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Thursday, August 1, 2019

"needs more activity"

Earlier this week Charlie and I headed back to the legendary Hilltop Farm for a second lesson with grand prix dressage rider Jess. This second lesson didn't have quite the "WOW" factor -- the game-changing impact -- of the first, but I actually see that as a good thing.

This time we really kinda just buckled down to the work that is training a horse and rider for dressage. And, ya know, dressage is freakin hard.

regal charlie <3
Possibly the hardest thing about dressage is that.... it's not always totally obvious. Not necessarily self evident when things are "Good" or "Bad."

With jumping, there's a lot more immediate feedback on how things are going. Was that jump comfortable? Did the poles stay in the cups? Did You Die?!?

hilltop's famous roof line
You know what I mean. There's a certain intuitiveness to jumping that allows both the horse and rider to understand quickly and clearly when things are going well, or when shit's straight up catastrophic haha. I don't have to explain to Charlie that bashing his cannons kinda sucks. He can figure that out all for himself, thanksverymuch.

Dressage is a different creature tho. Like, sure there are some aspects that ARE clear and obvious. That breathtaking moment when you feel for the first time the loft of true suspension and extension in a trot. Or when you finally feel the horse begin to really shift his weight back, push from behind, and come through over his back. Those are feelings that stick with you, ya know?

For me, learning how to ride dressage has been a long slow slog of trying to catalog all those feelings, memorize them inside and out so that I can recreate them again and again.

we were early so we got to take a little walksie around
It's a complex equation, tho. There are so many moving pieces (literally). And I don't always understand the component processes that lead up to those good feelings and good moments. Which, obviously, makes recreating them that much harder. And naturally, the feel for those component processes tends to be even more subtle and less clear.

Like, activity in the hind leg. In words it seems clear enough, right? Like, a crisply active hind end is a critical component of a horse's engagement, his ability to carry himself in an uphill manner with a lightness up front that allows him to spring into action at any moment.

But.... What does it actually mean? What does it feel like? How does one accomplish such a thing?? Especially when one is riding a Charlesaurus???

these arena walls are so pretty! and tall haha
Idk. It's kinda an enigma haha.

So this lesson was kinda all about that. All about dialing in on those subtle changes in feel, those component pieces.

You may remember from my last lesson that Jess identified tempo as a biggie in the Land of Chuck. She noted that he has a tendency to kinda get running a little too fast up front, such that his hind end can't really keep up, and we end up flattening into a sorta downhill avalanche. And so, a slower tempo was needed.

"derssage is dumb, can we not tho?" - charlie, probably
As with all things Charlie + Emma, tho, the pendulum can and will swing too far in the other direction. The whole reason we went all-in on the "Go Forth, Son" train in the first place was bc, when left to his own devices Charlie will settle into a slow shuffle of a trot with itsy bitsy little steps. The tempo seems fine enough, but the activity is desperately lacking.

So in this ride, Jess was clear that even tho she adamantly wanted the slower tempo with no running (and a post that stays the same no matter what, Emma!), I still had to focus on lengthening Charlie's stride and ensuring that he was carrying energy forward. It's..... a tough balancing act, lemme tell ya.

We didn't spend too too much time in trot, however, with Jess deciding that in this ride we'd work on walk-canter and canter-walk transitions. Charlie and I have been practicing walk-canter for well over a year now, and frequently deploy them in our jumping sessions. Tho that doesn't mean they're necessarily polished up for the dressage ring LOL. Canter-walk, on the other hand, is.... basically non-existent...

charlie wants to know who that handsome bay devil is in the mirror lol
To be honest, this exercise felt a little above my pay grade, bc the steps we used to achieve the transitions were themselves fairly challenging to us. So the whole thing at times felt like a giant muddle.

But basically, we worked on a roughly 10m circle, first at walk. Jess wanted me jazzing up that inside hind leg -- getting Charlie to be quicker and snappier with it. Looking for a feel that came close to turn on the forehand around this circle, almost even approaching having Charlie trotting sideways with his hind end.

When we got the feeling, energy, and balance right, Charlie would basically launch into this GIANT uphill canter. Often, uh, kinda leaving me in the dust lol. When we got it wrong tho.... Well, again. It was a bit of a muddle lol.

gotta admit it feels pretty luxurious to get this place all to ourselves for a ride!
It took me a little while to understand the exact parts of this exercise, and when to give my aids etc. Which naturally made it harder for Charlie to understand too, since I wasn't always clear on when to ask and when to release. God bless this horse, tho, he really stayed with me. He's come a LONG WAY in being able to handle that kind of pressure!

As a way to help make things more clear for the horse, Jess often deploys patterns in the exercise. Let's say you're doing rapid fire "walk - trot - canter - trot - walk - trot - canter" transitions. She had us going such that each transition happened in roughly the same spot on the circle. But quickly quickly -- looking for crisp clean quick transitions up and down.

Each transition always in the same spot, so that the horse begins to anticipate, understand and even volunteer the desired movement. In this way, the horse and rider can use the pattern to help clarify the communication of aids etc. Which theoretically means, when those same aids are applied later on down the road, they'll already make more sense and be better tuned.

good boy charlie. it's hard but we keep trying!
After marinating on the lesson for a bit, I feel like I understand things better now than I did in the actual moment. Which hopefully will mean it'll be easier to practice it all in our solo schooling sessions.

Because.... In the moment, it was tough. Not exactly empowering to expose all the little weaknesses that rapid-fire transitions bring to light lol. But again, that's kinda just how dressage is for me at the moment lol. A downright slog.

But maybe one day my brontosaurus will metamorphose into a beautiful dressage butterfly?? Maybe?? Pretty please?!?



18 comments:

  1. Those rapid fire transitions expose EVERYTHING! It FEELS like you have horsey all put together and listening until you have like five strides to canter-walk-canter-trot-canter. And it's like ohhhh dear.
    Even if it was a hard and somewhat messy feeling lesson, it sounds like a really good one! We don't get better by doing the easy stuff all the time, right?

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    1. Ohhhh dear is right haha - it’s amazing how quickly things can fall apart!! On the other hand tho it definitely helped get Charlie jazzed up and in front of my leg.... so we. It’s hard but worth it, hopefully lol ;)

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  2. I totally hear you. I'm guilty of constantly looking down to try to figure out what's going on and if we're doing it right or not! But every so often even I can tell it feels right, like when the trot magically becomes easy to sit.

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    1. i love those moments when it's like, "oooh THIS is the feeling!!" sadly it's pretty rare tho HA

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  3. Swooning over your rides at hilltop with such amazing instruction!!!

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    1. dude it's super nice there - and everyone is seriously friendly! i almost feel like we should just pick up and move there for a week or two of like, intense dressage camp LOL

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  4. I laughed and how you describe knowing if the jumping is bad- did you die?!
    Dressage is rediculous really. But so very addictive.

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    1. so ridiculous. but yes, addictive. i can still remember the feelings i had the first times i really got something right -- the first time i really got izzy on the bit, really felt her pushing into a lengthening. those are great feelings <3

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  5. What is the blue sheet inn charlie? I haven’t seen one like that before.

    Lessons that leave me feeling confused end up being the best ones. I tend to spend a lot of mental effort breaking it down and even though I may not get the entirety, the tiny pieces start to click

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    1. ha yea, sometimes we gotta just sit down and remind ourselves that learning doesn't usually happen inside our comfort zones. the whole point is to find those soft squishy weaknesses and start poking at them lol, which obviously isn't always super fun. but maybe next time they'll be less squishy?? that's the hope, at least...

      and the blue sheet is an equi cool down wrap. i've only used it that one time so far, so i don't really have any commentary on it yet. eventually tho i'll probably share a more complete review!

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  6. The problem with dressage is that the more you know, the more you don't know. Le sigh.

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    1. i feel like that's ALL of horses haha! sometimes i still feel like i'm only getting through the jumping by sheer luck LOL

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  7. It's SO hard to make the big guys with the bigger canters think small and collected. I've been working with Jack on the same thing- but we aren't playing with canter/walk yet. (which I'm cool with)
    PS- what's the blue thing Charlie's wearing? I feel like I missed that somewhere.

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  8. This lesson sounds very familiar to the ones I had on Georgie. Its really fun when it all comes together, but getting there can be a slog. Worth it in the end tho and you and Charles will look like a true DQ pair!

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  9. Yay! I'm glad it was a good lesson for you guys still! Dressage is definitely hard, but I feel that when it clicks, man it really CLICKS lol.

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  10. Glad you are getting in all kinds of lessons lately! Dressaging is hard for sure, but over time I'm sure it will come together for you guys!

    And, I totally need an equine ice blanket for myself! I am not a fan of these super hot temps!

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  11. Reading the start of this was funny because I'm the exact opposite from you. Dressage is a (growing) set of specific feelings that I've identified for myself and aim to get out of every horse. Jumping is . . . canter forth and pray. But marinating helps in either situation. Y'all have only continued to get better, so I don't imagine that'll stop soon ;)

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  12. Internalizing feelings is hard - definitely made easier by riding something that's a bit more schooled (re: feeling roudness, feeling activity behind, feeling real pushing) but sadly that's not always the option for all of us, so eyes on the ground or video is the best bet. Glad that you have so many great professionals you can tap for help!

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