they had been (long trot strides) and we had to go through again. The first time he was like, "wait...weren't these closer together? WTF?" but then he figured it out. :)
So to make it more interesting she put them in an M shape, zig-zagging one right next to the other. The end result was that if we went down the center, he really didn't have to change his stride at all.
So we did that twice and he did it perfectly each time. So then she asked us to go through it but for me to ask him to stay a step or so over to the right side of the poles so he had a short trot stride a looong trot stride, and then a short again.
Another "wtf??" from Kieran the first time through. The second time he shifted just a bit over so he didn't have to go over them at all, and Jessica was like, "hah, he's trying to do the smart thing and avoid the weirdness, but he needs to learn if you're asking him to go straight at a certain point...that's what he does."
So we went back around and did it again a time or two and by the time we finished he was doing the striding just right on the front end but he hadn't quite figured out how to get the back feet to follow along so he knocked a couple of poles. We ended there, though, because he was getting tired and also...getting the point of the exercise, probably when we go do it next time he won't have a problem at all.
Anyway, all in all it was a really good, really productive lesson. He stayed focused and with me the whole time and just generally in "happy pony" mode with only maybe once trying to stick his nose to the outside and evade but I just shortened the inside rein a bit, opened the outside rein and kept my inside leg on and we pushed through it.
Jessica said she could see that the longe lessons had definitely helped as I wasn't falling forward on his neck in downward transitions (except I've got a terrible habit of after a really hard workout when we come down to the walk of letting myself go forward and rest my hands on his neck but that's different since I'm consciously meaning to do it and I need to break the habit) and I was keeping my back straight and my shoulders back where they need to be. My leg she still had to remind me to not pinch with my knee and keep my calf on but I think it was way better than it was previously.
So...happy me and happy pony and next week Jessica said we'd probably (along with some of the other transitions-within-gait thing) add in some low jumps to send him over. See, there's a farm over in Aiken that's doing a schooling show in a few weeks. We decided we probably wouldn't enter in the show because I'm not sure he's ready (it's a combined test with jumping and dressage) but it's possible we can just pay a fee to bring him out there and let him school without being judged so he can go to a new environment and we can see how he reacts there. Plus they have "puddle jumper" sized jumps on their cross country course so the idea would be to take him out there and see how he does with that because, even though he's done some of the show things before, we've never done anything quite like that. I'm excited. :)
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Still lunging
Gratuitous picture of Kieran out in the field after he rolled after I turned him out again. Doesn't he look good? (and fuzzy!)
Got to keep my stirrups but still had no reins and we did a lot of trotting where I had to keep my eyes closed. Discovered it was a bit easier to do that posting than trying to sit (even though I got to hold on to the pommel of the saddle if I sat).
We talked a lot about how my "default" position is slightly hunched forward so I can use my hands to catch myself on his neck (which since I tend to keep the reins in one spot is also a part of that) so now that I don't have reins I have to re-learn how to use my core to actually hold myself up and sit back.
Anyway, here's video of our last canter of the day. Note I don't touch him with my hands. :)
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Tonight
Things we discussed in the lesson:
1. I am, apparently, crooked. I find it easier to use my right leg and seatbone than my left leg and seatbone. I also sit skewed (I've noticed, now that I've been thinking about it, that I do it when sitting in chairs too). This likely helps explain some of the issues I've had with Kieran. Like cantering to the right is easier because I can use my right leg to keep him from drifting inward but going the other way is more trouble. Or how when we attempt sidepassing or turns on the forehand, it's easier when I ask him to go left because I'm using my right leg to do it, and vice versa.
2. We can actually trot (and canter!) around on a loooooose rein and not have him drift all the way inward. It just takes a lot of leg and me opening the outside rein (maybe a lot, now but still) instead of pulling back on it. And, for now, maybe tapping his inside shoulder (seriously, I was just tapping lightly, not smacking) with the whip to back up my leg. When I pull back with the rein (which is what I want to do because it's become habit even though I know it's wrong), he just sticks his nose to the outside, bulges his shoulder in, and keeps going wherever he wants. You know this, I know this. I've talked about it dozens of times, it seems. But tonight we were actually able to consistently go around at all gaits more or less straight and without too much cutting into the center (was it perfect? Nah, but it was a far sight better than before).
3. Really, basically everything we're doing is about getting me to better control my body and, in extension, better control Kieran's body so I'm not just trying to haul him around with the reins. If Jessica had her way, by the end of this, we won't need reins at all. ;) That'd be pretty cool.
Annd....no pictures from tonight, but here's a couple from our previous lesson on Saturday (was a makeup) that I didn't write about but should have while it was still fresh in my mind:
Look how he's crossing over on that turn!
We started out the lesson trotting figure eights around two barrels to get his brain on working since it'd been over a week since he'd last worked. We ended the lesson cantering in up the rail coming around between the barrels, going down to a trot, starting to turn around the other barrel (half a figure eight?) and cantering off on the other lead. :)
There was also a nice bit of trail riding that happened this weekend. Got to expose Kieran to all sorts of things: small children running up to pet the pretty ponies (*sigh*), small children on bicycles, a wildly barking herd of seven dogs (behind a fence), surveyor's tape blowin' in the wind, large (unmoving, turned off) construction equipment...all sorts of stuff. We even discovered a trail that has a bit of a slope and that we can probably use even during hunting season so we can get some work on not-flat-ground in. :)
1. I am, apparently, crooked. I find it easier to use my right leg and seatbone than my left leg and seatbone. I also sit skewed (I've noticed, now that I've been thinking about it, that I do it when sitting in chairs too). This likely helps explain some of the issues I've had with Kieran. Like cantering to the right is easier because I can use my right leg to keep him from drifting inward but going the other way is more trouble. Or how when we attempt sidepassing or turns on the forehand, it's easier when I ask him to go left because I'm using my right leg to do it, and vice versa.
2. We can actually trot (and canter!) around on a loooooose rein and not have him drift all the way inward. It just takes a lot of leg and me opening the outside rein (maybe a lot, now but still) instead of pulling back on it. And, for now, maybe tapping his inside shoulder (seriously, I was just tapping lightly, not smacking) with the whip to back up my leg. When I pull back with the rein (which is what I want to do because it's become habit even though I know it's wrong), he just sticks his nose to the outside, bulges his shoulder in, and keeps going wherever he wants. You know this, I know this. I've talked about it dozens of times, it seems. But tonight we were actually able to consistently go around at all gaits more or less straight and without too much cutting into the center (was it perfect? Nah, but it was a far sight better than before).
3. Really, basically everything we're doing is about getting me to better control my body and, in extension, better control Kieran's body so I'm not just trying to haul him around with the reins. If Jessica had her way, by the end of this, we won't need reins at all. ;) That'd be pretty cool.
Annd....no pictures from tonight, but here's a couple from our previous lesson on Saturday (was a makeup) that I didn't write about but should have while it was still fresh in my mind:
Look how he's crossing over on that turn!
We started out the lesson trotting figure eights around two barrels to get his brain on working since it'd been over a week since he'd last worked. We ended the lesson cantering in up the rail coming around between the barrels, going down to a trot, starting to turn around the other barrel (half a figure eight?) and cantering off on the other lead. :)
There was also a nice bit of trail riding that happened this weekend. Got to expose Kieran to all sorts of things: small children running up to pet the pretty ponies (*sigh*), small children on bicycles, a wildly barking herd of seven dogs (behind a fence), surveyor's tape blowin' in the wind, large (unmoving, turned off) construction equipment...all sorts of stuff. We even discovered a trail that has a bit of a slope and that we can probably use even during hunting season so we can get some work on not-flat-ground in. :)
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
LESSON VIDEO
So I set up my camera tonight to capture some of my lesson. Obviously you only see us when we passed in front of the camera but hey...a lot of the work happened in the middle of the ring. :)
Lots of circles still and work on turning well and getting Kieran to move more off my leg and me to rely less on the reins.
Lots of circles still and work on turning well and getting Kieran to move more off my leg and me to rely less on the reins.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Longing over Crossrails
Started out the day with a quick warmup on the longe, then asked Kieran to trot over a cross rail. He trotted right up to it, hopped over, cantered out. I was so pleased! So we went a few times to the left, then a few more times to the right (had to go a couple extra times because he went around the crossrail instead of over). All in all he did a good job. He mostly set himself up nicely and hopped over and didn't just barrel through.
And when he cantered around on the longe, he gave me a pretty nice, rhythmic canter clocking around whereas when I've asked him to just canter on the longe in the past, he tends to want to pull away and go reeeeeeaaaally wiiiiide. But not so much tonight! I think he liked that I was asking him to do something different.
Then I hopped on bareback and we did some walking around while he cooled out and did some more turns and circles.
So, what you're really interested in are the pictures, right?
First time to the crossrail:
Annnnd cantering out
After cantering in the second time around
Going the other way
Bonus...me making like I can mount him bareback from the ground (hah!). And yes, I photoshopped my rear to save your eyeballs.
Better bonus...the videos of him going over the crossrail:
And when he cantered around on the longe, he gave me a pretty nice, rhythmic canter clocking around whereas when I've asked him to just canter on the longe in the past, he tends to want to pull away and go reeeeeeaaaally wiiiiide. But not so much tonight! I think he liked that I was asking him to do something different.
Then I hopped on bareback and we did some walking around while he cooled out and did some more turns and circles.
So, what you're really interested in are the pictures, right?
First time to the crossrail:
Annnnd cantering out
After cantering in the second time around
Going the other way
Bonus...me making like I can mount him bareback from the ground (hah!). And yes, I photoshopped my rear to save your eyeballs.
Better bonus...the videos of him going over the crossrail:
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Just let go
Tonight was fabulous.
Jessica was running late so we spent a while warming up walking. Just doing lots of turns and walk-halt-walk transitions. When she got there, we were going to do trot poles but then Kieran, as we were moving off, put his head down. And not in the "I want grass!" sort of way, but in the "hmm, I might stretch my neck out and reach for the bit" kind of way. And Jessica was like OMG HE'S DOING IT.
Thus went a several-minute segue into why that was amazing and there needs to be more of it and somehow that got us onto sidepassing (so we used the poles instead as markers for me to sidepass from the middle of one to the middle of the other, looked like this:
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That was a slightly frustrating exercise so we broke it down to doing a turn on the forehand a step at a time so I could feel him move his hindquarters (since we're focusing on my leaving the front end alone and pushing his butt around where it needs to be). Still was a bit difficult and after a bunch of repetitions, we could tell Kieran was getting bored and no longer really even trying to pay attention so we moved on to other things.
Thus we went back to last week's exercise of trotting around the triangle, but this time Jessica wanted me to put my reins pretty much on the buckle and use mostly my leg and seat for the turns (I could lift the inside rein to encourage him to turn, but I was supposed to more or less stay off his face).
Something magic happened and Kieran's movement became freer, his head went down, and he really relaxed. Whereas, when I'd take up contact, he'd tense a bit, his movement wasn't as nice, and his nose would poke up and out a bit. Looks like I've got some work to do on how to hold rein contact, eh? Of course first I have to get it back, I suppose, since Jessica wants me to ride most of the time now with as little contact as I can get away with.
For instance, he was fine just sort of trotting around (relaxed, nice rhythm) on a loose rein, but when we started the "extend, shorten" exercise we did last wee, I had to take up more rein because pushing him to extend without it just leads to a very wiggly horse going all over the place and not sure what to do. He actually did better with the shortening bit with me using more seat than hand (probably because he knows "stop" so well and so asking him to shorten is an excuse in his mind to stop).
After we got some decent within-gait transitions going either direction (plus he was doing very well trotting around the turns, yay), Jessica had us canter. Again, more on the rail (but not completely) and same idea, canter around, and at a certain point, push him forward (which mean push with seat, push with legs, and even lower my hands and push them forward a bit), then ask him to come back and around the next turn, easy easy easy\ to get a smaller canter.
We decided he likes doing the bigger cantering, LOL. He was totally down with that. And of course, after he was all, "yay!" we went back to more trotting. Same exercise as before and this time it was much better because he was so perky all of a sudden. And then we asked for that one final "shorten trot, plz" and he gave me (and I totally get what people mean by when they say their horse gives them something because he really did tonight) this lovely little jog that was still forward and just...perfect. On a loose rein, relaxed. There was half a moment where he thought about stopping and I just pushed a little and instead of how he usually jolts forward then, he just kept the same little jog gait. :) Such a nice note to end the lesson on!
Actually, I didn't push him forward so much as do something magical with my body that I can't even verbalize or figure out yet that told him to stay right there. I wish I could because it totally worked and was amazing!
So takeaways:
Just let go of the reins. We really do have to spend a lot of time just going around letting him put his head down to his knees if he wants. Not only is it helping him relax, it should help him build his topline more too.
We'll probably start doing warmups where we do a bit of walking and circles, a couple of trot circles, then do the cantering/handgallpy bit to get him keyed up, then go into the work. Since that's something he finds fun, we'll give him a bit of fun at the beginning of the lesson so he's not having to slog through all the stuff he finds boring to get to the good stuff. Especially since he tends to go so much better after. Jessica also said in general we looked better. Not just him, but me too, and how we were communicating with each other.
I can't explain how it works that way, but it does. I guess we just both relax a bit more after having a fun canter around the ring. :)
So yeah. I'm supposed to work on turns on the forehand, that trotting exercise, and cantering/handgalloping him. Woo. And keeping my reins as loose as I can let them go.
Jessica was running late so we spent a while warming up walking. Just doing lots of turns and walk-halt-walk transitions. When she got there, we were going to do trot poles but then Kieran, as we were moving off, put his head down. And not in the "I want grass!" sort of way, but in the "hmm, I might stretch my neck out and reach for the bit" kind of way. And Jessica was like OMG HE'S DOING IT.
Thus went a several-minute segue into why that was amazing and there needs to be more of it and somehow that got us onto sidepassing (so we used the poles instead as markers for me to sidepass from the middle of one to the middle of the other, looked like this:
==========
==========
That was a slightly frustrating exercise so we broke it down to doing a turn on the forehand a step at a time so I could feel him move his hindquarters (since we're focusing on my leaving the front end alone and pushing his butt around where it needs to be). Still was a bit difficult and after a bunch of repetitions, we could tell Kieran was getting bored and no longer really even trying to pay attention so we moved on to other things.
Thus we went back to last week's exercise of trotting around the triangle, but this time Jessica wanted me to put my reins pretty much on the buckle and use mostly my leg and seat for the turns (I could lift the inside rein to encourage him to turn, but I was supposed to more or less stay off his face).
Something magic happened and Kieran's movement became freer, his head went down, and he really relaxed. Whereas, when I'd take up contact, he'd tense a bit, his movement wasn't as nice, and his nose would poke up and out a bit. Looks like I've got some work to do on how to hold rein contact, eh? Of course first I have to get it back, I suppose, since Jessica wants me to ride most of the time now with as little contact as I can get away with.
For instance, he was fine just sort of trotting around (relaxed, nice rhythm) on a loose rein, but when we started the "extend, shorten" exercise we did last wee, I had to take up more rein because pushing him to extend without it just leads to a very wiggly horse going all over the place and not sure what to do. He actually did better with the shortening bit with me using more seat than hand (probably because he knows "stop" so well and so asking him to shorten is an excuse in his mind to stop).
After we got some decent within-gait transitions going either direction (plus he was doing very well trotting around the turns, yay), Jessica had us canter. Again, more on the rail (but not completely) and same idea, canter around, and at a certain point, push him forward (which mean push with seat, push with legs, and even lower my hands and push them forward a bit), then ask him to come back and around the next turn, easy easy easy\ to get a smaller canter.
We decided he likes doing the bigger cantering, LOL. He was totally down with that. And of course, after he was all, "yay!" we went back to more trotting. Same exercise as before and this time it was much better because he was so perky all of a sudden. And then we asked for that one final "shorten trot, plz" and he gave me (and I totally get what people mean by when they say their horse gives them something because he really did tonight) this lovely little jog that was still forward and just...perfect. On a loose rein, relaxed. There was half a moment where he thought about stopping and I just pushed a little and instead of how he usually jolts forward then, he just kept the same little jog gait. :) Such a nice note to end the lesson on!
Actually, I didn't push him forward so much as do something magical with my body that I can't even verbalize or figure out yet that told him to stay right there. I wish I could because it totally worked and was amazing!
So takeaways:
Just let go of the reins. We really do have to spend a lot of time just going around letting him put his head down to his knees if he wants. Not only is it helping him relax, it should help him build his topline more too.
We'll probably start doing warmups where we do a bit of walking and circles, a couple of trot circles, then do the cantering/handgallpy bit to get him keyed up, then go into the work. Since that's something he finds fun, we'll give him a bit of fun at the beginning of the lesson so he's not having to slog through all the stuff he finds boring to get to the good stuff. Especially since he tends to go so much better after. Jessica also said in general we looked better. Not just him, but me too, and how we were communicating with each other.
I can't explain how it works that way, but it does. I guess we just both relax a bit more after having a fun canter around the ring. :)
So yeah. I'm supposed to work on turns on the forehand, that trotting exercise, and cantering/handgalloping him. Woo. And keeping my reins as loose as I can let them go.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
SO MANY CIRCLES
Had my lesson tonight, we were already warmed up by the time she got there so Jessica had us start with showing her some walking circles since I said I'd worked on them since last lesson. They still weren't pretty (and one day I will get someone to video!), but they did at least feel better than last week. Mostly because Kieran just felt a bit more forward so it wasn't like he was just dragging himself around. Jessica said it looked like he was using his back end properly one stride in three (so...room for improvement, hah)
Once we'd done a bunch of circles in both directions, she had us do the same thing but at a trot (remembering to keep a steady rhythm). The rhythm part was actually much easier this week. Kieran was definitely "with it".
Then we added a new element. We had three barrels set up in a big triangle. So Jessica had us start trotting around them (so, not on the rail, but not inside the "barrel territory") and when we rounded a particular barrel (still remembering the circles! even though this was technically just part of a circle) I was to start pushing him forward with my seat and legs on every down beat of my post...not to get him to go faster, but to get him to move into a more extended trot. Took a couple of repetitions and then she was like, "YES THAT!" and I was like, "what? He didn't move any faster?" but it was bigger which was the point and when we did it again, I felt that.
So, by that point, he was starting to think about anticipating the barrel we'd ask for him to extend at so she has us go around again, but this time she said when I went around that barrel, to think about half halting with my outside seatbone and outside rein and think "easy easy easy, wait wait wait" and then on that side of the triangle, ask for a smaller trot, almost a jog.
The first time, he thought "eeeasy" meant "brakes!". The thing he's good at is stopping...and he's actually pretty good about doing it from his hind end instead of falling all over his front end when he stops. But I managed to push him forward before the brakes fully went on so suddenly he was pushing off from his hind end and we got a really nice little trot out of him. :)
Then we had to do it all going the other direction. (and remember those circles when you go around turns!)
We rounded out the lesson with a bit of cantering and here Jessica said if we needed, I could go more on the rail instead of just staying around the barrels). But the idea was the same...get a nice forward trot going, then sit and ask for the canter. The first time, we just cantered once around both directions (and no snarky kicking out this time when I asked for a left lead canter!).
Then we went back to the right lead canter and Jessica said, "now when you come around the turn heading toward the gate, I want you to sit back a bit more and push with your seat and legs and get him to really move out". We found another gear! Pretty exhilarating, actually.
Back to the left lead and going that way, I asked him for the extra gear going away from the gate, but still got it! He was fairly tired by that point (so was I!) even with several walk breaks but he still was willing to give it to me.
I did have some issues with my feet sliding through the stirrups while cantering (they'd end up shoved "home" instead of on the balls of my feet) but Jessica said I was keeping my hands where they were supposed to be and my butt was where it was supposed to be and my legs weren't flailing around so she didn't stop me. I just...I guess I tense up or something, but I have a really hard time with my leg sort of drawing upward when we canter and then the stirrup goes wherever the heck it wants.
We also talked about me having to remember keeping my calf on and weight in my heels (in general, not just at the canter) which is something I know, but it's good to be reminded of. I like that she reminds me of the things I need to fix with me, but we're focusing a lot on getting Kieran to use himself better and be fitter. And he definitely seemed more interested this week than last week (whether that's the improved weather or he likes that we're doing something instead of random moseying, I'm not sure, but I'll take it!).
So, good lesson! Kieran got peppermints afterward. :)
Once we'd done a bunch of circles in both directions, she had us do the same thing but at a trot (remembering to keep a steady rhythm). The rhythm part was actually much easier this week. Kieran was definitely "with it".
Then we added a new element. We had three barrels set up in a big triangle. So Jessica had us start trotting around them (so, not on the rail, but not inside the "barrel territory") and when we rounded a particular barrel (still remembering the circles! even though this was technically just part of a circle) I was to start pushing him forward with my seat and legs on every down beat of my post...not to get him to go faster, but to get him to move into a more extended trot. Took a couple of repetitions and then she was like, "YES THAT!" and I was like, "what? He didn't move any faster?" but it was bigger which was the point and when we did it again, I felt that.
So, by that point, he was starting to think about anticipating the barrel we'd ask for him to extend at so she has us go around again, but this time she said when I went around that barrel, to think about half halting with my outside seatbone and outside rein and think "easy easy easy, wait wait wait" and then on that side of the triangle, ask for a smaller trot, almost a jog.
The first time, he thought "eeeasy" meant "brakes!". The thing he's good at is stopping...and he's actually pretty good about doing it from his hind end instead of falling all over his front end when he stops. But I managed to push him forward before the brakes fully went on so suddenly he was pushing off from his hind end and we got a really nice little trot out of him. :)
Then we had to do it all going the other direction. (and remember those circles when you go around turns!)
We rounded out the lesson with a bit of cantering and here Jessica said if we needed, I could go more on the rail instead of just staying around the barrels). But the idea was the same...get a nice forward trot going, then sit and ask for the canter. The first time, we just cantered once around both directions (and no snarky kicking out this time when I asked for a left lead canter!).
Then we went back to the right lead canter and Jessica said, "now when you come around the turn heading toward the gate, I want you to sit back a bit more and push with your seat and legs and get him to really move out". We found another gear! Pretty exhilarating, actually.
Back to the left lead and going that way, I asked him for the extra gear going away from the gate, but still got it! He was fairly tired by that point (so was I!) even with several walk breaks but he still was willing to give it to me.
I did have some issues with my feet sliding through the stirrups while cantering (they'd end up shoved "home" instead of on the balls of my feet) but Jessica said I was keeping my hands where they were supposed to be and my butt was where it was supposed to be and my legs weren't flailing around so she didn't stop me. I just...I guess I tense up or something, but I have a really hard time with my leg sort of drawing upward when we canter and then the stirrup goes wherever the heck it wants.
We also talked about me having to remember keeping my calf on and weight in my heels (in general, not just at the canter) which is something I know, but it's good to be reminded of. I like that she reminds me of the things I need to fix with me, but we're focusing a lot on getting Kieran to use himself better and be fitter. And he definitely seemed more interested this week than last week (whether that's the improved weather or he likes that we're doing something instead of random moseying, I'm not sure, but I'll take it!).
So, good lesson! Kieran got peppermints afterward. :)
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
First Lesson in GA!
Had my first lesson in Georgia tonight. Gosh, it's been since, like...the end of May/very beginning of June since I had a lesson. I totally needed it. As I told Jessica (new instructor), at the end of the lesson: we've been riding, but...I do just sort of get on and ride around for a while and then we're done. It's nice to have someone there with a plan in mind of what she wants to see (and explain how to do it) and to tell me, "no, you can push him to do more than that!" :)
Anyway, today's lesson was a sort of "getting to know you" deal and ran a bit long (expected to). First, she had us start off simply by walking and warming up, then she asked me to do a couple of circles, any size I wanted, and watched what we did and asked me to explain what I was doing to ask for the circle and why. Basically, I was wiggling my inside rein (don't really have to pull, wiggling my ring finger usually works) and nudging with my inside leg. Apparently it wasn't that pretty, LOL.
So she talked about how circles are actually really difficult to do well and you really have to ride them actively and also once you've got a horse that really understands leg and seat aids, the reins can be pretty superfluous. She talked about how I needed to be a more active rider in general but that a good circle you really have to ride actively (not like...moving a lot just... being engaged? Directing the horse? Uh, I'll keep explaining what she said, I wish I had recorded it!). Like, inside shoulder back, inside leg and inside seatbone really on and pushing to encourage that inside hind leg to cross over and that I should use my outside leg back a little to control speed and shape of the circle. Still figuring that one out but I sort of get it. Hands, she said, just really control where the shoulders go but legs control everything behind the girth and everything starts back there with the horse pushing from behind and that's what we need to work on, more leg, less hand.
After that, she had us start trotting and she said she wanted me to sing aloud, "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood" in the same rhythm that I was posting. The idea being that my posting should dictate Kieran's trot rhythm and not the other way around and the "wood chuck" thing helps keep me focused on the rhythm I want. It was a bit rough at first, because he did want to sort of go slooooow, speed up!, go sloooww....and not really keep a consistent rhythm but we did get some nice trotting done in there. And once we got something consistent, then she had me ask for a turn, remembering the stuff we'd talked about with the circles at the walk and still, you know, keeping rhythm. And there it all fell apart. Hah. So we did it again a couple times until we got it and then started over the other direction.
Oh yeah, she also said for now when trotting, not to really worry what he was doing with his head or directing him too much with the reins, just to focus on getting the rhythm I want with my posting and getting it to be consistent.
We also talked about figuring out what gets him interested because right now she says he looks like he's just kind of going along and not really paying a lot of attention to me or caring about what we're doing. Not sour, just not interested. Also that his issues with picking up his feet properly may stem more from that boredom than anything else, since when we get him engaged and active....a lot of that magically disappears.
Then she had us get back into a nice working trot and told me to pick a spot to ask for the canter. First time was going to the right and he gave me a really great transition and a lovely, uphill sort of canter. It actually felt slow but Jessica said he's got a big stride and was really eating up the ground (didn't feel that way though! Maybe I'm just used to a more rushy canter). Anyway, I was all, "wow! That was great!" and we talked about the difference between that and when he canters more on the forehand and kind of dragging himself along. The difference this time, she said, was that I did have him in a nice forward trot and really pushing with his hind end and ready to go so that when I asked for the canter, she could see him really using his back end and pushing off into a nice canter.
So then she asked if I wanted to end on that note or try cantering the other way. I wanted to go the other way too. Hah.
The left has always been a little more difficult to get a good canter out of him. So this time the first one wasn't that great and I don't remember much about it because I remember the second try more. That one, he kicked out right after the transition (rather like the video down below somewhere) and Jessica growled at him for me, I just pushed him to keep cantering. She said for a minute she wasn't sure I actually felt it since I stayed right in the saddle, hah but that I should have really got after him so he knew it wasn't acceptable, instead of just sitting up there and being like, "it's okay, just keep going".
Anyway, we did it one final time and then we got a decent transition (it was late and I did have to get after him there to Just Canter, dammit! with a smack with the crop) but then a good canter most of the way around the ring and when he started faltering, I was able to just push with my seat and squeeze with my legs and he kept moving till I asked him to stop. He wasn't tired (he wasn't even breathing hard, there were a lot of walk breaks in between stuff since we spent time talking about what we were doing and why and what we'd done before), just lazy, I think.
So, all in all, it was a good, productive lesson. I'm happy with it and we've got some homework: active circles and rhythm (oh yeah, she sang "row row row your boat" for the canter). Next week, Jessica says she'll set up patterns with the ground poles for us (and we'll see if that gets Kieran more interested in what's happening, hah).
Couple more things that were mentioned in the lesson:
Jessica says cantering's easy, once you get a really good walk and trot.
I talked about him really trotting out on the trail on Sunday and how he felt like he was ready to canter if I just asked and she said that's what a really good working trot ought to feel like, with them moving out and ready to do whatever you ask. That's not a feeling I've gotten out of him often. ;) His "working trot" has typically been rather more sedate.
Talked about turning my leg out a bit more so I'm not holding my knees so close to the saddle. (Maybe not really "turning out" since it was more about opening at my hip and getting my calf on but my toes weren't really turned out or anything. Ugh. I think that will require video so I can see what I'm doing.)
Here's hoping I can work in some real riding time between now and next week. I pretty much have either Wednesday or Thursday and that's it. And one of those days I have to clean house since I have a friend flying in late Thursday night and staying until Tuesday afternoon. Doubt she'll want to go out to the farm with me every day and sit around in the sun and watch me ride, LOL.
Anyway, today's lesson was a sort of "getting to know you" deal and ran a bit long (expected to). First, she had us start off simply by walking and warming up, then she asked me to do a couple of circles, any size I wanted, and watched what we did and asked me to explain what I was doing to ask for the circle and why. Basically, I was wiggling my inside rein (don't really have to pull, wiggling my ring finger usually works) and nudging with my inside leg. Apparently it wasn't that pretty, LOL.
So she talked about how circles are actually really difficult to do well and you really have to ride them actively and also once you've got a horse that really understands leg and seat aids, the reins can be pretty superfluous. She talked about how I needed to be a more active rider in general but that a good circle you really have to ride actively (not like...moving a lot just... being engaged? Directing the horse? Uh, I'll keep explaining what she said, I wish I had recorded it!). Like, inside shoulder back, inside leg and inside seatbone really on and pushing to encourage that inside hind leg to cross over and that I should use my outside leg back a little to control speed and shape of the circle. Still figuring that one out but I sort of get it. Hands, she said, just really control where the shoulders go but legs control everything behind the girth and everything starts back there with the horse pushing from behind and that's what we need to work on, more leg, less hand.
After that, she had us start trotting and she said she wanted me to sing aloud, "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood" in the same rhythm that I was posting. The idea being that my posting should dictate Kieran's trot rhythm and not the other way around and the "wood chuck" thing helps keep me focused on the rhythm I want. It was a bit rough at first, because he did want to sort of go slooooow, speed up!, go sloooww....and not really keep a consistent rhythm but we did get some nice trotting done in there. And once we got something consistent, then she had me ask for a turn, remembering the stuff we'd talked about with the circles at the walk and still, you know, keeping rhythm. And there it all fell apart. Hah. So we did it again a couple times until we got it and then started over the other direction.
Oh yeah, she also said for now when trotting, not to really worry what he was doing with his head or directing him too much with the reins, just to focus on getting the rhythm I want with my posting and getting it to be consistent.
We also talked about figuring out what gets him interested because right now she says he looks like he's just kind of going along and not really paying a lot of attention to me or caring about what we're doing. Not sour, just not interested. Also that his issues with picking up his feet properly may stem more from that boredom than anything else, since when we get him engaged and active....a lot of that magically disappears.
Then she had us get back into a nice working trot and told me to pick a spot to ask for the canter. First time was going to the right and he gave me a really great transition and a lovely, uphill sort of canter. It actually felt slow but Jessica said he's got a big stride and was really eating up the ground (didn't feel that way though! Maybe I'm just used to a more rushy canter). Anyway, I was all, "wow! That was great!" and we talked about the difference between that and when he canters more on the forehand and kind of dragging himself along. The difference this time, she said, was that I did have him in a nice forward trot and really pushing with his hind end and ready to go so that when I asked for the canter, she could see him really using his back end and pushing off into a nice canter.
So then she asked if I wanted to end on that note or try cantering the other way. I wanted to go the other way too. Hah.
The left has always been a little more difficult to get a good canter out of him. So this time the first one wasn't that great and I don't remember much about it because I remember the second try more. That one, he kicked out right after the transition (rather like the video down below somewhere) and Jessica growled at him for me, I just pushed him to keep cantering. She said for a minute she wasn't sure I actually felt it since I stayed right in the saddle, hah but that I should have really got after him so he knew it wasn't acceptable, instead of just sitting up there and being like, "it's okay, just keep going".
Anyway, we did it one final time and then we got a decent transition (it was late and I did have to get after him there to Just Canter, dammit! with a smack with the crop) but then a good canter most of the way around the ring and when he started faltering, I was able to just push with my seat and squeeze with my legs and he kept moving till I asked him to stop. He wasn't tired (he wasn't even breathing hard, there were a lot of walk breaks in between stuff since we spent time talking about what we were doing and why and what we'd done before), just lazy, I think.
So, all in all, it was a good, productive lesson. I'm happy with it and we've got some homework: active circles and rhythm (oh yeah, she sang "row row row your boat" for the canter). Next week, Jessica says she'll set up patterns with the ground poles for us (and we'll see if that gets Kieran more interested in what's happening, hah).
Couple more things that were mentioned in the lesson:
Jessica says cantering's easy, once you get a really good walk and trot.
I talked about him really trotting out on the trail on Sunday and how he felt like he was ready to canter if I just asked and she said that's what a really good working trot ought to feel like, with them moving out and ready to do whatever you ask. That's not a feeling I've gotten out of him often. ;) His "working trot" has typically been rather more sedate.
Talked about turning my leg out a bit more so I'm not holding my knees so close to the saddle. (Maybe not really "turning out" since it was more about opening at my hip and getting my calf on but my toes weren't really turned out or anything. Ugh. I think that will require video so I can see what I'm doing.)
Here's hoping I can work in some real riding time between now and next week. I pretty much have either Wednesday or Thursday and that's it. And one of those days I have to clean house since I have a friend flying in late Thursday night and staying until Tuesday afternoon. Doubt she'll want to go out to the farm with me every day and sit around in the sun and watch me ride, LOL.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Laterality
Had two good rides on Kieran this weekend. Yesterday was about a half an hour of walking and trotting around the ring, doing lots of up and down transitions and trotting over poles. I switched back to his old full cheek bit and he seemed to be more responsive to it so we may stick with that for a while. It could all be in my head, LOL.
I'm noticing a lot more too (and I think I've mentioned it before) that a lot of times, if I stop trying to micromanage where he's going, he tends to go straighter than if I'm trying to make him go straight, so I've been trying to just "think" straight but kind of leave him alone.
Also, yesterday, after the ride we did some various ground exercises. Carrot stretches, that sort of thing, but also work on understanding the cue for moving laterally since I've had so much trouble getting him to understand it from the saddle. (he goes backward, he kind of shuffles over, he tries going forward...he doesn't get "sideways") So I hooked the lead rope to his halter on the side away from me and ran it over his neck so I could use it like I would one of the reins and then poked him in the side at the same time as I applied pressure on the halter. When he moved over (crossing his legs over), I'd stop and give him a bit of carrot. Rinse, repeat on the other side.
So I noticed tonight when riding that if he started drifting, it didn't take quite so much effort to nudge him with my inside leg and keep him on the rail.
And then...well, our ride was mostly over, and it was getting dark, and I figured we could just kind of ride around outside of the ring to cool out. But I didn't want to get off and unchain the gate, I wanted to unchain it from his back. He knows about walking right up to the gate, but actually maneuvering him so I could get him properly alongside it has always been kind of dodgy. Not tonight! We walked up to it, I asked him to move so he was parallel to the gate, and he stepped right over. No fuss, no muss.
Now, getting him to stand still long enough for me to undo the chain was a different story, but each time I could get him right back where I wanted him (and finally I figured out how to use combination of reins, just two hands, crop [I see why foxhunters use a stick!], and chain to get the darn thing undone). I was so happy!
That and we cantered for the first time since the kicking out incident a couple weeks ago. Got a pretty decent canter both ways, all the way around the ring. No kicking out, no grumping just..."canter? Okay!".
My pony is so awesome. (and yes, I know I say that like every other post but it's TRUE)
I'm noticing a lot more too (and I think I've mentioned it before) that a lot of times, if I stop trying to micromanage where he's going, he tends to go straighter than if I'm trying to make him go straight, so I've been trying to just "think" straight but kind of leave him alone.
Also, yesterday, after the ride we did some various ground exercises. Carrot stretches, that sort of thing, but also work on understanding the cue for moving laterally since I've had so much trouble getting him to understand it from the saddle. (he goes backward, he kind of shuffles over, he tries going forward...he doesn't get "sideways") So I hooked the lead rope to his halter on the side away from me and ran it over his neck so I could use it like I would one of the reins and then poked him in the side at the same time as I applied pressure on the halter. When he moved over (crossing his legs over), I'd stop and give him a bit of carrot. Rinse, repeat on the other side.
So I noticed tonight when riding that if he started drifting, it didn't take quite so much effort to nudge him with my inside leg and keep him on the rail.
And then...well, our ride was mostly over, and it was getting dark, and I figured we could just kind of ride around outside of the ring to cool out. But I didn't want to get off and unchain the gate, I wanted to unchain it from his back. He knows about walking right up to the gate, but actually maneuvering him so I could get him properly alongside it has always been kind of dodgy. Not tonight! We walked up to it, I asked him to move so he was parallel to the gate, and he stepped right over. No fuss, no muss.
Now, getting him to stand still long enough for me to undo the chain was a different story, but each time I could get him right back where I wanted him (and finally I figured out how to use combination of reins, just two hands, crop [I see why foxhunters use a stick!], and chain to get the darn thing undone). I was so happy!
That and we cantered for the first time since the kicking out incident a couple weeks ago. Got a pretty decent canter both ways, all the way around the ring. No kicking out, no grumping just..."canter? Okay!".
My pony is so awesome. (and yes, I know I say that like every other post but it's TRUE)
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Hocks! :(
So...was riding Kieran tonight and things were going well. He was actually being really good. Until I asked him to canter to the left.
The first part is us going to the right, then we turned and went the other way.
I was like, "wtf horse? What is your problem! DO IT!" Yeah. Then he did it a couple more times when I'd ask him to canter that way.
Then I thought, "maybe he's not just being a jerk. Being jerkish is really unlike him, anyway."
So I checked him over and his left hock definitely has some puffiness going on. Not sure what's caused it as he doesn't appear to have been kicked and it wasn't warm or anything like that but anyway, calling the vet tomorrow.
Ugh. Keep your fingers crossed its something minor, please.
Here's a happy picture, at least?
The first part is us going to the right, then we turned and went the other way.
I was like, "wtf horse? What is your problem! DO IT!" Yeah. Then he did it a couple more times when I'd ask him to canter that way.
Then I thought, "maybe he's not just being a jerk. Being jerkish is really unlike him, anyway."
So I checked him over and his left hock definitely has some puffiness going on. Not sure what's caused it as he doesn't appear to have been kicked and it wasn't warm or anything like that but anyway, calling the vet tomorrow.
Ugh. Keep your fingers crossed its something minor, please.
Here's a happy picture, at least?
Monday, June 27, 2011
Just a nice evening ride
Went out to ride tonight. Getting there later in the day is definitely a better idea, even if I'm leaving as it gets dark. It's such a better temperature! And Kieran seemed to deal with it better too. Though he was covered in dirt and sweat (so mud, basically) when I went to get him from his field today:
[i]That[/i] was fun to clean up (I cheated and gave him a foamy bath).
Here's some screencaps from the ride...actual videos are below:
HOW CUTE IS HE? :)
My elbows, they suck.
Muscles!
Didn't do too many of these, just put them in to give him something interesting to do. It's two ground poles leading in to the cavaletti, spaced about twelve of my (size 9) feet apart.
Videos aren't terribly exciting because I didn't have anyone there to help me out so I just set the camera on a post and let it record while I rode.
After we warmed up. This part of the ride I did in spurs (don't usually use them), to see if how he went with them. Ended up taking them off because I was worried too much about jabbing him in the sides.
Asked him for a simple change. Haven't done too much of this with him.
Then the cavaletti. First time through we trotted, second time through we cantered.
After we were done, the BO was out there with her daughter (the girl who thinks Kieran is amazing. She also thinks he's a Gypsy Vanner and I haven't had the heart to correct her) and a friend. She asked if Kieran could give the daughter a pony ride...which he did, about fifty feet. :) Girl was like, "I rode a Gypsy Vanner!" *sigh* ;)
Oh yeah, and here's the sunset:
[i]That[/i] was fun to clean up (I cheated and gave him a foamy bath).
Here's some screencaps from the ride...actual videos are below:
HOW CUTE IS HE? :)
My elbows, they suck.
Muscles!
Didn't do too many of these, just put them in to give him something interesting to do. It's two ground poles leading in to the cavaletti, spaced about twelve of my (size 9) feet apart.
Videos aren't terribly exciting because I didn't have anyone there to help me out so I just set the camera on a post and let it record while I rode.
After we warmed up. This part of the ride I did in spurs (don't usually use them), to see if how he went with them. Ended up taking them off because I was worried too much about jabbing him in the sides.
Asked him for a simple change. Haven't done too much of this with him.
Then the cavaletti. First time through we trotted, second time through we cantered.
After we were done, the BO was out there with her daughter (the girl who thinks Kieran is amazing. She also thinks he's a Gypsy Vanner and I haven't had the heart to correct her) and a friend. She asked if Kieran could give the daughter a pony ride...which he did, about fifty feet. :) Girl was like, "I rode a Gypsy Vanner!" *sigh* ;)
Oh yeah, and here's the sunset:
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