On the Lunge

Yesterday I was feeling crappy, so my lesson was short ( I was so congested I felt like me head was exploding). Odin hadn't been ridden for 2 days ( I felt even crappier Monday), so L. made us canter a lot right at the beginning of the lesson Canter circles, canter diagonal, trot at X and canter again. Only hard part was to keep him from changing at soon as he hit the diagonal going from right to left. I have to keep thinking about right being the inside, any shifts in my weight he takes as a signal to change to his easier side... He felt nice and loose afterwards (hm, maybe a note for a better warmup?) and we did some leg yields and transitions. I was pretty much game over at this point though, so that was it.
The message to me was: "Ride the transitions properly, and only do them if they will be nice. We know he can canter!"

Now, for the post topic, this morning L. wanted to lunge me, and I agreed. I need to work so much on my seat! I have been tentative of the lunging since I lost my balance in trotting with no stirrups in August, but now was the time.

It was so cold this morning, frost on everything, so of course Odin was really frisky. L. lunged him a bit before I got on, he really worked himself into a fast canter with bucking and all. Yep, I really don't see Odin buck at all very much (takes too much energy), but today they were there.

That made him nice and calm for the lunging with me on his back, in the end of the lesson he was really ready to go home :).

I kept my stirrups on, so I felt more relaxed, and it was really great. L. made me think about feeling my seat bones and concentrating on that, it made me sit so much better.

I think this will help my seat and my riding so much, more lunging for me hopefully!

No rain!

Yesterday I had a short ride in the arena. I did some canter 20m to trot 10m to leg yield along the long side, as I did in the lesson Thursday. Besides Odin tripping in the canter ( I thought we were going to crash!), it went really well, I was able to keep a nice forward trot without slowing too much down. Odin probably wasn't as much in frame as he is when I rode him Thursday though. I also did some focusing on my position and seat in the sitting trot. Still practicing indeed.

Then, because of the no rain (yay!) I went for a nice walk outside. This time I was a little more convincing in telling Odin that nothing was too scary, so we had a really nice walk. I even did some walk leg yields on the grassy area behind the arena, which was fun.

Progress in small steps

Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning I had lessons that went OK. Well, the Tuesday lesson was good, until I towards the end of the lesson was cantering at the longside, and got into my head that Odin was rushing, and I didn't know what to do about it. I had a brain meltdown, which of course means tense, tense body, which means no riding, just hanging on. Sigh. All gone now though!

Otherwise, both Tuesday and Wednesday we worked on haunches out. The hard part was to figure out how to keep Odin shoulders on the track, and the haunches only turned. It was a very nice exercise for learning how to control parts of his body. I could use this to help me be more effective in the canter, keeping him straight and not letting him fall in or out.

It is a very nice experience when you can use one exercise to help you understand something basic about riding and to make you understand what you do wrong in another scenario. And I didn't even understand it fully until today; when I was using the same thing to make a nice 10m volte!

Today I had a great lesson. It is getting pretty cold, and my lesson was late, so it was below 40, brrrr. But we worked on forward and not slowing down when bending and collecting, so a little cold weather was great for Odin, less laziness.
L. had me working on my position (shoulders back, hips forward) and it is slowly getting better. Slowly.

And then we did the 10m volte thing, where I kept him forward in a nice moving trot, and kept that while making the smaller circle. I did two things that made this really work. L. told me to be aware of not pulling his head around when turning, so that I slow him down, and all my shoulder-on-the-line work for the 2 previous days came in handy, as I could neatly turn his shoulders. I also counted the trot 1,2,1,2,1,2... something that L. does when she riders (she thinks she is silly for doing it out loud, but otherwise I would never had thought of it!), and it really helped me focus on keeping the rhythm the same.

I really feel I am slowly making progress, my aids are getting more independent, my seat and position better. I can really feel now that when I get a thing right, Odin does what he does better. He just responds to me, perfect.

Riding the strides

Yesterday I had a lesson after being lazy during the weekend and not riding.

We did some leg yields in walk at trot to begin with, partly to loosen up Odin, but also to work on his response to me leg aids. Getting better. We did the sequence of leg yield (trot) along the long side, canter circle at A/C and then leg yield (trot) again. This worked nicely to loosen Odin.

We then did serpentine in trot with walk at the centre line and some canter figure eights with trot at the center line.

All these exercises really emphasized that I need to think about riding every stride, and not the movements. If I don't think about the quality of the canter, the quality of the transition becomes bad, the trot is bad, the change of bend is bad, etc... It is like a cascading failure (sounds like sci-fi, just add entropy).

The lesson was very educational on that point, and I also felt my position and my seat is a little bit better every time I ride, which is just an awesome feeling.

Morning lessons

Wednesday and today I had morning lessons, my schedule is shaken up a bit this week because of a Clinic at the barn this weekend. I didn't want to disturb the clinicians by having a lesson in the middle of the clinic Saturday!

Wednesday we worked a little on the canter, which continues to improve. I still have more trouble to the left, and L. talked about me having a diagonal aid problem, he falls apart because I don't have enough outside rein and inside leg. This developed into a 'how do I stop Odin for hanging on the bit' issue, so we did a lot of work with that, including L. using the inside rein from the ground, demanding he didn't hang on it... Odin was not happy. We talked a bit about how my expectations on his behaviour and reaction reflects how he behaves, and how I have to demand that he does not pull the reins through my hands all the time, so this is what he expects.

Thursday L. rode Odin, and today I had another lesson. We worked a lot on response to the driving aid, again I have to learn to be consistent. I have to be way better at demanding a lot of response from using my leg aids, instead of nagging. So we did a lot of legyields, probably because it is easy to determine whether he yields to the leg or not. I was asked to do a small aid with my leg, and if he didn't move sideways immediately, do a big correction with the whip. When I finally got around to give a big enough correction, ta-da, he moved over with a tiny aid. Much better than nagging, huh?

Odin is somewhat lazy, and L. keeps saying that I need to work less when I ride, I have to learn to train him to always respect my aids, so I don't nag him all the time. I really need to remember this, since I am always thinking that 'well, maybe he moved a bit when I asked'. I need to raise my expectations, so I can get to place where small aids = real reactions. To do this I have to be consistent and demanding in my corrections, otherwise he ignores them.

In other news, Odin finally got not shoes on Wednesday, just on the 8 week mark. He has kind of steep feet, so 8 weeks is OK, 6 is better. But of course you need to nag the farrier forever to get him to come.

Lesson today

My lesson today was great! Our canter was really improving, I felt I was sitting great and riding the canter.
We also worked on half halts. L. thinks that Odin has a few holes in his education, really listening to the seat and the half halts being one of them. He is a lot better already, L. has been working on this with him.
I got the feeling for them a bit today, it actually worked. My transations was better when I could use the half halt, and it just felt great. I feel I'm making leaps of progress!

The view from the barn