Dressage lesson

Hallelujah what a glorious day today. It's hard to be depressed on a day like today. A true Spring day. The grass is soooo green and the skies were so blue, with so many pretty fluffy clouds. And the weather was warm with minimal humidity. It... was.... glorious! Especially after all the rain recently. 

 

I rode Dan earlier and then raced home and swapped him out with Lyric for my lesson. She started to walk away from me but she only walked... and eventually when I kept walking... she stopped and let me catch her. Good girl! I didn't even have a cookie. Whoops! 

  

We got to Ashland and I got warmed up at the walk. I started with some leg yields and square turns. Then I tried to do shoulder in and ... She does a decent baby shoulder in to the right, but going left.. it's hard. She really doesn't want to bring her shoulders left or let her haunches carry underneath her. (which, after my lesson, I realized it's because she doesn't want to load the left hind). 

 

Jacel showed up right about then and we talked about our issues. She also hated my position in the stubben. ha ha. But Lyric does seem happier in it, so... I'm going to have to figure something out. Sigh. But anways... she started off by having us halt and she used her hand to push my leg into her left side and watched what she did. She told me to hold the outside rein. And... Lyric leaned into her... side stepped sideways but only shimmied over.. she didn't want to cross under with the left hind. And then when she did, she want behind, instead of in front. Jacel explained that it was her weak spot. So we needed to do strength training. She said that despite my very nice riding skills, my nice dressage riding, .... I had never been taught to feel the hind end. And she said it wasn't my fault.. it was my trainers that failed me. And that was a big piece of the puzzle. So... we worked on it in hand for a bit until Lyric figured it out. And then we went to walk on a square. 

 

Tracking Left: We do a baby turn on the forehand. The goal is to get her to engage and step up and under with the left hind. So, outside rein holds and asks for the turn, inside leg asks for the step up and under and the turn, and we move the haunches around. 

 

Tracking Right: We do a baby turn on the haunches. The goal is to move her shoulders over to keep her balanced on her hind end. This also activates the left hind and encourages her to use it. To do this, we have to almost ask for a little counter bend. It helped to rotate my wrist so my fingernails were facing the sky to roll the bit in her mouth. 

 

When we started it, I had to be pretty strong with my aids. I had to hold tight on her mouth to get her to turn and not run away from the aids. My leg doesn't mean GO, it means go sideways. So I would ask pretty loudly, while I was explaining it to her. Then once she did it, big release and reward. And sure enough... after a couple of laps, she was getting it. And my aids could soften. And then she wanted to stretch so we let her. Good girl! Working those muscles makes them sore, so you're allowed to stretch and relax. Just like me at the gym. Strength training. 

 

So then we went to the trot. Same exact rules. And we don't care where her head is. She can be inverted, braced, hollow, or whatever. And then we went to the canter. And ... the more we did, the better she got. And then I could start to soften and she would hold it. And then when she started to lose it, I could ask much quieter. And she got SOOOO lovely! I could actually start to feel the hind end... when the left hind was stepping under vs when it wasn't. I could feel her start to relax and lift her back and soften her neck. She started stepping under herself and was engaged and in self carriage. And she started looking for the bit and we had pretty good connection in both reins. It was really quite LOVELY!!! Yes, it was fleeting, but... honestly.. not that fleeting. 

 

We decided to call it quits after that because it was hard work and she had a nice soft frothy mouth and her tail was lifted and her veins were popping. She was working hard. But she seemed quite happy. She did her rooting thing a few times, but... ulcer meds are on the way. So we'll keep riding like this for the next week or so and hopefully get another lesson with Jacel next week!

 

Then I took her on a hack because it was just such a pretty day. I let her snack a lot. She earned it! We headed to the lake and then back through the rock pillars. She was a little freaked out but I told her it would be okay and she went. Then I wanted to walk over the ditch again and.. it had water in it!!! She was like "nope" and turned away but then I turned her back to it and asked and she went over it pretty nonchalantly. Good girl. We hacked up the hill to do some more hill work and headed back. I didn't want to make her do too many hills since our lesson was so hard. 

 

 

I was cracking up because her ears matched the antennae!