5/21/2018 - Alfredo Hernandez Clinic

Both Jenj (here, here, here, and I know there's more but these were easy to find) and Megan have ridden with Alfredo, enjoyed it, and blogged about it. I was STOKED to find out he was coming to a barn a mere 4 hours from me for a 3 day clinic 5/21-23. I wanted to learn his methods for piaffe/passage, he was here on the east coast, and he wasn't stupidly far from me. Jenj described his cool way of getting changes on a horse, which I recreated at home and bam, Penn had changes. I needed to take a turn with him.

Lots of learning happened!

I messaged the trainer organizing it and tried to sign up for 2 of the 3 days. All was well until I asked work for the time off... and they told me no. I could have the first day (a Monday) but not the second day because of an outage test that was being conducted. I had to make a deicison at that point- do I make a crazy plan of drive down Monday, ride, drive home, go to work Tuesday, or do I skip out?

I went, duhhhhhhh!

I got up at 4:30am Monday, met two ladies at the barn who were coming with me to audit, and we were on the road at 7:05am. Alfredo's flights got messed up, so the clinic was shuffled from noon to 6:30pm, no lunch break. We were excited to get there in time to see the first few rides, one of which was a GP horse.

We actually got to see majority of the clinic (I only missed part of the rides before and after me)- we were there for the beginning and stayed until the end... meaning I dropped Penn off at midnight, and got myself home by 1am Tuesday morning, showered, and got way too little sleep for a Tuesday in the office. It was totally worth it, majority of the horses were FEI level horses, or aspiring, and several of the riders were ones I knew about and have seen go at shows.

Arrival

Some of the things he covered with the other riders:

• No hanging on the reins for balance. He made a rider with a "lazy" horse who couldn't be ridden without two whips ride without any whips. He got after the rider to stop hanging on the reins and to sit better (on the back of the pelvis) and to collect the canter using the middle of the thigh. Her horse was beautifully forward with tons of jump in the canter, of which I was quite envious! He made her do her PSG tempi changes on the wall while holding the reins at the buckle, each direction. She struggled, but she did it and she had beautiful smooth changes.
• He does not advocate riding with a whip because that is not the kind of rider he is building. He is going to treat you like you want to ride in CDIs and guess what's not allowed? A whip. They aren't allowed at championships either.
• To help with getting the changes: trot around the ring, go down the longside and go from shoulder in to renvers to travers to leg yield with the nose on the wall. Continue to flip between those in that order on the long wall until it is smooth as butter. Go to canter, half pass in (more of a haunches in) on the circle, then leg yield out, repeat. On one of the leg yields out, ask for the new lead.
• Half pass corner to corner on the diagonal, but before you get to the corner make the haunches lead the half pass, and do a turn on the forehand into the same half pass back down the same diagonal.
• Open the inside hand instead of pulling it back.

There was also a huge lesson in being tactful. The first 3 lessons were a trainer, her student, then the trainer and one of her GP horses. Both riders had a little attitude, but the student opened up to Alfredo's ideas and ended up with all of the auditors applauding her efforts and finished a very good lesson.

Sunday night, all scrubbed up and clean for the clinic!

The trainer... is not one I want to ride with. I saw her compete a few years ago and was impressed with her canter work but not her trotwork- it was irregular and tense.... and now I know why. She would tell Alfredo how it is, threw her own trainer (who was there watching and hosting the clinic) under the bus, and basically went off about how her GP horse was a huge ass and how he took years to learn things because he was so uncooperative and was prone to rearing. Alfredo immediately told her to pretty much simmer the fuck down because her body language was so aggressive and that she rides this horse very differently than her first horse (he did not use that language,I'm creatively paraphrasing). He tried to tell her in every way imaginable that the reason the horse had a rearing problem is because she has an anger problem (short of outright yelling that at her). He had to tell her to give the horse a moment to think about the piaffe/passage transition and to stop hitting the horse with the whip when he didn't respond immediately. The trainer rode angry and defensive, but eventually she opened her inside hand when the horse would get stuck and the horse would think and move forward instead of rearing.

Alfredo asked to see the trainer and the host trainer work on the piaffe/passage, which the trainer said "it took me 2 months to undo what [the hosting trainer] did", and about 15 seconds into it, Alfredo ripped her off the horse. He was warned, "That horse will rear and run you over" as he set the gelding up in a side rein and prepared to work him in hand. He simply said, "We'll see" and got to work making the horse do a turn on the forehand in hand. The horse's eye immediately softened and got right to work for him. He settled him on the wall and worked him through a few rearing threats with beautiful timing/pressure/release, and don't you know it, that horse piaffed without running anyone over.

Moral of the story? Be fucking nice to your horse. No emotions. Let them think. GP Trainer got that in my head already, but it was nice to see a horse that is wound so tight relax because Alfredo was simply unemotional with it. I learned later that he almost dismissed the trainer from lesson for being so disrespectful to both him and the horse.

Tacked up, waiting for my lesson. Penn decided to rest his face on the wall for the 10 min we stood there.

On to happier things, like my lesson! I'll admit, after watching the lessons before me, I was extremely anxious.

I told him Penn and I finished my bronze medal last year, we're working on making third better, Penn can sometimes be bolty in the changes, but I really wanted to learn how to do the in hand piaffe/passage work. I also told him that Penn had SI injections about a month ago and is getting back into full work. He asked how many days of the clinic I was riding, I said just the one day... he wasn't happy. He told me outright there's a limited amount he can get done in one day because he's getting to know you and the horse, and you can only cover so much in  45 min and you can only push something so far in one day. I told him I understood completely and knew that coming in, and we'd do what we could.

We warmed up with the leg yield on the diagonal exercise, trotted briefly, and moved on to in hand piaffe work! I told him I wanted to learn how he worked it, because I've had hit or miss lessons with it and I'm unable to reproduce the results on my own consistently. He told me flat out, "This horse is ready to piaffe." Ok, awesome. He asked to see how I asked for it, I sucked at it, and he immediately said, "I can see why the horse bolts through you in changes. We can fix that here." Ok, that's even better.

He started by putting the outside side rein on and looping the reins over the head and through the bit (outside rein over the head like a lunge line, and through the inside bit ring) so that way he had both sides of the mouth right there in his hand. Then he asked Penn to move his hindquarters in a leg yield/turn on the forehand by tapping him rather smartly with the whip on the fleshy part above the gaskin. He always gave a light tap to start with, then a sharp tap if the horse didn't respond. If the horse moved away, he'd immediately stop applying pressure for a moment before asking again. He did that until the horse was reaching the inside hind leg under him and moving to the outside rein without pulling on his hand at all. The cue to stop moving was when he'd put the whip vertically up against the shoulder/neck parallel to the slope of the shoulder.

The bridle set up was like this (picture taken after the fact).

He then took that leg yield to the wall, and used a specific clucking noise (aka, start developing different clucks now), in a trot rhythm while tapping the same spot above the gaskin with the whip with the same gentle/sharp intensity. Penn was confused by what he wanted, and reared a few times (we'll call it levade, lol), before figuring out he was supposed to trot in place.

Alfredo did a few rounds of it, before handing Penn to me to walk once around the ring (the horse works when Alfredo is there, the rider gets to be "the good guy" and walk the horse on a long rein).

Alfredo took him back and asked for piaffe, which was very nice, and then said, "You want to try? Let's see what you learned from watching."

I have to say, I missed the part with the leg yield turn on the forehand and the reasoning behind it. He explained it to me, and off I went. I sucked at it. He took Penn back from me to show me again, and then had me try again, and then schooled me on the ask gently once, then ask sharply. I didn't get anything magical, but I learned a lot on the timing of things. If Penn went to bolt through me, I was to immediately put him on the leg yield/turn on the forehand until he was light in my hand again. I didn't get the excellent response Alfredo got, but it was apparently sufficient because he eventually said, "Ok, that is enough of this for one day. Get on and let's look at the changes."

Penn's best piaffe of the session.

We went back to the trot after the piaffe work, and Penn was immediately more uphill and forward. Alfredo wanted his head a good bit lower with much more contact than I do, but we did it because that's what we were told to do and I am here to learn. Off to the canter!

The first thing he did was encourage me to follow the canter better. GP Trainer has been after me for a long time to sit into the canter and it has been a struggle. He wanted me to pull my pelvis up and down with the motion of the canter, which really forced me to absorb the motion in my core. Thinking about it that way made me realize I completely seize up in my seat when I ask for anything in canter that's not a circle (like half pass, leg yield, flying changes etc).

It took me a while to work out what he was telling me to do with the canter after that. The other riders mostly stuck to the circle and leg yielded and half passed on it, so when he said circle, go to the rail, and leg yield... I tried leg yielding down the rail. Wrong. We had a few communication issues to work out, and then I finally understood he wanted me to leg yield from the corner to X in canter. He then sprung the change on me, and bam, Penn did is very nicely!

The leg yield kept him very straight so I could simply ask for the new lead. I got the one change, and Alfredo said walk... and I couldn't get Penn stopped on the CC. He got bolty and did another flying change. Alfredo immediately said, back to canter! If he's going to run through you, he's going to keep cantering.

He had me repeat the leg yields and changes until we had clean changes, and multiple changes! Penn did his first real set of multiple changes, just two on a long side, but I was super happy!

Link to YouTube

I would advise anyone who wants to ride with Alfredo to audit him first, to make sure you like his style. He is... quirky. Between quirky, a thick accent, and sometimes he didn't quite finish the instructions, made him difficult to ride for. Once I understood what he wanted, I did it immediately, which made him very happy. That's not to say I didn't enjoy my lesson, because I did enjoy it.

In short, Alfredo is intense and extremely demanding as a clinician. But again, he is building you as if you want to be a CDI rider. He is not someone I would host at home barn, because he's more expensive than most people would do, and he's much more intense than most people I know would be happy with. He is supposed to come back to this host barn every 8 to 10 weeks, so we'll see if I ride again!

2/17-18/2018 Lessons - You Have a Self Carriage Problem (And GP Trainer takes Penn for a spin)

It's been a while since these two lessons, but I don't want to skip over them because they were really good and set me up for the last 3-4 weeks of work.

It started snowing as soon as we arrived. Penn was thrilled to stand out in it.
I was glad I brought some of his waterproof clothes just in case he got a stall with a run!

I made my way back to VA several weekends ago for lessons while GP Trainer was home for a weekend. I was super excited, the counter canter work was going really well and Penn was so much more balanced in the counter canter, and then the regular canter by default.

My first lesson of the weekend ended up being a bit of a drag. Literally. This horse found a new avoidance- dragging me around the ring. I couldn’t keep up with the cues he needed or stop him.

GP Trainer really liked how his work was coming along, everything was stronger looking. As we warmed up, she pushed me to make my simple changes better- ask for FEI response simple changes, not second level response simple changes (something I need to school in all of our work).

I love how smooth the transition to renvers is!

Ok, so this isn't good work, it's just a funny reaction to the half halt.

I love love LOVE the start of this counter canter. So upright! He struggled to keep it but we finished strong!

Things went well, so she had me start adding back the flying changes. We asked for the changes out of CC on a circle, and he was giving me late changes. The left to right change was better than the right to left (as it has been for the last few months).

Tiny and a bit clustered, but clean with no leaping!

We started picking apart the bad change a little bit by putting his haunches in while still counter cantering. He wants to step out with his right hind in the change (the outside hind since we’re CC on the right lead while tracking left), so we need to encourage him to load it and keep it under him without swinging his haunches around.

Late with a disengaged right hind.

Well, Penn disagreed most vigorously. The horse hasn’t “run away” with me before, but he dragged me around the ring in this lesson. I needed to be faster in giving and releasing my aids, and I just wasn’t fast enough. I needed to catch him before he ran off, but I just couldn’t. Running off in changes is a huge no-no for GP Trainer. It makes multiple changes difficult because you know… the horse is running off instead of preparing for the next change.

This was an unexpected response and the only amusing one. GP Trainer let him have that one, If only because he didn’t drop his front end.

None of what happened here was my idea. He just took over.

We struggled to pick up the counter canter after that. It was just depressing and I felt defeated.  As I worked on the change, he started giving this awkward trot skip change (which I know another horse who does it and her rider wasn’t able to break the habit). We ended up quitting on a change that was late, but quiet.

But wait! All hope was not lost. I had another lesson the next day. So I asked, “Do you want to ride him tomorrow?”

She agreed to!

As I was untacking him, I noticed some blood on his hoof... he just seems hell bent on destroying his feet. During one of his nonsense porpoise jumps, he must have overreached and stepped on the outside heel bulb of his front left hoof.

Please stop damaging your legs. All 4 now have various marks and ailments, some of which are permanent.
(this picture was taken under the red heat lamps in the wash stall)

I always travel with a trunk of stuff for wraps- cotton, no bows, vet wrap, duct tape, diapers etc. You probably noticed the blue vet wrap in the first picture on this post- I wrapped up his foot for the night to keep it clean and give it some cushion to keep it from getting sore overnight. The wrap did a good job- it sealed the flap of skin nice and tight to where it should be and he came out nice and sound.

Umm.

I got him all tacked up the next day (with a new gauze pad + vet wrap + bell boots), and a little sad that I had copped out on riding him myself. But in reality, he has had a trainer on him… 4 times? Event trainer rode him once for fun when he came home, twice when he was ignoring me or acting naughty, and Megan rode him once last summer. Everything else has been me. He’s had a few other riders on him because swapping horses is fun, but not many. I was looking forward to seeing him with GP Trainer!

The first thing she did was put leg on and not take it off. The next thing she did was not let him lean on her hand. No pressure on her hands at all. He had to carry himself.

He did not like that. He pulled the same stopping and backing up that he pulls with me. Her words were, “If you’re having anger management issues over the walk, you’re in for a rough 45 minutes.” As they moved on to trot and canter, he would voice his displeasure over the amount of leg she was applying by trying to kick her leg.

She said she was applying the same aids that I was, just harder and more often. She also said he’s 70% on the bit and 70% straight. He needs to be 100% in both, but he’s talked me into 70%. His self carriage needs a lot of help.

She went back to the counter canter and attacked the changes. He gave her a clean left to right change, and then she started picking at the right to left. He started giving her the same issues I had- not picking up the counter canter, not maintaining it, trying to bolt through her. She got him stopped before he even took the first step into his bolts. It only took one or two attempts and her stopping him to make him stop trying that option. I was secretly happy that she didn’t immediately get clean changes, but she did finish with one clean right to left change.

GP Trainer riding the sticky right to left change.

Then she said, “Go get your helmet and boots!”

Whaaaaaa…!

I had to run back to the barn to get my stuff on, and before I hopped up, she had me grab the reins by the bit and pull on her hand- she then did this weird vibrating motion with her hands. It is impossible to describe, all I can say is it’s very fast tiny motions through to the elbow that prevent him from finding a spot to lean on the bit… forcing him to carry himself.

It was AMAZING riding after her. He listened to my leg! He was light in my hand! It felt like he could keep cantering on as he was for forever! I asked for a single flying change, left to right, and she said he changed the hind, then two strides later changed the front. A perfectly acceptable mistake.

We did some canter to the right, and while he still swapped leads out on me, he wasn’t bolty anymore, and we got some great “mistakes” as he tried to change leads and sit and got stuck.

He sits so hard when he gets stuck!

She commented that he wasn’t easy, and that he felt very very similar to her last grand prix horse (who was the most successful of the 5 or so she’s brought up). They both have big powerful hindquarters, are built fairly level, and neither want to be completely straight or on the bit. I told her, being compared to that horse isn’t a bad thing!

A few things she noted:

• In 6 months or so, we can talk about stepping the canter more forward again and letting him float a bit within the canter. He will FINALLY be strong enough in the near to mid future to balance himself and carry more forward.
• His issues are self carriage issues, not flying change issues. If I don't touch the changes for a month, and only focus on improving his self carriage, his flying changes will still improve because his self carriage will have improved. Even if I don't canter much and spend my time struggling in the walk, I will STILL be improving his changes.
• All of this work is going to be SO HARD for him. He is going to be exhausted. Rides are going to be short because he's going to run out of gas in the tank.

I'm sharing the whole video of me riding after her- there's so much good stuff about letting him make mistakes, how what we're doing is so hard, and how I need to judge his responses against both of those things. He's going to make honest to goodness mistakes and he's also going to tell me to go pound salt. I have to be smart about deciding which response he's giving me.

Link to YouTube

I am SO GLAD I had GP Trainer ride him at the start of my second lesson. She got to feel everything, and fix things, and I got to have a great ride!! I ENJOYED my horse again. I asked her if she would be willing to sit on him at the start of our next visit, for as long as she feels she needs to (15-20 min like this, or the whole 45 min), and she said sure (I mean, it’s not like she’d say no I think lol). But this way, she can evaluate him and work on the right to left change, and then I can have a better learning experience because she’s schooled him. We’re to a point that is beyond anything Mikey and I did, so the extra help is awesome!

She gave us homework to keep working on his self carriage. He's not to touch my hand, and if he's leaning on me at all, no doing changes. I don't have a flying change problem, I have a self carriage problem! Simple homework right? Ha!

1/28/2018 - Adult Camp Lesson 2

My lesson Sunday morning was with LH, and she also focused on keeping the quality of the canter and frustrating Penn while he builds the strength to keep his hind end under him instead of trying to splat in the counter canter.

While we warmed up, she stressed he needs to be straight: If he’s not straight he gets flingy (as noted in yesterday's cavaletti lesson). He needs to be super straight on the outside aids.

She also stressed the quality of the canter: If you’re asking for collected canter, right on. Make sure you can still drive forward. Keep the jump in the canter no matter what. Lots of inside leg to outside rein.

Look! The sit! Too bad it wasn't quite what I asked for and he ended up stuck.

She also said now is not the time to be subtle with my canter cues- once he’s confirmed I can be subtle. I need to make sure my seat and leg are very, very clear. 

She also said to stop asking for backwards when he wants to stop, but he can send himself backwards. Tap him forward. Don’t ask for rein back or anything that resembles backwards for a while (not that I was planning on that, haha).

So stuck in the canter. Must spin in. Must back up.

Basically, we’re picking apart the changes and making them better and he thinks that’s horrible. As we got rolling into the real meat of the lesson, I tried to bring him along to the changes the way GP Trainer and I did, half pass to the change. The half pass was ok (haunches leading, a new problem for us), but I lost the jump and he hopped instead of changing.

I got the canter back, and LH recommended not doing any movements, just canter on the 20m circle, and over x, change to counter canter on the adjacent 20m circle. So that's what we focused on the rest of our lesson!

Find the counter canter, and spend the first circle just keeping counter canter. Next, flop around a little bit, but keep the counter canter. Slowly start changing the bend, working on left bend in the right canter, all while keeping the counter canter.

He got all flustered when I started changing the bend and trotted, but LH praised me for keeping a very cool head when he started his halt/rein back nonsense and simply going back to it. We did some more counter canter as I tried to change the bend and he broke to trot, then tried to quit, to which LH said, “Horses are great, horses are great, dressage is fun, dressage is fun!” Just keep going!

She said that he’s not wrong in breaking, being uncomfortable and knowing something is going to happen. The counter canter on the circle is about him letting me in and me being able to adjust the canter or flop around as desired without him changing. Eventually, when I can counter canter and move around and adjust the stride and bend, and I finally do ask him to change, he’s going to leap at the chance to do it because it’ll be a relief and easier than anything else we have been doing. And it will be beautiful and lovely.

But look at this very smart walk- counter canter transition!

We took a break, then got our wires crossed about which direction to go next- LH wanted the left lead, but I heard right lead, which made sense to me since the right lead is weaker, and he did this lovely agreeable CC circle:

We went the other way, and had to work through his halt/rein back shenanigans, and got the left lead rolling. She had me keep the regular counter canter for a circle, then start bending him right. He wanted to lay on me and lean, and I had to fluff him up off the rein. She got after me to keep the jump coming, and to open my inside rein to say, “hey, over here” and he had to maintain the CC. His stride got a bit open, and when I went to collect it, he quit.

We got the counter canter back, and she reminded me to keep his poll up. “Don’t even ask for a change until he can counter canter with his poll up, in the opposite bend, with his hind legs under his body. When he can do all this and not give you the middle finger, and not stop and back up, then you can ask for the change."

In his last CC on the left lead, she had me really change his bend and sit down, and he just got stuck but never quit trying.

She encouraged me to keep going through this struggle, because he will be so much better on the other side.

I found this lesson to be super helpful, and I actually have a single half hour clip from this lesson, so here you go. Bad blogger with a too long video I know, but I've cued it up to the right lead canter work.

Link to YouTube

I videoed J's lesson for her, and we got everything packed up to go home. It was a great weekend of learning!

Penn staring longingly out his window. He and B didn't really want to go home.

Penn and B with matching sped-heads in the trailer cams.
Penn is usually mean in the trailer, but he and B seemed to be genuine friends!

The sunset was SO PRETTY. (don't worry, J took this pic, not me!)

Of course it was dark (but not too late!) by the time we got back to the barn, and we hadn't had anything go majorly wrong... so I fulfilled that by almost jack knifing my trailer. I had to aim it around a truck to get it back to its spot, and I misjudged everything and got my truck stuck in the mud while wedged between the trailer and a fence. *facepalm* Why didn't I turn on 4wd? The truck can't turn as tightly... and the fence was already a problem. So I had to unhook right there and move the trailer another day when the ground was frozen again. Sigh. At least I didn't actually jack knife it!

So close to disaster.

I found this weekend so worthwhile, cavaletti work and more homework to make the changes better. I also really liked getting 4.5 lessons (we'll call the cavaletti a .5, lol) in January. I've already noticed a big difference, so I'm trying to work out if I can financially do this camp again in February. We will see!

1/27/2018 - Adult Camp Lesson 1

One of the barn ladies (we'll call her J) approached me a few months ago and asked if I wanted to go to the Adult Camp that GP Trainer's two assistant trainers were holding on 1/27-28/2018. I looked it over- $150 for: a private half hour lesson Saturday morning, lunch & lecture, a half hour group cavaletti lesson or private lunge lesson Saturday afternoon, overnight stabling, breakfast on Sunday, and a half hour private lesson Sunday. I thought it was pretty good value, especially since I'd have someone to haul down with and split some of the costs of gas and hotel.

I knew we'd have to leave super early Saturday morning since the first lessons of the weekend were in the morning (our lessons were at 11:00 and 11:30), and it's a 5 hour minimum drive down (it has taken me as long as 7 hours to make the drive home). What I didn't bank on was having to be awake by 2am, leaving my house by 2:45am to pump gas and get breakfast and be at the barn by 3:45am, to leave for VA by 4:30am. Umm.

I did make the good decision of taking a half vacation day to go to the barn Friday and clean tack, pack, and make sure Penn was bathed and spotless. I was home by 7 and in bed trying to sleep by 9! I was proud of myself.

My truck's radio. I was running 15 min late, this pic was supposed to happen at 2:45am!

We were on the road at 5 instead of 4:30 due to a grooming mishap... I tried to do a quick mane shortening with a bot fly egg removal knife so J's horse wouldn't have a hobo mane (it was too wet from his bath to do the day before). I may have sliced my pointer finger open enough to drip blood all over the barn on my way to the bathroom. That really slowed me down in getting Penn ready (you try wrapping legs without using your pointer finger while trying not to get blood all over everything).

Did you know that when you wake up at 2:15am in the dark and get your day rolling, that at about 7am, you start to wonder why the hell it is still dark and it suddenly feels like 10pm? Yea. J and I both had the same feeling around the same time, "For the love of all, WHEN IS THE SUN GOING TO RISE?!"

We got to GP Trainer's barn at 10:15am, making really good time even though we had to drive the slow windy roads in the dark. We got Penn and B off the trailer and in their stalls, then the tack room emptied in record time. We had to hurry and slap some tack on Penn, but then I was ready to ride!

___________________________

Let me give some background on GP Trainer's two assistant trainers: LH is a silver medalist and Traditional B Pony Club graduate who worked for the the Hanoverian Verband in Germany, and LF is a bronze medalist who has been with GP Trainer for almost 3 years now.

I really wanted both of my lessons to be with LH because she's much further up the dressage ladder than me. I didn't get my wish, they had so many riders sign up that they both taught at the same time Saturday morning, splitting the huge indoor in half (which still left two huge squares to work in). That worked out though, I got to know LF better and she has a depth of understanding I did not expect from someone who only showed 3rd in 2017. I mean, that's a perk of being at GP Trainer's barn 24/7! She definitely gets an A+ and I'd recommend her to anyone.

I briefly went over what GP Trainer and I worked on the previous weekend (canter half pass and flying changes, then general obedience), I did a quick warm up, and we went straight to work on the canter and flying changes.

The first thing LF had me do was push the canter forward and back, being able to collect it with just my seat and have Penn go forward again immediately when I asked. Unfortunately, I don't have her commentary because she was using a headset from the other side of the ring, so here are some clips of us doing stuff to work on sit and go and sit:

10m circle on a 20m circle exercise, ending in a canter/walk.

It felt like he was sitting so much more than he actually was... why is that always the case?!

We didn't touch the easy change (left to right), but instead worked on ways to make the right to left better. I was able to get it from counter canter into the corner, but Penn would always be late behind.

I mean, at least it was pretty? Stay in rhythm, he didn't buck, he didn't drop much, why does it need to be clean too?

Then Penn just stopped picking up the counter canter altogether. We switched to tracking right and he kept picking up the left lead. *facepalm* We eventually got the right lead while tracking left, and LF had me maintain the counter canter, then put Penn in renvers while counter cantering. (unfortunately this is when my randomly selected fellow adult camper left the ring and stopped videoing)

Me: Walk on, then counter canter.
Penn: I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request.

Ohhh Penn did not like that one bit, he got hoppy and jumpy and oh so frustrated. Why wouldn't I just ask him to change already?! The goal of the exercise being: keep him up and hoppy while keeping him collected, and most importantly frustrated that he has to do all this hard work so that when I finally do ask for a change, he goes, "OH THANK GOODNESS, YES I'LL CHANGE!"

We never got back to trying a change, but more importantly we worked on keeping the quality of the canter.

LF got to see his naughty behavior too, "No, [Penn stomps horsey foot] I will not keep going!" She said something along the lines of, "He's so sweet and cute, and GP Trainer always says what a delightful horse he is when we discuss lessons, and she didn't say anything about him this last time. I did not expect this from him!" I joked that he showed her his naughty side last week, so he didn't earn his delightful horse comments!

We wrapped up, and J came in with her horse, B. J was a bit nervous, she's only had B for 6 months, 3 of those were at our barn where she realized how inadequate her "instructor" was at teaching and preparing someone for horse ownership (I've found her last "instructor" likes to keep her clients in the dark about horse ownership options). B was sold to J out of the lesson program, and he was supposedly a good traveler (turns out he's a wonderful traveler, as advertised), but J hasn't taken him anywhere. I ended up hanging out for a bit in the middle of our square as moral support, which was cool. LF got her moving and working again, and eventually we were able to wander back to the barn. J had a good confidence building lesson and was much more comfortable by the end!

Next time, PEMF treatment and a cavaletti lesson!

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! 

9/2/2017 - PVDA @ Loch Moy 1, Part 1

I did a quick look at the weather before I left Friday.
Harvey made our weekend start out on the soggy side!

Next on our adventure trail, Penn and I traveled down to Loch Moy to try and finish my bronze, maybe win a Dover medal, and hang out with Austen (and her new baby horse!!!).

Awesome stall location. Also finally figured out what to do with the absolutely massive LeMieux saddle pad bag I ordered. It is double sided and huge. I found  that keeping saddle pads on one side, and BOT products on the other, with a rubber stall guard on clips between them, makes an excellent hanging device that really helped stall tidiness.

I arrived, unloaded in record time, got parked, and then the stall front kind of organized before going down to the ring to school a bit.

He wasn't sure of Loch Moy's new coffin complex. Like, he spooked at the logs and wouldn't go near it.

Hurricane Harvey clouds and super bright sun. And I didn't notice my hand shadow until I was paroozing pics days later.
#fail

I was super excited to school in the show rings because I don't have a court at home. I like being able to school proper shapes (this is important later) and in the corners. I tend to float my shapes and corners at home, so a pre-show reminder is nice!

Penn was a bit tense and locked in his neck for our session, and I really struggled with fixing it vs wearing him down. He had a lot to do the next day, and badgering him in a schooling session did not seem like a good thing to do. He also had some warm up coughs going on. He does that, but this was an uptick from no warm up coughs. (He coughed once the night before when I was turning him out) I opted to get something acceptable from him and made a note to really work his neck/shoulder connection muscles with the miniPhaser the next day.

I settled Penn back in his stall and tucked him in for the night, and left his AM grain for night check. Austen picked me up from the show grounds, and we went off to play with her new baby horse! But I'll let her tell you about that!

_______________________________________

The miniPhaser also worked to force stall relaxation.

Penn was a bit of a mess when we got to the show Saturday- he churned his stall all night and barely ate breakfast. I tried hay at the front of the stall, keeping the door open, locking him in, going to hand graze; nothing stopped him from mad stall walking. For lack of anything else to try, I did an extra session with the miniPhaser. He relaxed almost immediately, started munching the hay in front of his stall, and even went back and finished his breakfast. Wahoo!

First up was the exciting 3-1 test (bronze or bust!).We walked down to the show ring with a quartersheet on- it was misty drizzling and sub-70 degrees.

Shamelessly stolen from Austen's Instagram.

Penn warmed up well with minimal coughing, and Austen kindly told me to get my trot more uphill, stat. I botched the prep for the single flying change I usually ask for in warm up and Penn gave me an awkward shuffle change instead. I asked for another one, which he did wonderfully. Some hop behind, but more relaxed than not.

Off we went for the test!

Link to YouTube

I was SO THRILLED with his trot. The trot work itself left a lot to be desired, he just wasn't playing laterally left that day and I met a lot of resistance in general. But the trot itself- it was so uphill! It was like his legs grew six inches! The TOH were pretty good too! It all went to hell a bit in the canter though.

Shoulder in right. Cherry picked photo makes it look fabulous!

I don't think he could get any more square. #nailedit

He gave me lovely medium and extended canters, but for the first change (right to left), he hit the diagonal and bucked. He only does this off the right lead (then left he waits patiently for me to cue before being naughty). He buck-hopped, changed the lead behind, we both got befuddled, he trotted, and I cued for the new lead. The judge found a sense of humor and gave the debacle a 4 with the comment "Missed that one". I thought a 4 was generous, bahaha! I mean, at least he's oopsing by changing the lead behind first. That's a good mistake!

"Missed that one" aka it was a clusterfuck of legs everywhere

I collected him on the left lead from the extended canter and I felt all kinds of warning bells go off. I could feel a buck brewing and had zero clue what to do about it mid-test. Ideally, I'd scrap changes immediately and force him to canter some 20m circles without being naughty. But I can't exactly do that mid test, now can I? He waited SO PATIENTLY for the cue to change. I couldn't put my leg on him properly, lest I cue the buck, so our next 10m circle had trailing haunches and all kinds of terrible... I sent him down the diagonal, asked him to collect a bit more, and ever so gently touched him with the new outside leg. He promptly buck-hopped, then changed his lead. Sassy bastard.

"Could be more fluid" aka try to keep the horse's ass below its whithers

We wrapped up the test and I then I started fretting and worrying. This judge is not the most forgiving (Austen and I both rode for her in May), and I had made some mistakes.

Sass. Hopefully this is the right kind of sass that let's them piaffe and passage like champs!

Pretty! Also, when did he get so huge looking?

I shouldn't have worried!

Bronze Lapel pin! (actual medal to follow in December)

Austen grabbed my 3-1 test after I wrapped up my second test of the day, to find a 61.364%! We both squealed a bit and there was much rejoicing. (and celebratory Straw-Ber-Ritas later that put me on my alcohol intolerant ass)

It hasn't really sunk in yet that my Bronze is complete- it's been a goal for SO LONG. The first level and second level scores were relatively easy for me to get with Mikey. After getting my first level and second level scores I was like, "Well, that was too easy." Third level has been my kryptonite level for so long that I'm not really comprehending yet. So, four years and a second horse later, my bronze is complete! Wahoo!

I applied for the award as soon as the scores showed up on USDF score check, and ordered my lapel pin immediately after. They sent it out the next day and I had it 2 days later! I'm excited to debut it at Championships!