Wow!

Once again this is an old post but I want to publish it anyway so I'll have it for later (periodically I read my old posts to motivate myself or just cringe over my past foolish mistakes).  Last Wednesday I had a great lesson with Starbuck, we did a few low jumps and it just went really smoothly - her rhythm was good, I didn't have to nag too much at her and we arrived at each jump really well, without zigzagging, stalling or jumping from too close or too far away.  And even though it was a nighttime lesson with the arena lights casting scary shadows, she didn't spook once.  I gave her extra carrots and went home with a big smile on my face.

But that was nothing compared to last Thursday.  Since I was the only person who showed up for the 7 p.m. lesson and I have the exercises from the last post to work on, I told Marina I was happy to ride on my own so she could have an early night but she told me she'd stay for at least a little while and give me a bit of coaching before I started working on my own.  So since we had her full attention, she set me to working on inviting Starbuck to arch her neck downwards and lighten the rein contact at a walk.  We've been working on this a little at a time at the walk for quite some time now and mostly she knows that when I squeeze the reins gently several times it means for her to lower her head.  So we did that, on a fairly long rein (just short enough to have a constant light contact) and also focussed on keeping the hindquarters active by drawing my legs a little further back than usual and using the crop to tickle her (rubbing her against the direction her hair grows in for instance).  And when I could consistently get her to do it, I worked on getting her to stay there for longer and longer.  When she lightened the contact, I could really feel her back arching up beneath me and see the way the muscles in her crest swayed with each stride - it was an incredible feeling of lightness.

When I had several strides in a row at the walk, we did a few transitions into trot attempting to maintain the same low head carriage, flexed poll equalling soft contact and raised back through the transition.  Needless to say it all fell apart.  But we finally got one where she raised her head a little, then went right back into the correct position.  We then did the same work in trot we had done in walk and let me tell you when we got a few steps in a row it felt amazing.  It felt like riding on Pegasus or a springy magic carpet.  After lots of changes of rein, a few rests where I let her put her head down on a loose rein and some more transitions to walk and back to trot when I "lost" the physical sensation I was going for, we had gone from no strides to two strides to nearly half of a 20 meter circle with her carrying her head and back in this position, lightening the contact.  We felt like we were flying at times, and even though she was completely focussed and not at all spooky, far from having to nag at her to keep going I even had to slow my posting action from time to time to keep her from getting ahead of herself.  Both Marina and I just kept saying "Wow!" and ooh-ing and aah-ing over how well she was working.

We finished up at a canter which is the gait which is hardest for her.  I honestly didn't expect her to achieve this "mini-self carriage" at all but I asked for it anyway.  The first try didn't go so well, and she bucked going into it.  The second try she still bucked but wasn't quite so heavy on the reins as the first time.  On the third try Marina told me to try to "visualize" the same feeling I had in my seat at the walk when she went "light-and-down".  And it worked!  Only for two canter strides, but it was such a good start and much better than I hoped for.

Since then I've been able to "recapture" the same feeling at times, not like that day but certainly more than before.  And our lesson with Daniela on Saturday very obviously benefited from it - she mentioned how much we had progressed since the last lesson.  I just need to remember to ask for it every day until it becomes a habit.

Impulsion:Control

So Starbuck's back on the "Go" stretch of the Whoa / Go cycle.  After nearly three weeks of being nearly bombproof, she's suddenly started spooking again at absolutely nothing and I even got dumped again the other day (no harm done luckily).  On the other hand, she's much more responsive to my leg aids (and needs less nagging to keep going) so that's a nice change.  And talking to some stable-mates the other day I realized, with Starbuck I either have impulsion (go) or I have control (whoa) but the moment I have one I lose a considerable amount of the other and get around a 80/20 ratio (if it's a good day) instead of the 50/50 I'm working toward.  I guess this is probably a fairly common occurrence in horse training and it probably shouldn't have taken me so long to figure out the relationship between the two, but there it is.  Sometimes I have a hard time recognizing the obvious.

I think one reason is that up until now I've been subconsciously happy enough to relinquish impulsion for control, but I realize that's been a pretty big mistake.  For one thing, as my personal muse Carolyn Resnick says, the most important thing to have when training is a gas pedal.  And my gas pedal takes like a minute to go from 0 to 60 when I'm asking for it (of course when there's an imaginary tiger in the bushes she can channel her Thoroughbred race horse ancestors in about 2 seconds).  For another, if I only practice being in control when there's next to no impulsion, how can I hope to control her in stressful situations (trail rides, shows, etc...) or when she's just feeling silly?  And finally, if we want to progress in dressage or even get her moving in a healthy, sustainable way, I really need to be able to command those hind legs to get moving and support her instead of trailing along behind.

So if this is all about baby steps and setting us up for success and taking our time, what seems to me to make sense is to work on the two issues together in alternating or combined exercises, trying to even out the ratio.  And if in a month we have 75/25 instead of 80/20 I'll know I'm on the right track - I know I can't hope for 50/50 right off the bat but at least I'll know in which direction to keep going (or that I need to choose a new one).  So in addition to what Daniela and Marina have been suggesting in my lessons with them, we're working on the following exercises:

• Walk - Canter - Walk - Halt transitions
• Trot - Halt - Back - Trot transitions
• Trot from one side of the arena to the other like your life depended on it, then stop and rest for as long as you were trotting.  Then turn around and repeat.
• "Slower - faster" transitions within each gait, especially at trot and canter

On the slower - faster transitions within each gait, I recently read something on a forum which resonated with me - "I think it's important for a lazy horse to feel both ends of each gait; if you are constantly driving forward, forward, forward, you won't get anywhere, and your horse probably won't figure out what you want. Instead, if you ask for a little at first, then gauge back, then ask for more each time, you will find a bigger improvement."  I already try really hard to not have my leg on constantly, but this is really good to keep in mind - I can't just ask for her to lengthen her stride on the entire long side of the arena right off the bat and expect her to do it well, or be motivated to do it better the next time.  So I'm going to start asking her to lengthen and as soon as she does it stop asking, praise and let her drop back into her normal stride.  Then when she consistently lengthens as soon as I ask for it, I'll ask for a few more lengthened strides, then move up from there.

And once I have control not only of "whoa" but of "go" as well, I think we'll be a lot closer to our long-term goal of working happily, healthily, sustainably and safely together.

Starbuck's First Show

Last Sunday there was a "social" horse show at my stable (here, a "social" is a non-federated, non-official horse show) and Starbuck and I finally made our debut on a 60 centimeter course of 11 jumps!  Since I've had so many days off from work thanks to the holidays and some recovered overtime, I've been able to ride her nearly every day for the past two weeks or so which has really paid off.  She's been much more focussed and obedient and has hardly spooked at all during all this time, so I was pretty confident about the show, even though that little voice in the back of my head kept telling me our good streak will end at some point and that there were lots of things (paper tablecloths, lots of spectators, loudspeakers, applause...) which could potentially set her off.

I got there bright and early to dress her up (orange orange orange!!!) but even so I was too late to view the course on foot with Marina, so me and two other girls went around it with José Luis.  Then I was finally able to put the finishing touches on her getup (I learned how to put on polo bandages just for the show and even did her mane and tail with orange rubber bands) just in time to get ushered into the warmup arena with the rest of the folks in my class.  In the warmup arena she was cool as a cucumber - there was one corner she was a little worried about but we were able to ride through any potential antics and apart from a few warmup jumps with José Luis coaching I mostly just did lots of transitions to keep her fresh and interested.

When it was finally our turn we trotted into the arena, posed for the photographer and then set off towards the first jump.  I had a hard time getting her into a canter for the first three jumps and the third she jumped nearly from a standstill, but then it was more or less smooth going (well, for us).  I tried to make our turns wide enough to go straight towards the obstacles, keep her cantering with energy between jumps, use my outside leg to create more impulsion before each jump as well as leading with my hips instead of my shoulders, using my outside rein, relaxing my seat, keeping my weight in my heels and keeping my chin up.  Needless to say I failed utterly at the majority of these things but I like to think that I was able to do at least one at a time and sometimes two.  But she didn't refuse any obstacles, we didn't knock any bars down, we didn't have any fights or bucks or drama or spooks and we didn't even come in last - we actually finished 7th out of 10.  And for me the two greatest achievements were:

1.- Even though it wasn't terribly cold that day (I ended up taking off my jacket and rolling up my shirtsleeves as soon as I got off), Starbuck was hardly sweaty at all when she finished which for me means her mental and physical condition has improved a lot.
2.- I was really concentrated and a little anxious during the first half of the jumps, but actually enjoyed the last half and by the time we took the last one I had a huge smile on my face.

All of the 60 cm contestants got a prize for participation which ended up being a free private lesson with Marina so I am pleased as pie and excited to use it.  The photos were taken by my extremely generous husband (all 300 or something photos here), as usual with his photos I absolutely love most of them but others make me cringe - sometimes I wonder if he's cataloguing moments of conflict or terrible riding on purpose, if he's really that clueless about equine body language and rider posture or if he's just messing with me.  I guess the difference is simply that when I take photos I consciously try to tell a fairy tale where Starbuck is always happy and pretty and I always ride well, whereas he doesn't have the same ulterior motives.  It's always a fantastic reality check though since I tend to look at everything through rose coloured glasses and assume Starbuck's as thrilled as I am about stuff (she's usually not unless it's edible).  For instance these are the two photos he posted to his Flickr account - flattering?  I think not... and Starbuck's mouth looks horribly painful in the second photo.  What is NOT visible is that she was actually pulling down on the reins herself to try to eat the grass I had decided to pose in.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bocata/16037449000/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bocata/16038694219/

Still, it's always interesting to see how other people see us, especially non-horsey people.  And it was a marvellous day and a terrific experience.  Can't wait for next time!