Monday, March 17, 2008

Lessons Saturday & Sunday

I gave myself off Friday, and had a lesson Saturday after L. had returned from CA. Odin was being 'hot' which for him means stepping, snorting and looking. A quick go around on the longe and he looked much more like the horse I know.

The lesson was pretty nice, but a bit hard as it always is when I don't have a lesson for about a week. All those things I forget in such short time.

Sunday I had another lesson, and Odin was still acting a bit excited, I think he is in a spring mood!
L. told me I really, really need to canter and trot without stirrups to get my behind in the saddle. I am not happy about it, more like terrified! Stupid irrational fear!

I tried to think about some of the things Barokko's mom told me after giving a very nice critique of me picture, but I cant get my back and legs to relax enough, I still end up in a position where my hips and pelvis are not in the right place.

I know that dropping the stirrups is the answer, so I compromised and did it on the longe, that makes me feel more secure.
And it was great! especially in the canter I could relax and sit and follow Odin's rhythm. I grip so badly with my legs when I ride.
We only did it a little while, and then when back to riding. This was actually a great way of doing it, because now I had the right feeling, and I could immediately apply it.

So, all in all, great lesson!

some days are not so good...

Thursday I went out to ride in the evening. I was really tired, but went there anyway.

Odin was a litte unconcentrated (somehting in the bushes? lunging horse acting like he isn't lameish at all?) and so was I. Well, you have to take the good rides with the bad ones...

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Counter cantering in the morning...

L. is out this week, so no lessons. I am quite busy at the moment, so Odin have had Sunday and Tuesday off, with L. riding him Monday before she left.

I was thinking on how he felt, and I think I was able to get him to 'sit' a bit on his hind legs with out that much trouble. It is still hard for me to judge the result on my own...

I did some trot serpentines and canter circles to begin with , it was a bit cold this morning, so I thought we should get going and get warm. I then did some side movements, he felt quite responsive so I think L. must have worked on that!

I then went on to do some counter canter. I feel both that and the leg yields are really helping me to get him a bit less stiff, and that in turn make it easier for him to respond to my half-halts.
I have not done counter canter without being in a lesson in a long time, so it was good to see that I could do it :). I think Odin was not quite straight enough, but he didn't change or break, yay!

he did feel better still after that, I really suspect that he is stiff (he turns 16 April 29th!), so I am trying to focus on riding him out of that on my own, without L. being there. And then practicing the half-halts! I still need to think about following his movement in the trot and canter (I really think my seat should be better in the canter than it is), but it is so hard to do all these things at once.

Oh, and my random thought about my half-halts today: I feel I need to push everything under me and behind me up in front of me using my stomach, seat and legs
I think I need to use a lot more aids than I should be to get through, but I like the idea about pushing the back half of him up and in front, instead of using my hands too much.

Wednesday & Saturday rides last week

So, my Wednesday ride was a bit tough. I was just very tired, and I didn't feel on top of everything. Despite that, the ride was pretty good, and we most repeated what we had been doing in the previous lessons, working on collection and the feel of the half halt.

Saturday was my next lesson, and he was not as good as he had been the last two weeks. He felt a lot more reluctant to step under himself. L. said that since it had been about 6 months since he got the hock injection, he might need another. He had just had a Legend shot the previous Saturday, and for all the good they do, they tend to wear off in about a week.

I was thinking that he was good the week before that, the first week I was back from being a way, so maybe he was just being a little more stiff? We did some side movements, and he did feel better. I still had to work a bit harder, he didn't feel as light as he had.

L. said that I could do the 'bute test', give the horse 2 bute (horsey pain killers) in the evening, and if he feels better to ride next day, there is probably some pain somewhere (ex in his hocks, since he showed no other signs of pain, wounds, sickness, lameness etc).
However, I did not have time to ride Sunday, so I skipped that for now.

I need to keep track of how he feels, it is in generally hard for me, I focus so much on what I do, or do wrong, that I sometimes forget to feel Odin.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

half-halts, collection and a fantastic ride!

Yesterday I had an amazing lesson.
We started out by doing half-steps, which feels like a 'cheap' passage, a bit of collected trot rhythm from walk. It was fun, and I found the 'hind-legs under' button and corrected him going heavy on the bit out of it the first few times.
The point of all this of course, was to make me feel what I need to do for a half-halt, so I could get the feeling of Odin really collecting himself (which according to L. is one of his main features, he can do that if you ask him correctly).
I then did some really good half-halts in trot and canter, especially the canter. Because I corrected him for being heavy in my hand, he was a lot lighter than usual, the half-halt and demanding he stay up was really working! He felt really uphill.
I did some counter canter, and at one point I did a half-halt in the corner, where I probably ended up shifting my legs a bit, so he changed, and it was actually a really nice one since he was collected, huh what do you know, these half-halts are pretty cool... of course was a bit surprised so I didn't manage to keep my aids on a keep riding him, must remember those things.

When we then took a break, L. was asking me 'so you are going to show in the next schooling show, right.' ( I do think it was more of a statement than a question :P). So I said yeah, and she said that we would be showing First Level. First Level! leg yields, argh, I can't really get them straight! I don't even know how to do lengthenings! Well, L.s argument was that if we did Training Level, he would just run around strung out on his forehand, we have to have something to do. Which is probably correct, but still.

We got right on it and did some leg yields, a bit better but still not perfect. So hard for me to keep my outside aids on, and push him over.

In the end we did one lengthening, but L. said it wasn't really that much of a lenghten, I thought he was moving fast though, hehe.

I am actually looking forward to going to the schooling show (first weekend of April), since now we have a goal, and the lesson last night was so good I think we can do. I mean know, I know we can do it. I just need to keep my behind in the saddle...

Monday, March 3, 2008

Being filmed


Canter, originally uploaded by IdaWW.

I got my husband to go along with my to my Saturday lesson, to try and film me with our new video recorder (www.supacam.com - a camera made for filming stuff which goes on the web. Pretty new cam, I got it on the conference I went to).

Oh, its horrible to watch myself ride! It has been a long time since I last was filmed, and while Odin moved a lot better, I still lean forward so much, my butt going out of the saddle all the time. I thought my seat had improved more.

Anyway, we will see if I dare to post it, for now a picture of some canter, and me leaning only slightly forward.
The lesson was good iteself, lots of canter and really getting the feel of using the outside aids to collect him with.