Weekend lesson, day 1 - Flatwork

First let me just say that yesterday was rough, as far as work and life go.  Just everything piling on at once.  But this morning, I woke up and thought to myself, I am so blessed and lucky in the life that I lead.  Yes, my pony lives away, but I have a pony and have a job that supports us all and allows her to be happy where she is.  And I have a job that at times, I really deplore, but that only lasts for a short while.  I stay engaged, am learning all the time, it's never the same job two days in a row.  The pay is good and the people are better.  I felt good enough that I thought "today is the day", and I put these on before I headed to work.

First time in real shoes in about 8 months! 

Then I went to work.  I'm struggling to keep remembering the way I felt this morning.

Anywho, my Valentine's gift from the boy was the ability to go to the barn for the whole weekend, even though it was the first weekend he's had off in a month.  That means TWO lessons.

Not interested in conversation because...hay

Saturday was flat, which means pretending we know what big D-ressage is (as opposed to the little d-ressage).  I got the opportunity to actually walk Violet around the cross country field before it was lesson time, which I always love to do.  I told her we were working even though we were walking around.  She was just a tad bit up,  but not like the last couple of times.  We were walking down the road next to the paddocks to the field and something ahead scared her pretty bad.  In the past, she would throw her head in the air, I would get tense, she would stop, and eventually spin.  By that time I would be afraid enough to just go a different route.  Today, we weren't doing that.  I stopped her, and let her stand looking a bit while I pet her on the shoulder.  Whatever it was really frightened her (tractor?  another horse?  the fence tape twisting in the wind?  the smell of some bear or something?  who knows) because she was shaking.  I hate that.  We stood there for about a minute, maybe two, and she calmed, put her head down and just walked on.  I think it was good because I didn't make a fuss about it.  When we got to the outside of the dressage rings, she wasn't listening to my leg, so I gave her just a bit of a thump to remind her we are there to work, and that means pay attention.

Enthusiastic mare is not so much

Once we were in the ring, it was immediately to work on corners.  In particular, counterbend as you reach the corner, then bend around it, that way she goes in and comes out of the corner straight.  We did this a bunch at the walk, then moved up to trot, with a bit of a push at the trot on the long walls since you lose impulsion in the corner.  She was very workmanlike, so I was able to push her more than usual.  If I lost her, I put her on a circle.  Since we seemed to do pretty well with this, we moved on pretty quickly to the canter.

At the canter, we concentrated more on me not overthinking the transition and pulling down on her for it.  So it was walk the circle, counterbend, bend, sit trot two or three steps and ask for canter.  One thing we did notice that I'm doing a bit wrong is I'm asking for canter with the wrong leg.  I was always taught to ask with the outside leg.  For the sensitive one, if you bring your leg back and nudge, that's when she does the porpoise move at the canter and scoots.  It's just too much.  So I'm having to learn to place the outside leg back to indicate lead but actually ask with the inside leg.  This helps her step up into the canter, as it supports her on the inside.

And of course we worked on my keeping my body slightly turned to the outside to keep the inside hip a bit forward of the outside and help support her that way.  It's an odd feeling that is made that much more odd by the fact that she's little with a short stride.  We did a circle and then immediately went the length of the rail and worked on the corners.  Slight counter in, bend and out, pushing on the long wall.

It was a terrific lesson.  Violet was up for all of it and really seemed ready to concentrate and work.  While I am definitely out of shape and need some serious weight loss, I still feel like I'm learning and retaining what I'm learning and can repeat it week after week.  Marcy said that we should move on to canter leg yields soon, as the pony needs the advanced moves to remain interested and to increase her body strength.

After the lesson, we cleaned up, put the pony out, cleaned tack, fed and headed to Marcy's for a fantastic dinner and laughter (while watching all the dogs get fantastically dirty).  And maybe a few adult beverages.

How can you beat this after a day at the barn?

Tomorrow, I'll go over Sunday's lesson.