lesson: sit up & shoulders back!

As mentioned yesterday, some other exciting plans came up for this week. First on the docket: a lesson with Dan! He's apparently worked out an agreement with our farm wherein he'll come teach a bunch of lessons on a semi-regular basis, perhaps bi-weekly? 

Anyway, like our last lesson he had us warm ourselves up with minimal guidance (and quickly bc we were losing daylight fast and the damn arena lights STILL DON'T WORK OMG WTF). 

barrels from the bending line

His instruction in the canter: he wants my reins shorter (ugh c'mon emma... the canter in the video is prior to his remarks, so you'll see exactly what he meant) and getting Isabel soft and round using nothing but leg. Like, literally squeezing from hip to heel - but not heels digging into her side, toes must point forward. 

It really made a difference in Isabel - but he kept saying that I was still using too much hand so I ended up just planting my hands (with short reins) on her neck and squeeeeezing with my legs, keeping her on a circle. And whadya know - she had a lovely canter. 

trot like you mean it!!! (also - shorten your damn reins so you stop doing that weird wrist thing!)

We moved on to jumping and he kept the same course we set yesterday (uncommon for him) with some tweaks: he stretched out the two-stride line by maybe 6' and changed the direction of the oxer, then we only ever trotted in to it getting a quiet three (tho not too quiet for shorty Isabel lol). We started with trot fences tho, per usual. 

Our approaches and jumps seemed to go smoothly - but he wanted me really focusing on the back side of the fence. My tendency is to perch forward and get all handsy while Isabel charges into the corner (likely on the wrong lead, natch). He wanted me sitting up and bringing my shoulders back sooner. And again - the difference in Isabel is pretty obvious when I get it right. 

more barrels! (a theme lol)

After a couple trot fences and easy runs through the line (where the lesson was straightness - he wanted us riding straight to the rail, not cutting our corner or drifting), we moved on to the bending line from hogs back to barrels. Honestly this was actually really exciting for me bc I didn't even notice the bending option when I set the course up - but then in editing pics/video for yesterday's post it was so obvious and I kicked myself for not trying it haha. 

looking for the line

He wanted it in a quiet 4 - two strides straight from the hogs back before turning right two strides to the barrels. Isabel and I got pretty deep to the hogs back - but Dan prefers that to the leaper so it was peachy. Plus it set us up perfectly for the easy 4. 

And then we missed our turn up the oxer (changed now to a two-way swedish oxer) that he wanted us jumping on an angle. That left turn after the barrels came up FAST and I was pretty grateful for Isabel's nimbleness in making it work lol. 

swedish oxer on an angle

Lastly we turned the same course around - start right lead down the swedish oxer on an angle (so essentially cantering parallel to the rail, even tho the jump is on a diagonal), right turn to the barrels bending left to the hogs back in 4, right turn to the single outside vertical. 

The bending line in this direction was MUCH more of a struggle... and while there's only one attempt on the video we actually spent a bit of time on this. My first try (on the video) I seriously cut the turn to make it a straighter bend - but he wanted us to ride that corner just like we were actually going to the two stride line. We got the 4... but probably only bc we landed on the right lead (Izzy's favorite) making the left turn more awkward. 

'i got this' - isabel
(sorry for the extreme graininess but it was getting pretty dark by this point)

Next try I got a better turn, tho still not what he wanted. And we got three strides... oops! I finally got the turn he wanted - which was actually pretty technically challenging bc you're lined right up for the two strides to the swedish oxer straight ahead, but have to really help your horse stay with you and not lock on to the wrong fence... We made the striding work (but took down the hogs back once in doing so). But the distance to the barrels wasn't quite there for us. 

'whoa where is we goin!?!' - isabel

Dan told me not too worry to much about 'distances' tho. He said it was more important to have the right canter with 'jump' and power - and that the distances will take care of themselves. Which I find to be true when I'm actually riding with him and he's giving step-by-step instruction... but on my own it's more of a struggle lol. 

video here

In any case I feel pretty good about the lesson. The bending line was definitely a more technical ride than we've done in a while... but I feel like jumping in OF's 20x40m indoor all winter gave us some serious steering skillz. Plus - when I remembered to really squeeze from hip to heel and sit up and back with my shoulders, it was SUPER easy to keep Isabel put together. 

I asked Dan if he thinks we're ready for beginner novice and he pretty casually said yea - and said the jumps got up to novice height in the lesson. I'm not quiiiite sure I believe that lol (esp bc in the past he's admitted he doesn't really notice the difference in heights in the lower levels, whereas I'm a zealot about measuring fences bc... wussiness haha). But still - confidence inspiring none the less :)