Skip to main content

Ryan Clinic August 29-30, 2014

This weekend I rode in my first clinic of the year with Ryan. I felt good going into this clinic since Gadget worked well last week for Kristin. I had a really nice ride on Friday morning  working on getting him back on his haunches and off of my hands in the snaffle bridle. I started in the walk, by making him carry his own head. After some dramatic head flinging, he had such a better balance.

I put Gadget in his (beautiful, blingy) double bridle for the Ryan clinic, and he felt good initially but got heavier through the ride. I told Ryan my goal is to ride fourth level next year. We worked on making his trot smaller, then larger in the correct balance. To the right, I need to ride him in slight shoulder-fore without bending the neck. After all these years, this is still tricky for me.

We schooled simple changes and they were horrible! I was so surprised, but Gadget just kind of shuffled into them. I was really collecting, collecting, then asking for walk. Bad. Terrible. We finally moved off the circle and made him super sharp working on canter/walk walk/canter transitions using the whole arena. Finally, he started feeling better. We did a couple canter halfpasses, which felt okay. I need to keep him on the inside hind so that I can allow the shoulder to lead. I honestly never thought I would have a problem with haunches leading in the canter halfpass, when it took me 2 years (!!!) to feel like I could actually move his haunches sideways.

We then tried a couple changes across the short diagonal. The first couple, I did not half halt and he just threw himself through the change and barreled away afterward. The next time I lifted him back onto his haunches and got a decent change and more collected canter afterward. We schooled a couple walk pirouettes, and he said they need to be smaller for fourth level, but when I kept the haunches from swinging to the right, they are actually not terrible. Thank God for small miracles.

The second day, we really worked on  the trot halfpass. To the right, Gadget really bends his neck and throws his haunches sideways, but doesn't actually take any weight behind. I honestly thought his right halfpass rocked. I am so clueless sometimes! Ryan had two key exercises to fix this halfpass: 1) shoulder-in focusing on  inside hind to a few steps sideways, then right back to shoulder-in and 2) position in renver to the right, then move him into halfpass, then slowly change the flexion at throatlatch. The takeaway is the neck needs to feel straight to me, and the inside hind needs to feel powerful. It's all very, very hard for me to coordinate. Gadget got very frustrated and was throwing some mini hissy fits. He is not used to carrying that much behind and not used to me keeping my reins so short and making him stay light.

The highlight of the lesson was when Ryan got on Gadget. He worked mostly on the canter. He said that in the collected canter Gadget must stay quicker behind (with little taps and reminders from the leg), but he will immediately dive down on the forehand, so he needs half-halts up front. It will be tricky to teach him the balance. Watching Ryan school the changes on Gadget was awesome. He stayed in this small active canter and explained to him each time to stay active and up. He was sometimes late in front, and Ryan said he just needs to learned to stay lighted in front while staying active behind. He also showed me the trot halfpass and made it look effortless. He said I have to get a better balance, so Gadget can actually lift and cross sideways.

He also said we look much better than last year, so it's always nice when others see the progress.

Next week I am a demo rider at third level  in a symposium with an "S" judge. I really hope that Gadget and I don't embarrass ourselves! I am making a goal to have fun and not be ashamed of my weaknesses. I find a I learn more when I watch through a rider work through the tricky areas -- I may be that rider for someone else at this symposium, because we have lots of issues!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

When old becomes new - update to my old Pikeur Diana!

Here is the finished product! It was a plain black jacket so I added white and light blue trim with RHINESTONES! It's very sparkly! Here's a closeup of the collar, which looks better than the pocket. Now I am going to try to add coordinating trim (minus the rhinestones) to the saddle pad.

Catch-up Post -- Putting Together the Puzzle

It's been a long time since I have actually written any updates about Iggy. Partly, that is because it is difficult to write about things when you are still very much in the experimental stage. I think I have loved dressage since I was a teenager because of the constant experimenting, strategizing, and problem solving of every ride. I love the intellectual side of it. However, puzzles are more fun when you are making progress toward solving them. They are less fun when you spend a lot of time wondering if you have made progress, stayed the same, or actually screwed things up. From Iggy's first show - trying to keep the big canter in one piece! Iggy is my puzzle. He is a puzzle that makes my eyes light up and my heart sing when I see him. He has this sweet baby face and the personality of a labradoodle. When I look at him, he is everything I ever wanted. Yet, our journey has not been quite as straight forward as I thought it might be. When I sat on Iggy for the first tim...

Hard Decisions

I wrote the below in mid January but it was too hard to actually finish this post at this time: It has been a long day. After nearly 9 hours in the car for the trip to Ohio State to the equine hospital in PA to home, I am physically and emotionally spent. After getting positive updates the last couple days, I was looking forward to seeing Gadget without the furrowed brow of pain. However, again Gadget was toe-touching lame this morning. It has been 7 weeks that we have been fighting the infection and the pain. He has been through countless procedures, and even when clearly in immeasurable pain, Gadget tries to do as we ask. My emotions have been close to the surface for weeks, but it is when I think of the pain that Gadget has and continues to endure, that I can no longer stop the tears. I want with all of my heart for him to get better and I feel like we have tried everything available - surgeries, 5 antibiotics, countless lab panels, MRI, and more than 4 weeks of hospitalization...