leaping Lion

It's funny - I kept calling this horse "Little Lion Man" the entire morning. Probably bc of Lauren's recent post about Simon over at She Moved to Texas. And also bc he is little (relatively speaking, tho he's definitely an upgrade for me haha). And he is Lion. And also about as manly as a horse can be, as the first stallion I've actually handled, much less ridden.

This would be Lion, one of Dan's prelim horses (technically the horse ran a 1* earlier this summer, but I do not believe there are plans for him to return to that level).

yep, that's the lion!

It's been difficult scheduling a lesson since deciding in June not to continue training with Isabel for the foreseeable future. Obviously I don't want to fall off the map completely bc I love this program, but it's kinda hard when the trainer is so far away.

I don't mind paying the expenses to have Dan travel to us - that is, when I have something worth it. Right now that isn't Isabel. And as much as I love Krimpet.... well... it's probably not her either haha. So we've basically been in a holding pattern. All along tho, there's been the option to go up to PA to lesson on one of his horses, so I finally found time to make that happen.

quiet in the cross ties

I expected to ride a sales horse, especially since he's mentioned one or two of them to me before (probably hoping that I'll buy something lol). So it was a surprise when the working students brought in Lion. Exciting!

trainer P says stallions often have a sullen way about them. idk if that's how i would describe Lion, tho he certainly seemed unimpressed lol

The excitement kinda dribbled into disappointment when they pulled out a dressage saddle tho. I asked whether Lion jumped in lessons and they said 'not usually.' Hrm. I mean, I love Dan's focus on flatwork and consider his lessons as glorified flatwork with jumps thrown in... but I also didn't anticipate driving 3hrs round trip for a dressage lesson when trainer C is basically in my back yard.

not the type of saddle i was anticipating! very relieved it was changed out haha

It cleared up fast tho when he got back from hacking and took one quizzical look at the saddle, asking "don't you want to jump?" Yes, Dan. Yes I do haha. Saddle was changed and we were off to the lesson on what was certainly among the most schooled horses I've ever jumped.

especially bc omg these leathers were soooooo long. i had wrapped the damn things twice lol

And it was likely that element - Lion's high degree of schooling - that maybe motivated the choice to use him for this lesson. I've written before that Dan believes many amateur riders would be well suited to learn on something that's already gone up the levels (he usually says prelim). Saying it's more valuable to learn what the buttons are and how to push them before trying to install them on something green.

Personally I could go either way, but have really enjoyed sitting on all these nicely trained horses recently. And Lion was no exception.

the nice forward flap of dan's jump saddle was much preferred. as, actually, were the somewhat aggressive blocks

The biggest standout was in noting how he responded to my errors (the same errors I always make on Isabel or anything else), but even more so in how he responded to my corrections. Namely: when I got it right, he very promptly, noticeably, and easily ordered himself as well.

Dan made it clear from the start that I should focus on myself and my ride, especially since it wasn't a ride on my own horse. He dug immediately into my position, calling for a much longer leg with heels wrapped down and around the horse. Telling me to feel my heels connecting under the horse's belly.

a few of the residents at HF. i loved the facial markings on that one on the left - very unique!

And especially at the canter, I needed to focus on that long leg while achieving more roundness and more activity from the horse, with less inside rein. Unbelievably, the story still hasn't changed haha: the weight in my reins should be even. But if one is going to be stronger than the other it should be the outside rein. He also wanted more bend in my elbows, which (again, unsurprisingly) helped me improve the connection and get more of that "bounce" feeling in the canter.

Dan pointed out that Lion is used to him riding - meaning he is used to a LOT of leg. If my legs weren't burning I probably wasn't using enough. Well. Trust me, they burned haha.

course diagram: basically a modified figure eight exercise. all oxers are square and the course rides in both directions. turns are large and sweeping, not meant to be ridden tightly. oh and those are barrels under the wide center oxer

Moving on to the jumping exercises, I had to focus on a couple main points: getting a bouncy round canter with bend - not long or flat; going straight but without falling on the inside shoulder (Dan said that just bc you're going straight doesn't mean you don't have an outside rein - there's still an inside lead after all!); and keeping the energy coming from behind.

it was actually quite a lovely farm, very picturesque 

We circled the blue and white diagonal single in the bottom right corner of the diagram off both leads for a couple repetitions until I got it right-ish. Then went right into the course, starting with approaching the blue and white diagonal off the right lead and finishing with the one stride.

I got nailed for losing bend and letting the horse fall in on approach, and then letting him just get long and strung out on landing. We turned it around and things maybe even got a little worse - starting at the blue and white off the left lead going to the one stride (which we totally would have eaten if Lion hadn't saved my ass), then all the way around to finish back over the first blue and white.

with pretty little vistas out of all the doors and windows

The issue is that I would start with a decent canter (I consistently transitioned from walk to canter, which achieved that nice bouncy canter up in front of my leg) but would let it slip almost immediately, with falling in at the first jump then never pulling it back together again.

Well, actually, we usually did ok to the blue and white end jump on the other side of the arena bc there was another rider down their lessoning on his own 1* horse so I actually had to, ya know, actively steer and stuff. Which unsurprisingly led to much nicer jumps. Go figure.

nice tidy and spacious aisles too

We ran through it a couple more times in each direction (with ample walk breaks for Lion {and me} since it was super hot out). Eventually something clicked in my head tho. I could feel what Dan was talking about every time we did something wrong - that being the major advantage of riding a schooled horse: the errors were always very clear. But I just wasn't doing anything about it until usually too late.

So I actually made myself not just sit up and ride to each fence (with not just the outside rein that Dan kept yelling about, but also a helping heaping of inside leg {duh Emma}) - but also ride after each fence too. Esp since Lion tended to land a little strong, tho he always came back when I actually asked.

and large clean and bright stalls

And that last course clicked along perfectly - with the jumps coming up so plainly that I could hear Dan saying "Yes" even 2-3 strides out from each fence.

It was annoying that it took so long for me to actually get it right, esp on such a nice horse that honestly was not particularly complicated to ride. And especially on a horse that rides exactly the way Dan teaches... so it's not like any of this should have been new to me.

But whatever. It's been a minute since I had one of these lessons and I tend to be a little conservative on new horses.

thanks buddy for a good lesson!

Regardless, I left the lesson feeling somewhat empowered that maybe one day I'll have these basics down. In some ways it felt like a win to get on this nicely trained horse and make him dance a little. Tho obviously I also felt equally sheepish when I goofed up and the horse had to bail me out. 

And it's kind of annoying seeing the same mistakes I made with Isabel creep into my rides on every other horse. I didn't ever quite put the blame squarely on the mare for why things fell apart... but it's still pretty glaringly clear that my riding was part of the problem. Le sigh. 

All the same tho, I'm definitely working on it and feel like all of these rides on different horses are helping to put the pieces back together. So I'll enjoy the variety for now, and hustle as hard as I can to keep the lessons with my favorite trainers rolling even tho I don't have a regular horse in training.