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Pretend you're Bent, I do.
Sep. 15th, 2006 10:44 amI had a lesson last Saturday, and I haven't ridden since then. It feels like forever since I rode last. I know I'm back to my old self because I am getting ancy now if I don't exercise for a few days. Baby and I were sick and my husband had a tooth out and asked me to stay home, so I did. So I'll probably be sore tomorrow.
Anyway, last week's lesson- met a new girl at the barn, Nadia. She has a 3 year old Dutch warmblood stallion that Peggy is breaking. She asked if she could watch and I said "Sure!". It's a good thing for me to ride in front of people I think, because I have a tendency toward nervousness and stage fright, though obviously it's much worse with more people, especially when they're strangers. Whenever a new rider comes around though, you always wonder what they know and what they'll think- aka, "will she think I suck?".
But once I get engrossed in riding (which doesn't usually take long- maybe 10 or 15 minutes at the most) I usually forget about everyone else except my instructor. Peggy wanted me to act more confident and capable, so she came out with "Pretend you're Bent. I do."
So I maintained my "I've had enough of your crap" mode, and Phoebus got whacked when he wouldn't move off my leg. I rarely use the whip to cue, because right now Phoebus can do everything he needs to based on a cue from my leg. I do use the whip to reprimand. Phoebus gets lazy (like all horses) and when I put my leg on he can be sluggish. I've decided I'm not going to ask harder or even ask a second time, so lately I've been smacking him when he doesn't move off my leg promptly (Can you hear me NOW? GOOD.). As Peggy puts it, "You want him to have a bit of a hair trigger". We were working on leg yielding out on a circle, and Peggy told me she wanted him to really move sideways, "I want him to JUMP," she said. I brought Phoebus's shoulders in, then asked him to really move sideways to leg yield back out. He sort of ho-hummed, so I popped him one and startled him so badly he jumped sideways and did a flying change. Nadia looked sort of shocked but Peggy was busy yelling to me, "Good, but keep your butt in the saddle! Nice one tempi..."
We worked on one really important concept more than anything. The excercise was a lot of leg yielding on the circle, and having the horse really bring his whole body sideways IMMEDIATELY, but the real lesson was on dealing with difficulty and riding every stride. As I asked for a canter transition, Phoebus hesitated and took the wrong lead. Peggy jumped me for it. "You just took a perfectly beautiful transition and threw it away," she said. "When there's a problem you just sort of hover and stay out of his way while he sorts it out. You're very good at that. Don't get out of his way. Sit down and don't let him throw you out of the saddle. And don't lean forward." As difficult as this is, it's one more key to solving the puzzle. It's easy to make a horse look good for a few strides, and keep it, for a few strides. What's been impossible is to keep it ALL the time. To keep it during EVERY transition, every change of bend, every lateral movement.
So we worked on it, and worked on it. I started to get it a little. One transition out of ten at a time. Old habits die hard and things happen so quickly. Less than half a stride and the horse can get away from you. This is going to take a long time. I'm going to really need to focus on it though, because it's important.
At any rate, Nadia thought Phoebus looked like a different horse when he was working- he went from kind of a cute, mostly plain bay TB/warmblood cross to a nice dressage horse. She had a lesson after me, and did well riding Sierra, an older black swedish mare with some good dressage training. Nadia has been riding hunter/jumper, and she has a good seat and elegant posture. Sierra seemed to really like her and did the cool trademark "warmblood trot"-- very impressive for a 19 year old mare. Nadia did very well and seemed to really like it, so it'll be fun to see her with her stallion when he's broke.
Anyway, last week's lesson- met a new girl at the barn, Nadia. She has a 3 year old Dutch warmblood stallion that Peggy is breaking. She asked if she could watch and I said "Sure!". It's a good thing for me to ride in front of people I think, because I have a tendency toward nervousness and stage fright, though obviously it's much worse with more people, especially when they're strangers. Whenever a new rider comes around though, you always wonder what they know and what they'll think- aka, "will she think I suck?".
But once I get engrossed in riding (which doesn't usually take long- maybe 10 or 15 minutes at the most) I usually forget about everyone else except my instructor. Peggy wanted me to act more confident and capable, so she came out with "Pretend you're Bent. I do."
So I maintained my "I've had enough of your crap" mode, and Phoebus got whacked when he wouldn't move off my leg. I rarely use the whip to cue, because right now Phoebus can do everything he needs to based on a cue from my leg. I do use the whip to reprimand. Phoebus gets lazy (like all horses) and when I put my leg on he can be sluggish. I've decided I'm not going to ask harder or even ask a second time, so lately I've been smacking him when he doesn't move off my leg promptly (Can you hear me NOW? GOOD.). As Peggy puts it, "You want him to have a bit of a hair trigger". We were working on leg yielding out on a circle, and Peggy told me she wanted him to really move sideways, "I want him to JUMP," she said. I brought Phoebus's shoulders in, then asked him to really move sideways to leg yield back out. He sort of ho-hummed, so I popped him one and startled him so badly he jumped sideways and did a flying change. Nadia looked sort of shocked but Peggy was busy yelling to me, "Good, but keep your butt in the saddle! Nice one tempi..."
We worked on one really important concept more than anything. The excercise was a lot of leg yielding on the circle, and having the horse really bring his whole body sideways IMMEDIATELY, but the real lesson was on dealing with difficulty and riding every stride. As I asked for a canter transition, Phoebus hesitated and took the wrong lead. Peggy jumped me for it. "You just took a perfectly beautiful transition and threw it away," she said. "When there's a problem you just sort of hover and stay out of his way while he sorts it out. You're very good at that. Don't get out of his way. Sit down and don't let him throw you out of the saddle. And don't lean forward." As difficult as this is, it's one more key to solving the puzzle. It's easy to make a horse look good for a few strides, and keep it, for a few strides. What's been impossible is to keep it ALL the time. To keep it during EVERY transition, every change of bend, every lateral movement.
So we worked on it, and worked on it. I started to get it a little. One transition out of ten at a time. Old habits die hard and things happen so quickly. Less than half a stride and the horse can get away from you. This is going to take a long time. I'm going to really need to focus on it though, because it's important.
At any rate, Nadia thought Phoebus looked like a different horse when he was working- he went from kind of a cute, mostly plain bay TB/warmblood cross to a nice dressage horse. She had a lesson after me, and did well riding Sierra, an older black swedish mare with some good dressage training. Nadia has been riding hunter/jumper, and she has a good seat and elegant posture. Sierra seemed to really like her and did the cool trademark "warmblood trot"-- very impressive for a 19 year old mare. Nadia did very well and seemed to really like it, so it'll be fun to see her with her stallion when he's broke.
