clinic chaos extraordinaire

Somehow, some way, my humble little boarding barn managed to get all the ducks in a row to host Dan again for another clinic! I always have lofty aspirations of trying to get on a regular schedule — whether that’s some combination of him traveling to us, or vice versa, or meeting somewhere in the middle… 

my feisty critter!!

But ya know. Life is what it is. People have schedules, responsibilities… Obvi there were some winter storms thrown in for good measure… But hey. A lesson every 6 weeks is still better than every 6 years, amirite?? So we make the most of it!! 

Tho. Not gonna lie. There was a *LOT* going on throughout my lesson. Doozy obvi had ~~feelings~~ as she so often does. Plus, omg, there was a kubota doing something in the woods outside the ring. And omg OMG, another horse lunging in the ring with us. And, to top it all off, birds. Oooh and also Doozy’s field mate screaming bloody fucking murder right outside the arena windows (audible in the video, natch).

trying to look like we have a lid on it

I’ll be honest and admit that part of me was annoyed. Part of me wanted to just stop the lesson, send someone out to resolve the screaming pony (who had been unintentionally left alone in her field) and ask the lunging horse to go to the other indoor. Bc come on. Can’t I get like *one* dedicated time block in the ring without distractions??

But. Sigh. I did not give in to that temptation. Bc realistically… Well. Those distractions ARE the challenge with Doozy. And they are everywhere. Including when she’s just inventing distractions inside the chaos between her ears. Doozy is straight up the most ADHD horse I’ve ridden, and we *both* need to learn to cope haha.

trotting like i can sorta sit up-ish

And thus commenced our lesson in COPING, MA’AM. Starting naturally with trying to get me to sit correctly on the horse. Perhaps a day will come when that’s not a primary pursuit for me. Like, I keep waiting for these yoga classes to “work” so that I can suddenly sit up tall and straight LOL. Hasn’t happened yet tho…

tense but trying!

Dan had me actually start the ride holding the neck strap as it it was a water skiing handle bar — literally pulling back on it from my upper torso while trying to simultaneously shifting my seat more forward. And also trying to maintain a somewhat normal contact on the reins, obvi, tho mostly it was about the posture. A nifty trick I’ll play around with. 

lol why am i like this

He also called me out for moving around way too much — too much side to side with my seat, too much movement with my hands, “meshing” the bit and contact instead of just holding one steady position. He said my approach was sympathetic and ‘nice’ to the horse, but not effective training and not giving Doozy a place to settle.

That to train the horse, I needed to sit up tall, in one place, with legs on and contact firm and steady so that the horse comes to me. So that it’s *clear* to the horse when they’re off the aids. Squeeze and hold, squeeze and hold, forever and ever amen.

one of these days she’s gonna break my face if i keep leaning forward like that!

It was a bit hard to settle into the lesson bc of the constant cacophony of aforementioned distractions… Like, it never really got better in that regard haha. Which was maybe helpful in an odd way bc it forced me to just get into the moment with Doozy. 

Dan obvi wasn’t going to let go of his expectations just bc the horse was distracted. So. Ya know. Work through it. 

you can jussssst barely see the background lunging horse get silly before doozy reacts…

And a few notable findings came from this approach. First most - “working through it” did NOT mean sacrificing quality of work And it’s always been Dan’s approach that “if what you’re doing isn’t working, slow down.” 

So for example, after the above moment (which is also in the video in a more complete format), Dan actually just had us come back to walk to reset bc he felt like we got too shut down, to up-and-down in the canter vs forward and ground covering.

back to remedial transitions (and some internal screaming from doozy) to get back on the aids

From there, we worked on basically a never ending cycle of transitions - mostly walk-trot-walk-trot - focusing on literally nothing else except keeping my aids ON and STEADY, particularly my rein contact, at.all.times. — but *especially* in the upward transition. Which, it turns out, is uh, hard for yours truly!

Tho this was also where the second notable finding about “working through it” came in play. Obvi lots of transitions can make an already tense, worked up horse go nuclear. But the whole point was to do the opposite — help the horse connect to the aids, stay on the aids, find safety and security on the aids. 

the jumping was easy after all that!

Liberal application of verbal cues really proved to be a difference maker for Doozy too. Not even necessarily just “good girl” or whatever, but just constantly checking in with her. Using my voice to try to get her to stay with me, focus on me, anchor with me — vs, ya know, again, can’t stress this enough, her field mate who was quite literally in a panic right outside the window. 

Fortunately, Dan became satisfied with our progression in being able to hold all the aids steady through various transitions, including another canter - this time slightly more successful than the last (also in the video) - and we got a walk break. Wherein Doozy was finally allowed to release the whinny she’d been holding under her breath (lol poor thing) and I did finally suggest that somebody go rescue that sad fucking pony. 

holy crap is emma actually sorta sitting(hovering-ish) on a cantering horse???

At the same time, the lunging horse had finished and was waiting his turn for a training ride with Dan, so peace was restored to the universe, right in time for — omg — jompies, yay!

looking normal!

And ya know. In Dan’s world, the whole point of all that sweat equity with the never ending walk trot transitions on the aids is that… Nothing should ever change. It’s always the same. So when you start jumping, it’s literally just the same exact thing. Just with… Jumps LOL.

grown ass mare just jumpin’ a jump <3

And gooooooo figure. Doozy just… went as she had been, as we had established, and just jumped her jumps. Easy, quiet, on the aids, waiting. No rushing, no drama. 

We started with foundational type exercises — landing from the jump and going immediately into a circle, right away reestablishing the aids before doing anything else. And also practiced jumping the above line going away from the camera, and halting straight before the second element. Not on video bc that was when my barn mate went to rescue the pony. But an important piece of the practice puzzle.

patient biscuit!

Bc after we’d practiced stopping straight before* the next jump, you will be SHOCKED to hear that… as if by magic, Doozy had a half halt on the landing side of fences!

(*And Dan was explicitly crystal clear that this would be our ONLY option. No swerving left or right. No twisting, no getting sideways. No pulleying or shimmying. Just. Stop. Straight.)

sitting-ish the canter going the other way too!

And as we practiced a few more little mini courses (all in the video now, yay!!), Doozy suddenly graduated to jumping a fence, landing to turn into the short side (as above), and *immediately* coming back onto the aids such that she could proceed directly to the next jump, and in fact complete the full line now without rushing or changing shape or stride.

and jumping a long straight line on a steady add stride. knock me over with a feather!!

Miracles, y’all. It’s amazing what clear consistent practice can do, even in the space of an hour.

link to youtube clips

It’s almost hilarious, actually, to watch the jumping in that video. Bc… It’s SO ho-hum haha. She just canters around, steadily and politely. You might even say too steady, as if we should be going more forward. And it honestly felt pretty easy too — the mare was connected, on the aids, ready for whatever came next, whether it was a transition or jump or whatever.

progress slow ’n, uh, ….slow haha

And she honestly finally felt the most secure too. Like, she’s obvi a tense and kinda insecure animal at heart. She likes feeling safe, like she knows what to expect or like she can trust what’s happening to her. Which, fundamentally, is the whole point of this type of practice. Make the connection a safe reliable place for the horse, no matter how spooky or nervous they may be. 

Especially with the jumping, where her tendency is to get forward and frantic, being able to stay in front of the leg and connected to the aids makes everything more comfortable, for all of us LOL!

So overall, a really productive session. As is so often the case with Doozy, I didn’t really get the circumstances I wanted … But maybe instead we got what we needed.