Lessons w. Elana

(cartoon by Thelwell, from “A Leg at Each Corner”, EP Dutton, 1962)

Don't you think they'd prefer to have it the other way around?

I've been very sporadic in my riding lately, but very impressed with how Brantley has been handling it. If you don't remember or are new to our little blog here, this is a big step for us, like many things this year. I would have to work him consistently for 5-6 days in a row and then if I skipped a day, had to back track a bit especially under saddle. I even tried to do an exciting 100 day ride once we worked our way out on the trails. I may have made it to 25 rides before I gave in, but B regressed after having a few days off and I had to go back to our original routine.

Let's fast forward to this past month or two. I didn't ride for three days, rode on a Saturday, trail ride on a Sunday, rode Mon-Weds, then didn't ride for 4-5 days. I jumped on one afternoon after sending him around a few times, w/t/c. Then skipped a day. Lunged him one night, then had a lesson with Elana the following day. He was a SUPERSTAR.

I know this may not seem like a big deal but we're getting there and knowing that I can be a little less consistent makes me feel more confident about not having an indoor this winter. I think that it will give us a nice break... Especially since the both of us are getting pretty bored and lost in our flatwork.

Woodstock '14 Flashback

I had planned to go on a ride with Amanda Saturday afternoon but then Elana sent me a text about her being available for a lesson. Umm... Yes please! We haven't had a really nice, productive ride in the arena for a while and I really needed it. Luckily A was very understanding and even stopped by to watch which was nice. As we warmed up I caught Elana up on the fall as well as our "idontwanna" issues. I told her that a lot of it could be me too and how we're just a little lost.

What I love about taking lessons with her (which I probably have mentioned before) is that she asks me what I'm looking for, what I'm feeling, what I did wrong, and what I did right vs. just telling me "No, do this." My favorite thing to hear is when she calls out and says, "Well done!" If I do a circle and it's a complete cluster-fudge (my favorite ice coffee flavor btw), she says, "So tell me about that circle." It gives me the opportunity to tell her what I know I'm doing wrong and if I don't know, I can be honest and say... "I don't know what happened there."

She picked right up on the fact that Brantley and I are having a "lazy" issue where he really doesn't want to engage himself because I'm not really asking him to. I kind of have been just putzing (sp?) around the arena doing little things here or there, really with no purpose. That's not doing either of us any good. I went over how I normally warm him up long and low with a loose rein. She asks me what I look for in a warm up. "The warm up is more for me than for him, I want to see what kind of horse I have today." Having a greenie with a thoroughbred's reactiveness with a mix of quarter horse "derp" and look at me pea-roll is always a challenge and I try to accommodate him and set him up for success.

That day I had a jumper/dressage horse who seemed to randomly find a large amount of impulsion in his back end. Um... Thank you? We took advantage of this and tried to get a correct bend out of him. He tends to drop into his circles and the curve ends at his neck and disconnects at his shoulder. I have a bad habit of pointing his nose in the direction I want to send him and although that was good when first starting him, it's time for us to grow up and get a hold of that outside rein to show him a little more support. I dropped more into my outside leg and slid my inside a little further forward and it helped a lot. It picked up his inside shoulder and I actually got him to do a few strides of a shoulder-in.

We had a few moments of him hitting a brick wall, but I kept me eyes up, pushed him forward and let him pick his pace, as long as it was forward. Picked up a night canter and spent some time working on my position when I ask for a trot/canter transition. I tend to throw myself forward if he breaks and try to push him into it which leads me to do my number 1 pet peeve. NAG!

After a few more drills for my sake (and for his), we showed off our simple changes and how we've been working on changing the bend before asking him to canter off. We're getting better.

Wish I had enough space for this!

I then mentioned our attempt at a bounce... Let's just say. She laughed and set one up. A good one... with a vertical. We rocked it and we ended our lesson with a nice cruise around the arena.

Had an awesome follow up ride tonight. Need to get my brother to put on a coat and take pictures!