Stretch that neck!

So last week I was able to do two training sessions, as I didn't have one the week before.  So I asked Shelley if she would be willing to ride him on Wednesday (as this was the day before Thanksgiving and would give me more time to prepare for hosting Thanksgiving dinner) and we could do the lesson on Friday.  Shelley thought that was a great idea and agreed to it. 

So Friday morning I met Shelley at the barn and we got right to work.  Her big focus for this lesson was to really teach J to use his back and stretch his neck even more.  He is pretty good about keeping a long neck, but Shelley really wanted to emphasize him stretching the 3-4 inches of neck right in front of his wither, which is a difficult area to access.  When he does this, he will be effectively using his back and his gaits will get more swing (or schwung!).  We did this by keeping a very consistent outside rein, keeping my hand close to the pommel/wither area, gripping with my thumb and forefinger and using suppling actions through my wrist and ring/pinkie fingers.  I would ask for him to "yield" to the rein, and once I felt him give, I would soften my reins and push him forward to a bigger gait.  At times he got tight, which I responded by keeping consistent pressure on the rein until he softened and then we would go back to work.  At first he was pretty belligerent about it, throwing little temper tantrums and stomping his feet, but he soon learned that I would wait until he got good, so by the end of the lesson, he was pretty consistent. 

By Sunday he had very few meltdowns and worked really nicely in all three gaits.  He gets a little deep at times, but Shelley says not to worry about it right now and that once he is more consistently stretching that area above the withers, it will be easy to get him to a more proper "frame" with small half halts.  But she wants to really encourage that stretch and swing, so a little deep isn't horrible.  It does feel like he is lifting his back more honestly and his gaits are swinging more.  Keith went to my lesson and observed that J's trot was significantly better, as he was using his hind end a lot better and had more articulation in his hocks. 

My next lesson isn't until Saturday, so we'll be plugging along until then and hopefully Shelley will be happy with our work!

Minor hiccups...

Well, J and I had been (seemingly) back on track to consistent training, but lately I've been having some medical issues that have kept me from the barn more often then I care to admit.  But hopefully things are being resolved in that department and we can get back to frequent rides.

I've been able to keep up on the weekly lessons with Shelley and we are really working on shifting his balance to his hind end while keeping his neck long and straight.  We've been working on this through a couple of different exercises, doing full passes in walk and trot, counterflexion and spiraling in on a circle at the canter and turn on the forehands in walk and trot.  The full passes can be difficult because of his urge to move forward instead of bringing his feet up directly underneath himself.  So when he surges forward, I halt him, stretch his neck, back him up, stretch his neck again and ask him to move directly sideways, in either walk or trot.  This keeps him from leaning on the bit, his legs underneath him and responsive to my aids.  The counterflexion and spiraling-in in the canter is interesting as well, as I have to be super quick with my aids and super quick to put him back to correct flexion as he will throw flying changes, with he is using as an evasion technique.

I don't know if it is the work or the colder weather, but he is wanting to constantly break to the canter.  So I have to make sure that he is really "on" the outside rein and stretching through the neck.  I make sure my aids are soft and I'm not unintentionally telling him something through my legs or seat.  He was also a bit stiff last week- we do carrot stretches (with mints though) before every ride and he was noticeable stiff last week.  But each ride it got better and yesterday he was back to full range of motion.  I will definitely have the acupuncturist/chiropractor work on him when they come out to the barn next.

J's first level work is getting more and more solid, even the lengthenings.  So I'm still aiming for the show at Fields and Fences in January!  It will be nice to get a couple of shows out of the way before the hot weather hits!

Still alive and kicking!

So it has been ages since my last post... everything got in the way- life, work, laziness, etc.  I also lost a little bit of focuse towards the end of our show season, so I cut it short and didn't even go to Regionals, although we had achieved our goal of qualifying and everything.  I'm a little disappionted in myself, but ready to move on and get to next show season!

Our last show was in August at Silverwood and it was very hot and humid.  Shelley had given us a very strenuous lesson on Thursday night and we went to Silverwood on Friday, where J was uncharacteristically tired and didn't have his normal "show off", big-chested attitude.  I didn't work him long while schooling on Friday, hoping that he would recover by Saturday.  We had two tests on Saturday and it felt like our hearts just weren't in it- we were both tired and didn't have much motivation.  Our scores were low (compared to other scores from the season), but I really didn't feel bad about it, as I knew that we didn't try our hardest.  I decided to scratch my class on Sunday, as J was still tired and I didn't want to push him and chance an injury.  It wasn't the greatest show to end the season on, but I really felt that I had to take a break from the stress and pressure of showing.  And with that, I took a month "off" of training with Shelley and just got back to enjoying my horse and spending quality time with him.

We got back into consistent training in October, and I immediately saw all the holes where I had let J (and myself) slide for that month off.  Luckily J remembered a lot of it and once I became more diligent about riding him correctly again, he was back.  So we are back to weekly lessons and J is doing really well.  We are working the 2nd level movements and J seems to be handling the work well.  Shelley rode him once while I was out of town, and taught him flying changes.  For the next week, he was doing flying changes everywhere, even though I wasn't asking for them!  At the last lesson, we really worked on moving his shoulder over and then asking his hind end to dramatically follow (like a turn on the forehand) in all three gaits.  Once he was really responsive to my aids, I would add my outside aids, close up his outside hind and move into a shoulder-in or shoulder-fore.  That exercise really helped a lot.  Then Shelley rode him last week (as I was out of town for a work conference) and worked on flexion turns with him, so I've been doing both for this week and have my next lesson on Sunday.

I hope to get to the Fields and Fences winter series USDF shows this winter- they are scheduled for January and March- J has much more energy in the winter and if I can do those two shows, then I can do less shows in the heat of the summer and save him for Regionals.  So that is the plan for now!