Tuesday, February 28, 2017

February Lessons

This weekend Sunny and I had our 2nd session of lessons with Theresa. As always we learned so much and have lots of homework!

 Sunny and Koi instantly remembered each other and their love grew ever stronger each day...



Lessons learned :
1. Always maintain relaxation -- this means if tenseness or brace develops, slow down and re-gain relaxation. Relaxation can be re-gained subtly through fingering the inside rein, lifting the inside hand, asking Sunny to stretch down, shoulder-in on the circle, or if-needed lateral disengagement, etc, etc.  We especially have to practice maintaining relaxed upward transitions. I feel Sunny push back slightly in upward transitions (in the arena only!!) and tend to ask too firmly resulting in his head and neck shooting straight up with tension and brace. We practiced me insisting he lower his head and neck (to a neutral, relaxed level; approximately horizontal but not necessarily stretched down) and then maintained a soft ask for the trot.  He gave slow, but relaxed upward transitions, often offering a few steps of gait in-between walk and trot (which is good or bad depending on the goals and perspective). # Homework- practice smooth upward transitions into trot and canter (also smooth downward transitions, but those tend to come much easier)

2. Continue Neck flexions - these are going well. Continue these as part of my warm-up and cool-down to stretch and strengthen his back and base of his neck.

3. Shoulder-in on circle - this is different from lateral disengagement in that the horse is moving forward on a circle. This engages the inside hind leg resulting in increased strength and flexibility. The rider's weight is to the inside, in the direction of movement (the weight bearing, 'pivot' leg is the inside front).  I found while riding bareback that your weight and balance naturally are to the inside-- if you do not want to fall off!  This was emphasized on smaller circles.  To the right Sunny tends to fall-in on his right shoulder, I need to open up my left (outside) rein and ask him to shift his weight, or even step-over, to the left with his front legs.  To the left he tends to drift too much to the outside onto his right shoulder, so I need to momentarily lift up on the right rein to remind him to keep his weight balanced.

 4. Counter shoulder-in on circle - this is asking for outside bend around a circle. The horse has to shift some weight to his hindquarters in-order to cross his outside front over his inside front leg with each stride.  This is harder for us with right bend, moving on a left-hand circle. This stretches and strengthens the shoulders. Rider's weight is to the outside of the bend (or to the inside of the circle) in the direction of movement.

5. Shoulder-in on straight line -We use the arena rail initially to provide a support boundary. This movement starts to coordinate the aids.  I need to remember that my weight is to the outside, in the direction of movement. My shoulders match my horse's shoulders and I look where he is looking. This is starting to become smooth at the walk and we are developing the shoulder-in at the trot. When I coordinate my aids well Sunny just glides down the rail easily. I can feel the inside hind easily reaching under and pushing off in one smooth motion; when I am off or unbalanced then he struggles too. He is an amazing teacher!! **And while posting -- post on the inside diagonal to to keep your weight balanced with the movement.  This felt very awkward initially, but caused me to sit when the outside hind leg was pushing off and weighted in stance phase and rise with my weight to the inside when the inside front/outside hind are engaging in the swing phase of the stride.**



 6. Travers (haunches-in) -  Once Sunny and I both understood the aids, travers was surprisingly easy! I simply asked and he performed! Wow!! My weight is to the inside (in the direction of movement), and I support the haunches to the inside with my outside leg. I need to remember to keep my leg stretched down and back with my calf in contact (not back in his flank with my heels up and pushing into him).  This is hard to the left as Sunny really has to stretch and push with his right hind leg which his is stiffer/weaker side.  We just started this in the walk on the rail and need to practice before asking in the trot. And once again, my shoulder's match my horse's shoulders and I look where he is looking.  Travers is actually the foundation for canter transitions and picking the correct lead. Ideally a horse would have a solid travers at the walk and trot prior to ever asking for leads or canter transitions.  Travers sets the horse up for the correct lead (left travers = left lead) as the horse is engaging and pushing off with the outside hind, just as in the first step of a canter transition, during each stride of travers.  With accurate timing of the aids, it is the most natural thing for the horse to step into a left lead canter from left travers.  The outside leg asks for the haunches to step-over and the inside leg gently asks for forward into the canter.  If canter transitions are still sticky, you can switch to a slight counter shoulder-in (basically switching from an inside bend to a slight outside bend)



7. Renvers (haunches-out) on a circle -  This was fascinating. I had trouble understanding how renvers on the circle actually happened -- how do you walk a circle with outside bend and have the haunches walk a larger circle (or around the front end?); it just seemed very awkward in theory.  I loved it in practice!  I simply started a counter shoulder-in on the circle, then shifted my weight to the new direction of movement (from the inside of the circle to the outside of the circle) and used my inside-of-the-circle leg to ask the haunches to step over. Voila! We suddenly had a few beautiful, coordinated, flowing steps of Renvers on the circle!!! Yay, now just to practice :) and first we will develop this at the walk, then start at the trot.

8.  Half-Pass - Again another movement that I always thought was a very difficult advanced dressage movement. No one I know does half-pass, everyone leg-yields!  Well leg-yielding is actually a bastardization of alternating shoulders-in and counter-shoulder-in and does not gymnastically strengthen the horse. Leg-yield does not have really have much benefit other than having the beginner rudimentary capability to move your horse sideways to open a gate, etc.  Half-pass allows you to easily move your horse sideways (to the gate, etc) while developing your horse physically. With each stride of half-pass the horse has to re-balance his weight to his haunches for the outside front limb to crossover the inside front limb; then he engages his outside hind crossing it over the inside hind.   The main difference is in leg-yield the horse can collapse on his outside (in relation to his bend) shoulder for the front limb cross-over and completely avoid shifting his weight to the haunches. Sunny and I came though the turn on the quarter-line (about 10' from the rail). I simply asked for inside bend and then the haunches to follow and step over as well.  We had several beautiful steps of half-pass!   Since we had prepared with the previous exercises and developed a foundation of communication for independent bend and movement of the both the shoulders and haunches, the half-pass was natural and easy.  I need to remember that the shoulders are slightly in front of the haunches (leading the way) and we just have a slight bend in the direction of travel. My weight is in the direction of the movement. Now for more practice!

9. Random tidbits -- Sunny is starting to lift the base of his neck and ask for more contact. He tends to bobble his head up and down when working on a loose rein. To clarify - he is happy to move relaxed on a loose rein down the trail or rail, but when asking for circles or other movements it is clearer if we have more connection through the reins.  In essence I have shorter reins for quicker communication, but not more rein pressure. Lightness is prized and if Sunny starts to lean on the rein for balance I lightly lift and remind him to carry himself.  I also need to remember to go into a slight half-seat when asking him to stretch. This makes it easier for him to lift his lumbar span because I am not sitting on it; it also enables me to keep a slightly shorter rein as I am going with Sunny's movement rather than just lengthening my reins (which helps when he suddenly pops back up after a forward stretch!)
         All weight aids are a very subtle shifting of your seat bones that allow you to follow the movement of the horse. They are NOT exaggerated tilting of your body to one side or the other which throws your horse off-balance. If you ride these lateral movements bareback you will find (or at least I found) that your weight naturally goes in the aforementioned directions in order to stay in balance with your horse's movement.
         Currently I need to ride Sunny with moderate head carriage, and it is okay to sprinkle in forward stretches and higher carriage during lateral movements. The moderate carriage (about or slightly above the horizontal) allows him to move forward in a neutral body balance which at this point will continue to develop his postural muscles.  His muscles are too weak to ride with a lifted base of his neck for significant periods of time; as he develops we will ask for more self-carriage during exercises.  On the trail during conditioning rides and endurance races balanced neutral posture is the goal, he should be able to maintain this for long periods of time and it will keep his back and legs healthy (or that is the goal!!).