Part 3 of 3 of my husbandless and horsey-filled weekends included a dressage symposium on September 6-7. After my awesome clinic the previous weekend, I recreated the collected canter on Tuesday and probably asked for more than I should have from Gadget. On Thursday he felt stiff, and I was worried about the upcoming symposium.
Day one of the symposium did not go well for me and Gadget. The format is tricky as there are lots of walk breaks while the other rider in the session attempts a movement. There isn't much time to warm up, and Gadget never quite got through enough to do anything well. We worked on my position during the ride. I rode in the double bridle, and by the middle of the ride, the trainer told me to tie my curb rein and place my stirrups over the saddle. The trainer told me that I am too loose in my hips and my thighs need to stay snug on the saddle. I also need to move less in the saddle - try to keep my seat on a postage stamp. The lesson was a blow to my confidence mostly because I anticipated working on movements from third level and after showing only the trot halfpass and canter work from third level test 1, we moved straight to position changes and just cantering forward. I had mentioned to her that I have a hard time keeping activity in the collected canter. She picked up on this right away in the lesson and had me ride very forward, which, of course, will make the canter three beat. Without a history that I have been struggling with this issue for years, this is an obvious and logical solution, but I felt disappointed that this was the only thing I was able to address during the session. I held it together at the symposium, but ordered chinese food on the way home and cried into my General Tso chicken that night.
Determined to have a good ride, I woke up the next morning with a mantra that my horse was a saint and I would enjoy the experience regardless of the lesson. Watching early lessons did not reduce my anxiety, but I tried to keep thinking positive. As it turns out, I actually had a nice lesson. She started by allowing me to warm up and then told me that he needs to react quicker to everything, which is totally true. She had us do a walk leg yield across the diagonal. It was a very steep legyield. Then we legyielded from corner to E, so it was nearly a sidepass. She made the point that I could make him go more sideways and I needed to get there faster. We moved into trot, and she had me show a couple lines of shoulder in and haunches in before changing it very quickly. She would only let us do a few steps of s/i before yelling out h/i, then renver, then s/i. As quickly as I could change my aids, we were again changing to the next movement. Gadget actually responded well. He wasn't perfectly round, but he was moving those shoulders and haunches. In the canter, she put me on a circle and had me hold the bucking strap with my outside hand. We then went from smaller canter to bigger canter. If Gadget took a 4 beat canter stride in smaller canter, I was to open up the stride, but not so much as to lose Gadget's balance. She reminded me to take contact by open my outside rein, and this was effective.
In the trot, to get him more balanced and up the in the big medium trot, she had me use the whole arena and through each corner, put him in a slight renver position and push him through it. At first we slowed down and it did not have the effect, but once I realized how to position him just enough to be able to keep the push through the corner, he really would come back up in the corners, which is where he usually buries his head. It was awesome. That little tip was worth the lesson alone. It was actually a great lesson and I had fun.
Admittedly, the whole symposium makes me wonder whether being competitive (and by competitive, I mean not completely sucking) at fourth level is a realistic goal. Perhaps I should continue training and learning on Gadget, but stop competing. It's not an idea that I like, but I feel like we may be at an impasse with the level of collection in the canter he needs.
Day one of the symposium did not go well for me and Gadget. The format is tricky as there are lots of walk breaks while the other rider in the session attempts a movement. There isn't much time to warm up, and Gadget never quite got through enough to do anything well. We worked on my position during the ride. I rode in the double bridle, and by the middle of the ride, the trainer told me to tie my curb rein and place my stirrups over the saddle. The trainer told me that I am too loose in my hips and my thighs need to stay snug on the saddle. I also need to move less in the saddle - try to keep my seat on a postage stamp. The lesson was a blow to my confidence mostly because I anticipated working on movements from third level and after showing only the trot halfpass and canter work from third level test 1, we moved straight to position changes and just cantering forward. I had mentioned to her that I have a hard time keeping activity in the collected canter. She picked up on this right away in the lesson and had me ride very forward, which, of course, will make the canter three beat. Without a history that I have been struggling with this issue for years, this is an obvious and logical solution, but I felt disappointed that this was the only thing I was able to address during the session. I held it together at the symposium, but ordered chinese food on the way home and cried into my General Tso chicken that night.
Determined to have a good ride, I woke up the next morning with a mantra that my horse was a saint and I would enjoy the experience regardless of the lesson. Watching early lessons did not reduce my anxiety, but I tried to keep thinking positive. As it turns out, I actually had a nice lesson. She started by allowing me to warm up and then told me that he needs to react quicker to everything, which is totally true. She had us do a walk leg yield across the diagonal. It was a very steep legyield. Then we legyielded from corner to E, so it was nearly a sidepass. She made the point that I could make him go more sideways and I needed to get there faster. We moved into trot, and she had me show a couple lines of shoulder in and haunches in before changing it very quickly. She would only let us do a few steps of s/i before yelling out h/i, then renver, then s/i. As quickly as I could change my aids, we were again changing to the next movement. Gadget actually responded well. He wasn't perfectly round, but he was moving those shoulders and haunches. In the canter, she put me on a circle and had me hold the bucking strap with my outside hand. We then went from smaller canter to bigger canter. If Gadget took a 4 beat canter stride in smaller canter, I was to open up the stride, but not so much as to lose Gadget's balance. She reminded me to take contact by open my outside rein, and this was effective.
In the trot, to get him more balanced and up the in the big medium trot, she had me use the whole arena and through each corner, put him in a slight renver position and push him through it. At first we slowed down and it did not have the effect, but once I realized how to position him just enough to be able to keep the push through the corner, he really would come back up in the corners, which is where he usually buries his head. It was awesome. That little tip was worth the lesson alone. It was actually a great lesson and I had fun.
Admittedly, the whole symposium makes me wonder whether being competitive (and by competitive, I mean not completely sucking) at fourth level is a realistic goal. Perhaps I should continue training and learning on Gadget, but stop competing. It's not an idea that I like, but I feel like we may be at an impasse with the level of collection in the canter he needs.
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