riding in the dust, visualizing greener pastures

The only nice thing about taking lessons in our 20x40m indoor arena (and please don't take this as me complaining about the indoor bc I really am truly grateful to have it in the first place!) is that Charlie's fine to jump in his plain loose ring KK snaffle.

So I've just been putting his PS of Sweden dressage bridle on with the jump saddle. Meaning we only have one buckle to contend with (the flash) -- much appreciated in cold weather! Compared to, say, his Mark Todd Dy'on-style jump bridle. Which... also has a flash. And the standard throatlatch. But also a curb strap, plus double reins, and also a BoT crown pad...

It's.... There's a LOT going on with this bridle, it's kinda a monster. But. Ya know. Brakes make life better haha. So we make do.

pictured: an elegant face with a whole fuck ton of straps
photo by Megan Kiessling, from Fair Hill last September

Back to the point tho, we don't need all that hardware and strap-tastic nonsense in the small indoor - Charlie has a healthy respect for not running into walls and falling down in corners (this is apparently a learned skill tho), so he's pretty easy to ride inside.

Which is useful bc we had our second lesson with upper level event rider K last week. Part of me is a little concerned that she's going to get this one fully formed idea of what Charlie is and how he goes based on how he has been in the indoor.... And that the whole paradigm will be upended when we get back outside again and Charlie's more, gung ho about life.

ok here's another pic by Megan... bc he's so cute <3. shorten your reins emma! lol...

That's ok tho. All in good time. For now, we ride inside and we work with the horse who presents himself. Which is, honestly, a pretty good boy.

Trainer K so far hasn't really said anything about our flat work. We did grids again this lesson (it was just a private this time) and she used the time I spent warming up to build up the grid components. I kinda prefer a jump trainer who will make comments about the flat work too - esp bc the best jumping is essentially flat work with obstacles. But we're still getting to know each other, so perhaps we can talk more about that later.

Anyways to warm up I just did more of what we've been doing in frigid weather: Lots of walking, with as much suppling exercises as I can fit in to the walk. This typically takes the form of working in leg yields down the rail at the walk - with Charlie's nose on the rail and his body on a bit of a diagonal, moving on four tracks down the rail. We only ever get one or two good steps at a time, then praise, straighten, and try again on the next long side. But Charlie's figuring it out and really learning to step under with his hind legs. Repetition here helps.

ooooookie dokie i think i just got sucked into a nostalgia vortex

Plus the exercise has the added bonus of him thinking a little more carefully about each foot step, instead of just shuffle-dragging himself around. Which consequently means he's a little more engaged and soft over his back, which then means he's a little softer to the bridle and can at any moment step into a nice, round-ish trot transition.

I've been interspersing this walk work into all of our breaks, or whenever I feel like the trot has gotten stale or stagnant or too stiff. After a while focusing on all this walk or trot, we just popped into a canter for a lap or two in each direction and were ready to get started on the grid.

the grid, ridden toward the camera: trot pole to cross rail, 18' to oxer, 20ish' to oxer. width of oxers was more important than height for this exercise - want horse jumping up and across

Per usual, each element of the grid is introduced incrementally and in stages. First just the trot pole to cross rail, then the second element is slowly built up. Then the third element. Then they all reach their final forms: in this case, oxers.

Trainer K had felt like last week's bounces didn't quite get the response from Charlie that she had wanted. He was more careful, sure, but didn't quite get the lift and height up front in his form that the bounces were intended to invite. Rather, as he traveled down the exercise he would kinda get lower and lower up front (last week's video here), where as she wanted him getting more lifted and rocked back.

grid from opposite direction, with added charlie chin. grid is set on center line of a 20m wide arena, so it's the same turn as in dressage tests: a 10m half circle

So this week she did one strides instead of bounces - feeling like there would be more time in between each element to help both me and Charlie reset and lift. Including giving me time in each space to "lift" with my hands to encourage a higher head in Charlie. Not a backwards feel, but just a bump up.

ok back to more fun pictures. this one isn't from Megan, but is of the same day. look at all that green grass and those short sleeves! summer i miss you! also, charlie, you a badass buddy <3

Likewise, she had some good input on how I rode the turns up the center line. In my mind I was riding off the outside aids and trying to corral that outside shoulder.... But in reality I was relying too much on hands and not enough on leg.

So she would literally tell me when to release with my hands and push forward with leg (it's a tricky balance bc the horse cannot be running here). And the release always came a step or two before I would have done it myself. I've been thinking about my lessons with dressage trainer C, particularly all the square turns we do and how she's told me that I tend to quit a stride or two early before we've fully completed our turn...

But I think these two instructions from the two trainers actually do sync up. Both want to see me finish my turn, but K pointed out that esp when there's a jump ahead of us - I can't be doing so with just my hands. Needs more leg, always more leg.

ha yes, but that's Sir Badass to you, plz. 

Anyway it's simple stuff, but important. And Charlie, for his part, executed the grids very well, very consistently. He did not just make the same mistakes over and over again (not saying anything about myself there tho lol), but did maintain corrections. He also, on our last pass (by design) really jumped the SNOT out of the middle oxer. BIG lift and rotation in his shoulders, while still traveling across the jump. Boom, that's exactly what K wanted to see.

She talked a lot about what people mean when they say their horse is "too careful" for cross country. Namely, that the horse jumps too high up off the fence, but isn't covering enough ground. I had assumed this would become a problem for jumps with more significant width, but actually her point was that it becomes a problem in related distances. If your horse isn't jumping across enough, you can't make the striding.

Charlie, for his part, doesn't have that problem. He's basically just cantering everything anyway, as opposed to actually using his body to jump. He's making the distances lol. But.... we do need a little lift too, buddy. Haha. So that's apparently our grail: Help Charlie use his body better to attain more height and roundness in his technique -- without losing his ability to jump across the element simultaneously.

Sounds good to me! Have you ever done exercises intended to improve your horse's technique? Whether to encourage jumping more across, or jumping more up? Does your horse gobble the ground up too fast, or not quite get there?