landing the lead

Oh man we got DRENCHED in our lesson this week. This imminent hurricane stuff is reeeeeeally harshing my vibe, man. Even Dan was unsure whether we really wanted to bother with a lesson. But I was adamant: if we'd show in it (like at Fair Hill), then we best ought to school in it too.

Plus.... hidden agenda: Kaitlyn was stuck late at work again but the Miseventer somehow had the evening off and would be joining the lesson on Tillie. Meaning: less expensive group rate!! Woo hooo - no way am I missing an opportunity to take a lesson for two thirds the cost haha.

isabel was less convinced about the soundness of my logic

So our warm up was a little less hands-on than usual (since we usually have private lessons) but it was good. I'm starting to figure out how Dan teaches. Every week he focuses on something different in the flat work, but gives little to no explanation or reasoning why. And then half way through jumping, I realize, "Oh yea this is exactly why we did that while warming up. Duh." 

(in his defense, he's gotten pretty good about tying things together in a post-ride lecture. and also sometimes I'm just a little slow lol)

just cantering in the rain. nbd

So, two big concepts in this lesson:

1. Landing the lead

Warming up, we continued last week's theme of 'left bend' by adding leg yields at trot. Regardless of direction, we focused more on yielding from my left leg (tho we did it from the right leg too for the sake of symmetry). Results were... mixed haha. I just need to keep working at it.

At canter we worked on canter-trot-canter transitions. Initially I thought back to a couple weeks ago when he accused us of 'flopping' into the transition but his point this week was a little different. He still wanted balanced and correct transitions, but he wanted them PROMPT. As in, very quickly go from canter to trot, then only a step of trot, then back into canter. That step of trot was still supposed to be slow and balanced ('supposed to be' does not equal 'actually happened' in this case lol), but really we were supposed to step very quickly and cleanly back into canter.

After we started jumping I finally understood the point: we are starting to focus on getting the canter lead. That practice allows for crisper simple changes, but also simultaneously tunes us both in to the correct canter aids. And Dan apparently prefers landing the lead over a fence to trying for the change (unless the horse already has solid/auto changes).

this.... this is probably not how you're supposed to do it haha. but it worked on this particular occasion! 

Warming up we circled over a single, starting tracking right. Izzy lands right every time so it was just a matter of repeating that feeling of 'dramatic re-balance' through the turns then moving forward to the fence. 

Circling left meant I had to actually cue for the left lead over the fence if we wanted to land it. Dan said that asking for the lead over a fence is the same as asking for shoulder fore: inside leg at girth, outside leg back, and open inside rein. It took a little while, but eventually we started consistently landing on the left lead (rather than cross cantering, ugh).

Course work was more of the same. The fences in our arena are mostly set up the same as they have been, tho the outside 4 stride turned into a tight 1 to forward 2 stride grid. And we added in a 2-stride line on the other long side. I kinda wasn't super excited about that 2-stride since it was set at a short 30' (tho I have nobody to blame but myself since I'm the one that measured it). But hey, we didn't flail through that 1-1 grid last weekend for nothing, right? Compress the canter, Emma, it works!

tracking right? easy peasy. tracking left? ehhhhhhhh

We again started tracking right with the triple grid, bending in 4 to the coop, then around to the 2-stride. Twas delightful. Turned it around to track left, starting with the 2-stride? Well... we made it through a couple times nicely - but didn't land the leads. Dan wanted us to land left after the 2-stride, after the coop, and after the triple grid. 

I could manage the landing well enough out of the 2-stride, but consistently cross cantered after the coop and landed right after the grid. Part of that was just trying to survive through the tight 1 stride at the end of a course (not easy!), but part of it is that I really honest-to-god struggle holding two different concepts in my mind simultaneously. 

For instance, the more I focused on getting the lead, the likelier I became to screw up our canter and biff the distance (like when I almost ate it over the coop again ugh). 

video here

2. Taking the canter to the next level

The other focus was on improving the canter (as always). I'm finally getting the timing right on approach to the fence of dramatically half halting through the turn so that we can move forward to the fence (finally!). So now Dan wants to see improvement everywhere else in the arena - not just on approach.

He said that if we just focus on the last couple strides everything gets 'stale.' So now as we move around the course we should go back and forth from bringing her 'through' (as in, the half halt to rebalance, which naturally slows her down) to riding forward.

You can hear it a little bit in the video, but he essentially repeated over and over 'bring her through, then ride forward. bring her through, and ride forward' again and again.

The concept makes a lot of sense, and I can see how it protects against getting 'stuck' or 'stale' in the canter. Also seems easy enough to put into practice, tho I'll have to be careful not to focus too much on the 'riding forward' bit so much so that I forget about the 'pushing her through' part (arguably more important).

poor soggy long suffering mare

So we struggled with the leads and never quite mastered it. But it's probably just one of those things that will need to marinate. Add in the fact that Isabel has never been asked to land left consistently, so I'll have to break through her barriers too even as I sort out my own self.

At this point I don't feel confident enough in my ability to try for the leads at shows. The risk is too high for me to forget more important things - like the canter!! - plus I'm so noisy with the aids that we'd probably have rails anyway. But it's a good goal to work towards!

However I also know the approach is a bit different in h/j land, where lead changes are schooled much more vigorously and leads actually, ya know, MATTER for more than just balance if you want to be competitive. So for those of you in that world (or really anyone with experience here) feel free to chime in with ideas or tips/tricks that have worked for you.