schooling with the masters

I’ve continued along with my bi-weekly dressage lessons with Trainer C, and have since had two more lessons with her homebred Shep. 

This horse is such a character — will apparently eat literally anything, including rubber feed pans, blanket buckles, and even his own brushing boots, right off his legs. But he’s a massive sweetie, and insanely generous under saddle.

Shep has an extremely sweet face <3

I believe he’s schooled most of the way through 3rd level, minus the changes, and is confirmed enough in all the things to basically carry my ignorant ass through some pretty cool movements — most of which have been firsts for me. 

he’s also prettttttty fancy

For example, in our lesson a few weeks ago, we rode proper dressage-y walk pirouettes, which was interesting bc I’d literally just scribed a couple 2nd level tests the weekend prior and that’s one of those ‘make or break’ movements in the tests, it seems. 

And, we practiced the three loop canter serpentines, with canter-walk-canter simple changes of lead over center line. It was somewhat hilarious too, bc while Charlie was a walk-canter savant, we never quite perfected the canter-walk. 

forgot to bring my tall boots home with me from the barn, and felt underdressed riding such a nice boy in just my country boots!

So when Shep just like… walked, immediately, my brain straight up buffered for a second like, uh, now what? At which point Shep sorta nudged me, as if to say, “Psst — it’s time to canter again!” And then struck off on the new lead, ready to repeat again for the next loop. Wild stuff, guys LOL. 

holy crap, emma’s riding a half pass!

In this most recent lesson — from which trainer C actually nabbed some trot work on video, omg! — we practiced more lateral stuff, including leg yields (familiar territory), but also half pass, a first for me. 

Obvi I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t really walk and chew gum at the same time, and that’s a bit of what riding these movements feels like to me. And it’s clear to see in the video that our angles are a little wobbly, change of bend a little rough, rider position slightly wonky haha. 

look ma, we did it again!

But we did it!! Possibly bc Shep just knows the drill, knows the routine, might even be literally voice trained (lol), what a good boy!

We also did some shoulder in — something that actually I did work on with both Isabel and Charlie, and that Doozy has edged toward with simpler exercises like shoulder fore etc. But obvi Shep is a bit, er, next level in his schooling compared to my animals haha, and it was really cool getting the right feeling. 

literally no idea what i’m doing but there Shep goes in a shoulder in!

Bc naturally, being such a good and generous horse, he was willing to humor me even in my muddled and nonsensical aids, which occasionally directed him to just drift wildly away from the wall, or happily cruise around with his haunches on a completely different track, bc that’s what his pilot said* to do! (*unintentionally, oops haha). 

SI the other way too

Not on video but part of the lesson was a bit more canter work, particularly with a little collection and counter canter. I’m actually sad to not have video too bc it personally felt really informative for me. Like, both Charlie and Doozy have (had, in Charlie’s case, sob) quite nice canters naturally. Our issues in that gait aren’t for lack of talent on their part. 

With Shep, I needed to think about not driving so much, letting him maintain his own canter, and even trying to collect and contain it a bit — but with my thighs, not hands. Bc tightening with my hands tightens everything up my arms into my shoulders, making it harder to have a following contact and more likely that the reins would slip longer. And the longer my reins got, the lower he got up front, the more strung out, etc etc, a vicious cycle.

video of our trot work — with literally the most generous horse haha

So I needed to be thinking about holding and collecting it together with thighs, not hands, and not driving, but also maintaining enough forward support bc he was likeliest to break gait when it was hardest (ie, when he was most connected collected and on the aids). 

And meanwhile, all of this was made easier if I could hold my position taller and more upright, and really sit deep in the saddle — a feeling that was surprisingly easy on Shep (and yet another reason why I wish there was video so I could see if it looked the way it felt). 

just an unassuming dreamboat, nbd

So far, these lessons have really been an incredible experience. Almost like Trainer C is kinda just throwing us into the ‘dressage gauntlet,’ letting me try my hand at all these fancy movements bc she knows that 

1) her horses are confirmed beyond my ability to screw them up in a single hour, and 

2) they are the most perfect teachers bc they are just so reliable in their responses to the aids. 

Whether the aid is intentional or otherwise, they give a clear predictable response. If I’m gripping but then I release? Immediate change in the horse. If I’m a bit muddled but giving the basic gist of the right aid? They go forth and do the thing. The more I refine, the more crisp they become. 

It’s hard to tell how much will actually translate to Doozy when we’re back at it. Old habits die hard, ya know? But so far, the biggest takeaway for me is that I actually can deliver a good clear aid and release, I am able to do more or less the ‘right’ thing, and maybe the next step for Doozy will be actually giving her a little more trust and breathing room, to give her space to become reliable and predictable in her responses too. Maybe, lol.