Lessons from days past

Ok, I'm a slacker.  We all know this by now.  I actually outlined three posts for last week and didn't get a single one done.  Partially because I do this at work and my staff is out and I'm picking up the slack (or at least I did...for like three days).  Partially because it was my birthday week and I had other inconsequential things going on.  Partially because I just didn't get back to it.

So here is the weekend recap from two weeks ago.

We had a cross country school on Saturday morning.  It was to be the last one before they close the course before the show.  It was just me, Ginny on Pearl, one twin on Riley and one twin on her horse Jr.  Pearl is going Novice and schooling Training.  Riley and Jr are both working up to Prelim.  And me on the derpy pony doing BN.

They're all like "we jumped the Prelim coffin!" and I'm all like "I cantered through the water!". They're like "did you see us go over that Intermediate oxer?" and I'm like "you know I cantered over my first ditch!"  And actually, they didn't say any such thing, and they told me I did a good job when I did my little stuff, since they've all seen where I came from.  It's just me being jealous.

Can't quite compare, but I did things I hadn't done before.  We started off (after cantering a log and a little house for warm up) by going into the box and learning about how to work the watch.  Marcy's system is to walk in the box between 15 and 10 and face the back of the box.  Start the watch when they say 5, and start to turn to the front.  Then you are ready to go from there.  From the first fence, Violet was ON!

Freshly clipped pony.

We jumped all the things, logs, houses, tables.  Then we trotted up the little bank (haven't done one of those in 2 years) and cantered over the rolltop.  Stopped to watch the bank work of the others, then headed back down to a table, left turn to the dinky coop of death.  I got in my own head and muffed the coop, but we got over it.  Came back, did it from the other side, left hand cantering turn to the ditch in the woods

This was a huge deal for me.

The last time I tried to canter a ditch, I ended up on the ground and Marcy had to school Violet over it for me.

Very satisfied post-cross country pony.

After the ditch, we came to a newer jump.  It's like an open coop, or a triple bar, but the base inside of it is painted shiny.  And it was raining.  It read like there was water in there.  Three strides out, Violet and I saw it at the same time.  She said "huh?!" and I said "mm, do it anyway" and she did.  Then up and over a very steep hill down to another table.  Marcy was happy with my ability to get the fence done and get on with the next thing, but we headed back up over the hill the way we came and back over the new fence just to make sure our confidence was good.  It was.

After that we headed to the water, where we did a little mushroom jump and cantered through the water.  Again, a first for me, although Violet has been telling me for a while now that trotting through the water is stupid.

After that, all that was left was a table right hand curve past the turnout fields back to a table and the finish flags.  Violet slowed down a bit coming up to the fields, but then picked back up heading to the last.  She got a bit flat, so I balanced her about 10 strides out and had a decent last fence.  Again, we had a great time, and walked away from schooling saying "we got this"!

Takeaways include to be prepared for shenanigans for the first three fences.  If she's going to act up, this is where she will do it, going away from the other horses.  And don't forget the last fence.  So there we go.

Maddie, the most perfect puppy ever.  In her own version of heaven, sandwiched between her dad and her favorite Miss Mary.

Sunday morning we had a dressage lesson.  We worked on a lot of the same things.  Work on forward first.  Make sure to move hands between the reins when stopping.  Not see-saw, but more a move of the shoulders.  These movements can be more or less depending on the horse I'm riding.  Give reins right before asking for walk from a halt to allow that first forward step.  The same goes in the walk-trot and trot-canter transitions.

We worked on some sections of the test.  The biggest challenges for me are going to be the right lead canter coming right off the change in rein across the diagonal, and going from free to medium walk.

Prepare for canter off the change in rein with one full stride of straight before asking for the canter. Make sure I set up properly for that one, because it will be difficult (for me, not Violet, she's got this) to prepare without bracing.  After the circle, make sure to support going into the final corner before the long wall in order to keep from breaking to the trot, and encourage a very forward canter down the long wall.

A very tired pony after a great weekend.

In the walk work, I should use the rein opposite the judge (left) to encourage her to stretch her head down.  Start to pick up the reins before hitting the long wall.  Pick them up with purpose and insist on Violet remaining balanced and not throwing her head up.  Not being mean, just insistent that she respond.  While training this move, I should stop as soon as she becomes resistant and insist on her putting her head down before starting again.  By doing this over and over, we got more and more steps before she threw her head.

So these were my take-aways from lessons the weekend of October 15-16.  October 22-23 coming soon.

A nice walk after a busy weekend.