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Schooling the Tempis and Pirouettes -- Work in Progress July 2017

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Gadget and I went to the VADA dressage show in Leesburg, VA with some friends a few weeks ago, and it was not quite the experience I expected. He has been feeling so reliable at home, so I was hopeful that I would get that in the ring. However, the PSG still proves to feel disconnected once I get in the ring. I have been practicing riding the pirouettes bigger at home to gain control of each step. I think this has been a great startegy (thank you, Ryan!), but I failed to close them up in the tests. I guess bigger is still better than spinning. However, the biggest buggaboo is the darn tempi changes. I think coming out of the pirouettes, I don't get Gadget back in front of my leg and straight before the tempis. Anyway, I only had one line with the correct count through the whole weekend. So frustrating, when we can clock them off fairly easily at home! 

Over the last couple weeks, I've been unsure how to school to fix these issues. Afterall, the tempis feel pretty good at home. The pirouettes either feel really good or really bad home, haha. So I had a clinic with a new trainer two weeks ago and she had me tap Gadget on the croup 5 strides in a row to get him more active in the collected canter, and then she had me really think of putting the canter on the spot. It was the smallest I've ever made it. It felt a little labored, but I could feel the value in schooling to that size, to get him stronger and more control. She also had others think of asking for the canter like pushing a button and saying "boop." So it's a quiet, but direct leg aid. I loved this ay of thinking of the change, too!

With those new tools in my tool box for the pirouettes, I decided to use the tapping to get the smaller, very active for the tempis. Last night, I stuck him back in the snaffle and decided to play with the changes. First, getting single clean changes, exactly when I ask. Gadget was one stride behind my aid each time for the left, so I tapped, corrected and got him a bit sharper that way. On the long side, I started thinking of collecting with seat, tapping him behind for jump, then pushing the button for each change. For the threes and fours, this felt so awesome! The rhythm never changed! For the twos, it still takes more aid than it should and I end up moving my seat too much. However, these definitely improved, too. I've been playing with asking for a couple ones, so I decided to try using my new tapping and "booping" method, and I actually got a few lovely ones without Gadget betting upset over the quick aids.

I'm not sure how this will translate to the show ring yet, but I think I am learning to ride these elements much better. One day we are going to get those tempis in a test!

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