1/20/2018 - Day 1: You Have a Canter Problem

Ahh, I had much needed lessons this past weekend!

Throughout December, most of my rides had been “OMG how did this horse ever get through 3-1, because I couldn’t get him through T-1 right now” and “I think I’m going to give up dressage and take up goldfish keeping.” They were filled with despair and I wanted to just send Penn away for training until he could horse properly again. I came across GP Trainer’s “Embrace the Suck” article she wrote a while back when I was paroozing one of my FB groups. It helped remind me that this too shall pass… eventually.

Walking on the bit is super hard, so he does half steps instead...

And then he balks a good bit and gets a "pony club kick" to get him moving forward again.

In the meantime, we made some improvements like saddle fit and body work, but I still sent GP Trainer an email that went something like this “Despair, horses are stupid, I’ll be at your farm two weekends in a row and was wondering how much it would be for Penn to sleep over all week and one of your assistants can school him?” The price to stay for the week with training rides Tues-Thurs wasn’t bad, but it was still more than I pay for a month of board (after I work off part of my board), so it would cause some hardship. I told her let’s see how our lessons go, but I’ll make sure to bring everything he needs to sleep over all week.

This weekend was beautiful for hauling and it was warm, so yay!!!! I really lucked out on the weather for this trip. So much weather misery in the last few weeks and then it was 60+ degrees at her farm.

I just liked this walk.

Penn came into our Saturday lesson a bit frayed; he had what felt like a pony trot- quick and short, not what he normally does. We went through our warm up of walk and trot on the serpentine, then added canter and simple changes (which were much better and I need to remember to sit down through the entire downward- I’m popping up before he’s actually walking and so he takes a trot step). GP Trainer said, “I’m not seeing disaster. I know you want him more uphill, so would I, but he’s much more engaged than when I saw him a month and a half ago.”

We took a quick break and then got right to the meat of the lesson: I was having a lot of difficulty with his right to left change, and with the canter half passes.

GP Trainer: OK, go to the canter and show me your half pass.

Me: Ok great.  **Goes to right lead canter**

Penn: **Responds beautifully**

GP Trainer: What’s wrong with that? It was beautiful.

Me: Nothing. He usually does the first one well, and then gets stuck in the next one and it goes downhill from there.

Penn: ** does three more good half passes**

Me: …

GP Trainer: Straighten and flying change!

Penn & Me: …!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GP Trainer: I see, usually when people say they’re having trouble with the half pass, the haunches are leading, which yours aren't. You don’t have a flying change or half pass problem. You have a canter problem. The same canter problem as before, just in a new and horrible manifestation of anti-self-carriage in canter. (Ok, so I may have pieced a few sentences together from throughout the lesson for effect, lol)

No issues with this half pass.

This is where things started to deteriorate a bit, which is good. This work is hard, and Penn finally is voicing his displeasure over things being hard. GP Trainer: “He’s been a pleasant and mostly agreeable creature for a long time. You were due for this.”

Nope nope nope. I will not lift my inside rib cage, I'll swap leads and go the other way instead. 

I bought myself a very long dressage whip after GP Trainer was here in December, which I made sure I carried in this lesson. She had me keep it in my left hand for the half pass right, but when he started getting stuck and shutting down in the half pass, tap tap tap on his left hip to keep the left hind leg coming, which would keep the half pass coming. We’re not beating him into it- it’s an annoying tap tap tap. I also needed to “hook him” under the right rib cage in the right half pass in a “Lift this rib” way.

Keep the left hind coming! 

Something else she had me do was to think about adding a tiny amount of space under my thigh- that really helped Penn relax into the half pass and then…

Penn: MOM, NO MOAR HALF PASS

Once we got the half pass moving again, she had me straighten and try to do a R-L flying change again after the half pass right. He did give me that change, albeit one stride late behind. He got praise and could walk. GP Trainer said she wanted him doing the change out of the half pass to limit his ability to launch into/out of the change like he wants to (see above gif of frustration, lol).

We picked up the left lead and did a nice half pass to centerline, straightened, then sat and did a clean change to the right lead. GP Trainer was happy with it even though it had some wobble. Back to the right lead!

The walk is small, but he's really sitting into the transition. 

Not the best half pass left, but I did get a clean change after! 

I would cue for the right to left change after the half pass and he’d simply trot. She had me tap him once in the change to keep the canter when I asked for the change because trotting instead of changing is unacceptable. He’s basically conning me into letting him trot when I ask for it. He must try harder to give the right answer!

He wasn’t always giving the change, so she had me CC him into the corners, then apply whip with the change cue. The first time I asked like this, he changed up front and then changed behind a few strides later. He got to walk and catch his breath, but he had to stay on the bit. She had me put him back in right lead canter tracking left (CC), and it took me the entire long side to get him back to the CC. He fussed and danced and pulled and picked up the left lead. She wanted me to change at C, but he ended up breaking, I kicked him on, and he picked up the left lead. She was in the process of telling me to trot and CC when I somehow kicked him into changing to the CC. She was like, “OK, carry on! Don’t stop!”

bad changes

We had some more bumbling problems and took a quick walk break to reset, and had an interesting conversation about the problem. I’m having trouble with this change mostly because I was afraid of him ducking down and bucking, which he is prone to doing and has gotten more aggressive in his bucks lately. So instead of finding self-carriage in the right lead (which would prevent bucking), I’m holding him up and not giving him anywhere to go… so he’s not changing and if he does, I’ll probably end up MAKING him buck because he’ll need to to get his hind end swapped.

GP Trainer: You have to release the reins a bit and make sure he’s carrying himself on the right lead before you ask for the change.

Me: But I’m afraid he’ll end up on the forehand and get his head and neck down and then buck me off.

GP Trainer: I’m glad you said that! You have to be able to let go of that inside rein to give him somewhere to go. He has to be free to make the mistake and tumble onto his head. Sit up like the Queen of England and kick on!

Once I let go, checked the self-carriage, sat up like the queen, and tapped him on the butt with my cue for the change, he started offered a smooth, one stride late behind change. He promptly ran off with me, but GP Trainer said to praise him for the effort and let him walk.

A better change even if it was late behind... And he ran off a bit after lol

Basically, in the half pass and the changes, I have a self-carriage in canter problem, not a half pass or change problem. He gets stuck in the half pass because it’s hard and he’s talked me into believing him when he says he can’t do it, and same thing in the right to left change: he’s talked me into believing he’s not strong enough to even keep cantering, then he talks me into holding him up. She called him very passive aggressive in his naughtiness, lol.

We did a lot of canter in this lesson, and gave him a break before touching the trot. By this point, he was a bit frazzled from all the tap tap tap I was doing and so the trot was tense and quick. GP Trainer said, “Ok, let’s do trot/walk/trot transitions within SI and half pass, zero rein aid.” He was not having it. I had to use a rein reminder the first few times to say, “Hey, you can’t blow through me.” Doing the transitions within the SI and half pass really kept both of us honest about the reins, and gave the transitions constructive places to go. They were also super hard, haha.

Trot walk trot half pass

I briefly mentioned near the end that I had tried a double on my own and it has been going well. We’re both much more polite to each other. The saddle fitter that fixed his saddle also does some double fitting, so I had her look at him to help pick the right Weymouth. She was like, “Great! Next time, bring it and we’ll use it.” I was like, “Well I do have it here, but we’d never talked about using one…” She said, “That’s fine! Use it tomorrow. I encourage students to try them out and see what happens. Some horses go better in them, some don’t. Some you think won’t tolerate them do well, and some that you think will be great in them go absolutely horribly in them. Some horses are so strong in the snaffle that they need them [her last GP horse and a previous FEI horse who is now an absolute saint needed them]”.

She gave me a big warning about if he gets strong in the double, there’s really not much we can do to fix that. There’s no bigger bit and I need to be super careful. I assured her I do not want it to be a band aid. Mikey’s double was a bit of a band aid. I want it to be a tool that helps and adds to the picture. I’ve only been using it once a week or so to make sure he continues to respect both it and his snaffle. Basically, I’ll stop using it if he stops respecting the snaffle. In my head, if you use a big bad piece of equipment and when you take it off and go back to normal equipment, if the horse isn’t improved from before the big bad, then your big bad piece of equipment is a band aid, not a tool. So far, Penn has been improved in the snaffle while maintaining respect for the double, so once a week it is.

Does not appreciate the heaters after a bath. 

We worked almost the full 45 minutes, with minimal breaks, and since it was 60+ degrees, Penn was dripping sweat. Like, he was sweating from above his eyeballs and his girth was a foamy mess.

I got him hosed off and dry (thank goodness I brought a cooler even though it was going to be warm! He was shivering after I hosed him), then put him in his luxury stall for the night... lucky duck got a stall with a run, which he completely adores.

Next time, we have our first lesson in the double with GP Trainer! 

8/27/2017 - Schooling Show

(this post is media heavy and word-light- I've got at least 5 posts worth of material as of today, and another 3-4 coming up in the next week... so word-light posts are coming!)

As part of my final prep for the recognized show Labor Day weekend, I went to a schooling show to ride 3-1 one more time.

We had a large block of time where we were waiting for the end of the show so the girl I hauled could ride an extra test.
We took selfies.

I did my new prep: mini-phaser, tack up, warm up. Penn felt good to me in warm up, nice and agreeable. He did seem to forget what flying changes were, oops, but I did one each way and he remembered.

We'll go right off to the test:

Link to YouTube

Of course as soon as we got into the ring, he started being a little resistant and disconnected. It showed through all of the trot work: head tilting, gait irregularity, unsteadiness in the bridle. It also showed in all of the halts. Not a single one was square. The trot needed more.

I was super happy with his turn on the haunches though! We've been working so hard on those.

The canter was the highlight of the test really. I didn't push the medium canter at all for some reason, but I really let the extended canter go! Both changes were clean, but the first one had swinging haunches and the second was one against the hand, so not great scores, but 5.5 and 6 are still better than 1s and 2s!

Overall, 61.970%. Too many little things wrong, but he did all the things! Obviously I was a little disappointed in the score, but having the video to fall back on is really meaningful for me. I can go back and say, "Yea, that's about right. Good call judge."

But what we did get out of this show were some awesome pictures!

First centerline.

Half pass right. I love how much he steps forward into it- Mikey's steps always got shorter as he went forward.

Medium trot that's not so mediumy.

Medium canter that's not so mediumy. But it was a pretty picture!

"Against hand" in change. Haha, still clean though!

I liked this pic since my hand is back and his tail is out.

It was a good show though, I saw some friends I haven't seen in years and got to run through 3-1 one more time!

Penn used me as a head rest at one point while we were grazing.

7/29-30/2017 Lessons: Getting All Jazzed Up

Last weekend, M and I drove to GP Trainer's for lessons. I don't have much video because her Pixio wasn't working, and we had our lessons back to back, but I do have some good media from the trip!

Saturday 7/29

Still working on finding these square halts.

Saturday's lesson covered simple changes and 10m circles at the canter... and jazzing Penn up a bit. Through our warm up canter work and our real canter work, Penn kept breaking from the canter, no matter the lead. As soon as we'd turn down the diagonal to simple change, he'd break. We'd get through 2-3 10m circles (go around the ring and 10m circle at P, R, C, S, V), and he'd quit. I'd be digging an inside spur into him, pushing him forward with my seat, and making sure I was allowing with my elbows, and he'd still break At one point, I cued for canter and he didn't pick it up, but there I am throwing my seat and shoulders at him.

GP Trainer had me put him together in walk, then lift both legs off, and pony club kick him. She said let him run off a little bit, praise him, and bring him back and repeat once more. She had me put him back together and cue politely for canter. He leaped off into it (in a good way), and we repeated the 5 10m canter circles to the right.

He did them wonderfully- I was able to use infintiely less leg, and got a bit more sit and collection out of them With a better response to my leg, I also got a better response to the canter-walk transition. We nailed them!

We repeated it tracking left- he is weaker left, but we still got all 5 circles. GP Trainer had me "threaten" him by taking both legs off halfway through each circle, and that was more than enough encouragement to get him to dig deep and continue the canter. I made sure to ask him to walk soon after the 5th circle, and it was a wonderful prompt downward transition.

We finished by going for a little walk down her driveway. Penn got a bath and turned out for the night, and M and I painted the town red by going to Applebees and Tractor Supply, with lights out by 10pm, haha.

Sunday 7/30

We rode in the outdoor for our Sunday lesson. On Sundays, the indoor gets taken over by cavaletti lessons, so we opted to work outside in GP Trainer's standard sized court. I want to do one of their cavaletti lessons eventually. I have trouble justifying it though. If I'm going to make the drive, I want two lessons with GP Trainer, and I just don't think Penn could do 3 days of work so we could include a cavaletti lesson.

We worked the trot halts some more since I continue to struggle with them. GP Trainer understood why I'm working them so much- 1-3 has a halt at X with a double coefficient (a side note, she's going to be riding one of her baby horses in 1-3 in a few weeks and despises the test, haha). Penn likes to rest a hind leg in the halt- the left more than the right.

That left hind ruining a beautiful halt. 

We worked on giving him a major halt half to get him to sit in the turn across the school, then letting him walk a step into the halt. It feels like he's taking a ton of steps into the halt, but she said it looks like he's just settling himself. I found thinking one step wasn't enough- I need to think about letting him take 1.5 steps. Enough that I'm not going to shut him down early, but not so much that I actually let him sneak out of it.

This is from Saturday's lesson, but whatever. It worked!

I rode some lateral work- SI down the long wall (at the angle from Sunday's test, which she said was good otherwise it doesn't look like enough from C), and half pass from corner letters on the rail to X. She reminded me to ride the end of the half pass- make him straight again. I rode a really sucky medium trot early on, but the laterals were good.

I moved on to the canter and did some shallow loops, and then tossed in the left lead half pass from 3-3.

Link to YouTube

It felt INCREDIBLE. And easy. OMG it was the best. It's not the steepest, and doesn't look like much when shot from the side, but I was thrilled with it. It is the first left lead half pass that actually made it down the line I wanted, the haunches didn't lead, the horse didn't break. I was able to start it (albeit slowly), and FINISH it. I can see where it needs more inside leg though to create more jump.

I then decided to be super clever and use a flying change to get to the right lead... Yea, I'm not so clever. It failed miserably because I didn't prep or plan for it well enough. We spent a good amount of time jazzing him back up (making him "itchy"), and then doing renvers in canter and being able to apply the same jazz up aids within the renvers and being able to collect him again. The next few changes we made we a mixed bag of unclean- however he started to change the hind end first, then the front. I have to remember to continue pushing him to sit through the change, not pushing him forward through the change.

We did a few to the right, which has actually become trickier to ride properly and he still bucks through them a little bit. GP Trainer wasn't concerned about it- he's finding the hop he needs behind to change. All of the mistakes he made in unclean changes she wasn't concerned about- he's sorting out where to put his body parts.

I did some more jazzing him up in the walk before the right to left changes, and inadvertently got a few steps of piaffe. I am not calling it that myself- GP Trainer did. Of course I don't have it on video though, M had to go tack up her horse. She said that's how she develops it- essentially walking the fine line of jazzing them up and letting them get frustrated in the walk until they offer it, and then praising them.

Throughout all of the canter work, I need to keep the inside leg on and really sit to produce the jump that Penn needs to do the work.

I finally got around to doing the right lead half pass towards the end of our lesson. I wish it was on video. I didn't hold my line- I let it get steep because Penn offered it so easily. I asked for half pass to centerline and he got very light in the bridle and floated across the diagonal from the corner to 15m sideways to somewhere between X and E. GP Trainer had to yell at me to finish it properly because I showed signs of simply enjoying the ride far too much and letting him fall out of it... I halfway succeeded in finishing it properly and was just tickled that it felt so easy for Penn. GP Trainer said the "tricks" come very easily when you've done your boring homework in finding straightness and balance. I absolutely cannot wait to ride 3-3 so I can show off his trot and canter half passes.

Fancy trot picture.

We finished with looking at the TOH (we were going to look at it after he got warmed up, but got sidetracked by changes).

• The TOH left is OK, but she wanted him to take slower and bigger sideways steps because he's taking way too many tiny ones to get it done (like 6-7 instead of 4ish). I did a little opening the left rein and bringing the right onto his neck.
• The TOH right is weak. I had to use the same opening inside rein, but she wanted me to step into my right stirrup, and to get after his left hind by taking my leg back and pretending to kick him in the stifle to keep it active. He likes to start well then fizzles out halfway through.

She said neither is really good enough for Third, they're still in Second level type collection. That's fine- I'll keep working on them!

I wish I had more video - I really rely on it to look back at exactly what she said for each movement and we covered a ton of ground in this lesson. We looked at all the things from First to Third (except medium and extended gaits). GP Trainer is lamenting having to ride First Level herself (it's apparently been years- she usually takes horses out at Third and then not again until PSG), and she is completely on board with continuing to show 3-1 and finish my Bronze (but not 3-3 yet, she thinks the canter is a bit too long for him at this stage), and basically only show 1-3 a little as possible. She also applauded me sticking with First at Championships and thinks I have a very good shot at Finals because I'm showing him two levels above our championship test (which we'll ride in a month and a half). She said to make as much of the 1-3 test of Third Level quality as I can- that will really bring in the good marks.

Penn didn't get a bath when we were done because...

Which deserves it's own post! :-D

Oh, Oh it's Magic!

In my last lesson, I was really struggling with the concept of half pass. I've always struggled with it. It was not Mikey and my strong suit- I always pushed the haunches to leading. With Penn, I'm lucky if they catch up! They trail like none other.

Look! I did something not horsey!
Husband enjoys road rallies that have "clues" for the directions. (so do I)
We did one on Saturday and won! (well we tied for first but the other car had 4 people in it which isn't fair when you're looking for things like: "Make the next turn to the opposite side of the road as an upside down boat")

Sunday

Sunday was quiet at the barn and I was able to ride by myself inside (it suddenly became 80 degrees and sunny and HUMID again, wtf?!), so I spent a while working on half pass in walk. Breaking it down into what I was doing. If you recall, a couple lessons ago when Penn proved to be quite the flying change machine, Trainer got after me about shoving with my left seatbone to make Penn change bend to the right (it doesn't work yo) when we were doing simple changes on the circle between canter/counter canter. I took a look at how I was asking for half pass right... and OMG, guess what I was doing? Shoving him right with my left seatbone, then laying into him with my left leg because he wasn't going right or bending right. Major 'durrrrrrrr' moment.

I did some contorting (because I am unable to put my right seatbone on it seems): turn my body right, let my left leg go back, raise my right heel to engage my right seatbone, collapse my right rib cage and be a twisted mess. Then I tried again. Who knew Penn wanted to do the right thing after all? He was all, "ohhh thank goodness" and "oh, you should have just said that's what you wanted" etc. *facepalm* Now to do it without the the contorting!

We finished with some simple canter work on a circle, but he got a bit looky at that point so, I donno. I was still happy with him though. He does want to please, I just have to make sure I ask correctly!

He got a vetrolin bath and turned back out, in full fly gear (freshly sewn too btw cause he's hard on clothes). Because we still have mad bugs, wtf? It's almost November and the flies were TERRIBLE.

Husband took advantage of the good weather and build a tractor shed for his Gravely tractor. Since he put my parent's old kitchen cabinets in the tractor's nook in the garage, it doesn't fit anymore and needed a new temporary home for the winter.

Tuesday

I had some reports to run Tuesday afternoon that took a long time to run, so I ended up paroozing A Enter Spooking's old posts about second level and half pass, in anticipation of a Very Exciting Event Coming in November (I'm not ready to spill the beans and I kind of want to see how it goes first, but it's a super exciting learning opportunity). I started teetering between, "Ok, we've got this. We're ready for second level" and "OMG we need to repeat First Level because we are failing at everything!"

I ended up spending quite a bit of time reading/studying I Hate Half Pass and The Devil's Transition. The way Megan described half pass is just how I needed it- it's both shoulder in and haunches in, which makes no sense, but it does. You should never be shoving the horse across with the outside leg (whoa what?) and you need to maintain the cues for shoulder in (inside leg on to outside rein connection- who knew?!). Magical nonsense I say! I sat in my desk chair playing with seatbones when something clicked: In our first lesson working on it, we did shoulder in to half pass. When the shoulder in was good, I just weighted my inside leg and seatbone more and Penn went right over as if he was mind reading... THEN I STOPPED WHEN I LOST MY OWN BALANCE AND STARTED SHOVING AND THINGS WENT POORLY. Holy freaking shit. I started him off right, then started doing stupid things with my body! I was super excited for the end of the day to come so I could get on and test what I had read.

The first thing I did when I got on was test my shoulder in cues- inside leg to outside rein - where was Penn connecting to and what was I using to keep him there? That's when I rediscovered found a gaping hole in our training... Penn doesn't always go to the outside rein (and I fiddle too much to make him connect, so it's kind of fake and gee, could that be why we're struggling with it right now?). So the start of our ride was connecting to the outside rein: me making sure the correct seatbone was engaged and really putting my inside leg on at the girth. It did take some spur, sorry about that Penn. I have to undo a year's worth of poor training. As I moved to trot, Penn was much more connected than he's been in the recent past. I pulled another exercise out, one that Karen at Bakersfield Dressage told us all about last winter, and one I forgot about until now. I put Penn on a figure 8, and then went to walk across the middle to really focus on the change of bend, then back to trot.

Penn really struggled to change bend from right to left. That continued to be the theme of the day, bending left was tough. We ended up doing extra circles to the left until he really settled into the connection before walking, changing bend to the right, and trotting off again. His connection felt so much better- I wasn't doing anything except supporting him with leg. His first instinct both directions was to connect to the inside rein... something I'm sure I've helped along by fiddling too much with the inside rein. An interesting thing I found was that he wants to swing his haunches to change bend... probably because I haven't been asking properly.

Anyway, I started mixing the canter in, which is where "The Devil's Transition" comes in. I've been struggling with the canter walk, and it's been getting worse. After all this prep work though, plus the clue of "as soon as you pull on the reins, you've lost the hind end and the transition", I tried actually half halting before  wanted to walk, then asking for walk. And Penn promptly dropped into walk. Holy shit, what as discovery! Haha. We did a couple transitions both directions, again paying more attention to the left lead because we're struggling with left bend.

Penn got lots of pats and a walk break. I was blown away with how on task he was. He's been spooky, and while he looked a little, the new level of connection kept him on task. Again, go figure!

I wanted to try the half pass work again, but by this point Penn was running out of butt power. I tried it in walk anyway, aiming to keep everything brief: shoulder in to get back in the idea of inside leg to outside rein, with inside seatbone on, then some outside leg to ask for him to move across the diagonal, then back to shoulder in when one of us starting failing out of the half pass. I had to resist the urge to sit in the outside seatbone hole that's created, and to keep him moving to my outside rein (which comes from the inside leg). Holy crap was it a lot easier to ask for, and Penn never once slowed down or tried to quit (or rear).

Off to trot where I found I had to post on the right diagonal (as in right vs left, not right vs wrong) in both directions, and I couldn't sit the trot- that let me squash him with my seat. I really really want to pull with my inside rein in the half pass. I found when I wanted to do that, I put some extra effort into inside leg to outside rein to fix his bend, and it only took gentle prodding with my outside leg to get him to move over. When he'd start to fizzle, I'd ask for shoulder in again, which he struggled with and it was very leg-yield-like inside of bent shoulder in.

The half pass right was super (this is the one he's been shutting down in). He willingly moved forward into it and it was just nice. Not show worthy since he inverted a bit (he's doing that in shoulder in right now too), but he started to soften towards the end of the work and I never once felt like I was shoving him across the arena.

We did a bunch each direction, mixing in medium trot/collect/medium trot/working trot to keep him thinking forward. I lost a bit of connection doing that, so it's something to work on too. The left was much harder- he was more inclined to leg yield vs shoulder in that direction and I fought with him a bit over it. I think he was just tired by that point, so I didn't pick at it too much.

I let him stretch trot and walk at that point- I was so pleased with all the work even though it lacked bend. He tried so hard the whole time and even started to soften a little. I think I need to do a bit less with my seat- I tend to squash with my seatbones. Such a light bulb moment ride though- everything was so much better and while I still struggle with the half pass, I think I finally understand!

Half pass has been described to me as haunches in on the diagonal to get the feeling, but it's more like shoulder in and I couldn't piece that together. At all. Now I can: shoulder in uses inside leg to outside rein with inside seatbone. Then for half pass, maintain the inside seatbone and inside leg to outside rein support to keep the horse's balance over the outside shoulder, and add some outside leg to send it sideways. If you have to start piling on the outside leg to get the horse to move over, you've lost something in the starting connection. A huge 'durr' moment: if you're shoving the haunches over with your outside seatbone and outside leg, you'll never have inside bend because outside seatbone DOES NOT CREATE inside bend. Ever.

So thanks Megan! You explained this is a way that I understand!

10/11 Lesson - Half Pass Help

Alright, I'm falling off the train here. I have a bunch of draft posts in my folder (because we have been up to stuff, I promise!), and I just need to dump in the media and some words. Hell, one of them is just media dump. Ughhh, but I can't bring myself to do it, I don't know why... though it could be that I've been working 5-8 hours of OT at work every week for the last couple weeks and have no desire to sit at a computer for even more time...

Trainer was out last Tuesday for lessons, so I'll just do a brief recap.

Our issues/comments from between lessons:

• The flying changes are going well on my own, however I can't seem to do them on a straight line. I don't set Penn up properly and I miss "the moment" and end up kicking him forward instead. Circle to circle, counter canter to true canter on the circle exercise, all good.
• Counter canter is going well too. I've been switching up what we do- yes, figure 8, flying change, ok now no change and do the figure 8 on the same lead, etc. He keeps asking if I want a flying change, I say no thank you, he says OK, then about two strides later he asks again if I want a change.
• Half pass strugglebus. Big time. I've been doing shoulder in to half pass since I struggle with bend and haunches leading, but I'm losing all bend. The half pass left is OK, but the half pass right... not only does is lack bend, but he's quitting after a couple steps.

We ended up spending the entire lesson working on half pass in walk and trot, without ever making it to canter or looking at the changes. That's fine, that's not the struggle right now.

Half pass: a steeper angle Travers on the diagonal?

Trainer had me warm up in walk and trot doing leg yields and serpentines etc. We moved on to half pass work in walk where things were confirmed: Penn is short backed, and I continuously push him to too steep an angle. Plus, Penn is hitting his legs with his other legs. He has to figure out the footwork.

Trainer had me do the following exercise across the diagonal:

• Wall to quarterline, let the shoulders lead excessively.
• Quarterline to centerline, push the haunches to lead excessively.
• Centerline to quarterline, let the shoulders lead excessively.
• Quarterline to wall, ask for normal half pass.

By the time we'd get to step 4, Penn would be like, "OH THANK GOODNESS! This is much easier than that other stuff."

However, he started shutting down in step 2, especially to the right, and even went to far as to stop and lift his front feet off the ground. Little taps with the whip reminded him to keep going, but he wasn't happy.

Once in trot, we worked the same pattern. Trainer had me post on the right handed diagonal for both half passes, but instead of half passing on both diagonals, she had me half pass across one (or most of the way across, I usually ran out of ring length), and then on the next she had me lengthen, collect over x, and lengthen again to the wall.

Penn got the idea in trot, but it's all still such a struggle. The half pass right is even more of a struggle- but after doing the lengthen work across that diagonal repeatedly, Trainer had me do half pass instead, and he was very forward thinking in that half pass instead of shutting down (repetition for the win). He's still hitting himself with his legs, so obviously he needs more time just practicing the footwork. I did make an attempt to do it in canter before this lesson, and it was surprisingly smooth, but I have no idea how correct it was.

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Things got better towards the end, but I'm still feeling discouraged. I know I'm too heavy handed with the rein during it (as found by my ride Thursday night when I made a huge attempt to do nothing with the reins and ask for it...), and so that probably means I need to spend more time doing haunches in properly on the wall, because how I originally read about half pass was this:

Half pass is just haunches in on the diagonal. It's not shoving the hind end around on the diagonal. (see graphic above)

With that logic, Mikey always led with the haunches because I couldn't work out the line I needed to ride to make it more similar to haunches in, yet the shoulders still led when viewed from A/C.

Penn struggles big time with haunches in right (right hind doesn't like stepping up to the plate), but seems agreeable to haunches in left. I changed my thinking a bit, and I started with the first step of shoulder in to get on the diagonal, then asked for gentle haunches in on a diagonal line... Penn's half pass seemed to get a lot better after I changed my thinking.

I should also say that our connection has hit a huge snag - as I ask for all these new things, the connection gets thrown out the window... which leads me to believe I need to work on making it truer in general. (side note, connection Thursday night was really great, then as I started some canter work, Penn's brain fell out of his head and he became a spooky bastard that would not connect, especially in trot... or track straight either). Same goes for bend because I put my inside leg on and sometimes I get ignored, but I always assume I'm doing something else that prevents him from reacting properly.

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Taken from Google.
I know Penn's half pass won't look like this!

Alright blog land, how do you think about riding half pass? Was it bad and then all of a sudden magic and butterflies as it clicked? How much bend should you have? (I guess the answer to that is 10m bend) How do you help create bend? Maintain bend? These are stupid questions I'm sure, but I'm really just struggling to grasp the concept. I wish I had mirrors that I could check myself!

I found this article by Janet Foy, from Dressage Today about riding half pass and travers. I really like it. I think Trainer's exercise is on the right path since Janet describes a similar "test" at the end of the article and I was just approaching it wrong (I'm shoving the haunches instead of riding travers on the diagonal).