bebe's first dressage lesson

Alrighty --- we're getting into that busy time of year when everyone is traveling for the holidays and lots of stuff keeps cropping up on the weekends... But I wanted to get this written out before it's lost from memory lol!

unrelated hacking with charles and his unreal mane <3 <3

Doozy had her first 'real' dressage lesson! This time, with yet another new name in the ever-evolving training landscape. Well, sorta. Long long timers might actually remember MP, who worked with me and Isabel during the infancy of this blog. 

Scheduling eventually became difficult bc life is like that, so those lessons dropped off.... But now with Doozy, this opportunity became available again. So we went for it! Eventually Doozy will travel off farm for lessons, but it sure would be nice to be able to train at the same facility where we board....

nosy ponies will be nosy

Anyway. I'm gonna try to keep the rehash brief and semi-staccato, bc it was one of those significantly tactical task-managing puppet-mastering type rides where the live action coaching was more of a feature than the lecture portions. 

Not bc the lecture portions weren't like, useful or important... But bc it's just been so long since I've been accountable for anything as a rider, I just really need somebody there telling me every few minutes to fix my shit LOL. 

oooh and then there's resident barn panther Icee! 
Michael was adopted by a boarder after one-too-many run-ins with other cats required vet care. he was so deeply beloved here, but i guess the feeling was that he was too nice a cat to be consigned to the hard fate of most barn cats. we miss him, but understand and are happy for him!

So! Let's dive in. MP's step #1 in improving my ride is to stabilize my elbows. But like, seriously. More. More. Almost feeling like they're behind me, and not moving. 

Be like side reins, creating a stable structured operating space in which Doozy is now expected to stay. But still be tall, still hold my hands up -- not down by my thighs. And also not necessarily with elbows pinned to my rib cage either --- feel like I make a "V" shape from elbows to bit. 

Doozy's small mare group grew by two more --- cute ponies!!

The tricky thing is to not tighten elsewhere as I work on reducing motion in this one joint. For example, MP reminded me to keep my wrists and fingers more supple. She wanted me to have softer fingers, particularly ring finger, with my thumbs (on top!) doing the job of holding the reins.

Her method for ensuring that softness through the wrist and communicating that suppleness to the horse is to do a little turn like I'm turning a door knob with my wrist, while maintaining that same straight stable connection from the elbow. 

cute, but still a busybody tho!

Long time readers know that this type of posture work is really hard for me, and goes pretty much counter to how I want to ride (ie, with my hands floated out in front, doing only-god-knows-what). It's also a bit of a challenge for me bc I struggle with adapting my riding style to different pursuits -- like with jumping when I know I need to get my hands more forward. 

But, eh, that's what lessons are for! And Doozy responded very nicely. Lots of concentration, lots of focus, and definitely trying to figure out how to adapt with me to this different posture. 

lol my aunt made the mistake of casually saying 'sure!' when i asked if she wanted to ride during her visit to town haha. maybe she didn't quite think i was serious ;P

Once I could more or less hold the position MP wanted to see, we started putting it to work in exercises and figures at the walk. Starting with Walk-Halt-Walk practice. 

This is not something I've done a ton of with Doozy yet, but felt like a really nice exercise. It highlighted a few key habits - like Mondeuse gets a little crooked and leans on her right shoulder. So MP wanted me to think of keeping her nose centered in her chest, even as I endeavored to accomplish a smooth step into halt using mainly seat and core. 

but she did it!! and charles was such a saint <3

This exercise was also useful bc it gave us a nice predictable routine into which I could start adding more leg aids, and Doozy could connect those leg aids with something other than just spurting off. 

From there, we moved to turns on the forehand. First from the wall, and then from the center line. Again, the key was kinda holding onto my position here (as in, not completely taking one leg off as the other went on), and starting to introduce the idea of moving Doozy off each leg individually.

and so was Doozy, omg!! 

There were a couple moments in the lesson when it felt like there was a bit of a translation error -- meaning I wasn't entirely sure what MP wanted, and so wasn't really sure what to tell Doozy. But the horse was super and never got frustrated or claustrophobic. She just kept trying, and I did my best to not be too rigid or stuck (especially when *I* was the one who didn't understand). 

We didn't do too much in trot, other than to work on recreating the same postural corrections even while working harder to hold Doozy's tempo and rhythm with my own post. I know that's a recurring theme around here, literally everybody who has seen me ride Doozy says the same thing, "Slow your post!"

I'll just say.... easier said than done lol. And this is why I need the lessons, to just have that repeated again and again. That, and all the other little reminders haha. 

obvi bc the two ponies are doing so well, something had to go wrong. sweet OG drew the short straw this time, apparently.... poor guy. he'll be fine too, just a week or two of cone indignity!

Bc maybe that's my favorite thing about lessons -- it takes some of the pressure off me, ya know? Like, I don't have to remember every single little thing. Don't need to be thinking about all aspects of my position while also trying to think up and execute helpful exercises and figures etc, all at the same time. It's nice to just outsource some of that work sometimes LOL. 

And again, really can't say this enough --- Doozy was so so so good for this lesson. We were alone in the indoor, tho a pony at one point came in then immediately left again (we welcomed them to stay but they had planned to set up some jumps so they relocated). And Doozy was fine. 

I think she felt reassured by having MP in the center of the ring, coaching us through the ride in a steady and resolute voice. Plus ya know, I think the mare just 'gets it' now. Maybe it would have been a different sort of lesson 2 or 3 weeks ago. But on this day, it felt like the mare really showed up and was totally on board with the agenda. 

It's a good feeling! Esp bc our next lesson is already scheduled -- yesss!