hair!

I feel like i have spent the last 2 weeks removing hair from Mr Z. He is moulting so badly, and it takes forever to get rid of it, and he still look scruffy! Next year he is being totally shaved!

So where are we training and riding wise? well, have had various lessons since i last wrote. Things that i am doing, as well as the trying not to think too hard, and trying to learn my 'feel' are:

1. still forward, round, straight. I suspect this will be the same now for the rest of dressage career!
2.for normal work much shorten reins, but have my hands more forward. This means that i can feel the mouth, and can correct subtly much sooner. I was putting them behind the front of the saddle, which encouraged me to drop them to use, and get an inconsitstent contact. By bringing them forward (to above his withers), i still have the contact, but its more consistent and i am not 'pulling back'. also its easier to give him a good boy scratch!
3, for 'deep' work, i am not allowed to pull him down with my hands - use flexion (inside hand can lift) and longer reins. use legs to get him to the length of the rein. when you do this right you get more relaxation - the boy is taking his head down and stretching, not being pulled down and held there... warm up in this deeper frame, walk, trot and canter, keeping things easy and light, you want little corrects on corners of mouth and little bumps with leg etc, not heavy pushing and pulling. nice easy transitions, and smooth circles to get him and me warmed up. Without this relxation and stretching we wont be able to get anything else.
4. we now have the muscle to work properly on a 'novice ' outline as well as the longer and lower one. Yay. i just need to check that his neck muscle is working, and he is round, and not trying to stick his ears up my nose!
5.  shoulder fore past scary things. dont force him past them, work in the non scary bit of the school until hes too busy concentrating then you can bring him closer to scary bit without it being a big deal. Always praise when he goes past.
6. corrections are good - it gives me a chance to reward him.... which means i need to stop panicing if things go wrong. just gently re - position, re- activate the energy, and quietly ask again.
7. canter - now can practice coming back to a more collected canter and then onwards bound again. Use smaller circles to get the smaller canter. Dont expect to have that 'collected' feel of an advanced horse, as Z isnt strong enough.

other than the schooling, which is working again, we went for a longish hack on our own on sunday. Its nice for us to bond with each other. i like hacking him, he feels like going walking with a friend - you can talk to each other.

oops, forgot to write up...

so, last week, I rode Z. on weds pm. He was good, but more importantly, i seem to have cracked the round, forward, straight thing... the key to it was not thinking too hard, and keeping my elbow bent and hands soft, yet closed. we did a lot of serpentines, circles, and played with the walk in a circle with big hind cross over. lots of transitions too... we are now consistently getting nice canter transitions, but i need to be aware of asking when he is round, forward,  and straight, and asking the moment he is good, rather than waiting for him to stay being in the right place for half a circuit to ask, as then we miss the moment! also, lots of pats and good boys. For z, i am trying to focus on getting to the pat and good boy...

J rode on tues, and then on friday i had a lesson. I was unbelieveably flaky. I had just got my hair done, and so it looked nice for once, so i , er, just got j to ride and talk through what he was doing. this was ace. Z is starting to work on lateral work now. The legyeild is coming, but on the right rein hge tends to go out through the shoulder, so you need to do very straight very shallow legyeilds on that side. i will play with this this week. He also started baby shoulder in, and got some good steps, but it was very babyish and a bit messy. he finished with a few steps of medium trot. My boy really looks fab now, he is much bigger and more like a proper dressage horse. his bum and neck are getting bigger, and he just looks more impressive. he is going to be massive! lovely...

sat, was a bit of a washout. All i can say about it is that dressage comps are much more fun with a loud, cackling posse, and bottles of wine.  I am also much better at riding when a bit drunk. Although i cannot decide whether it relaxes me, so i am a better rider, or if i am not better, but i just think i am! we did a lot of trot / canter transitions, mainly because i thought they were fun...

sunday i had a bit of a hangover. well, a lot of one. so i chickened out of riding, and just groomed and cuddled.... i will have to do more this week to make up for it...

Still perfect...

On sunday i realised that I had left my girth with J. So i found an old one i had. this was a little too big, but being me, i thought that it would still work , as long as i didnt get too crooked! I also put on his new clarendon 'event' boots, (navy leather with padding and sheepskin, looks lovely with his light blue numnah!) which are totally overkill for hacking and jumping about 2 foot, but i am so paranoid about his hitting himself...

so i warmed up in the school, and he was really off the leg and bouncy, which was great! so as it was a lovely day, and i missed my hacking companion due to being dozy about the clocks changing, we set off alone. Mr. Z. is great company out hacking. he is interested in everything, his enormous ears just flop forward and when he sees something scary he merely becomes 21 hh and snorts VERY LOUDLY like a dragon, which i think is funny. Scary things include: plastic bags, alpacas, sheep, birds, woodland, agricultural equipment, large modern art sculptures at the college, cyclists, walkers with dogs and bridges. But as all he does is snort, i dont mind at all!

On our hack, with the loose girth, on our own and with no phone, i find an inviting looking bridleway i hadnt been down before. The ground is hard, but not rock solid, and its pretty level by the field, so we have a lovely canter. And it suddenly occurs to me as we are happily bounding alone in a nice working canter, that i have never been off the road with Z. and never cantered not in a school... Oops. Anyway, Mr. Z. being Mr. Z. it turns out this is all fine, and he will, as always, do exactly what i tell him when i tell him, so we stop easily, we go easily, and all round its all easy and lovely! I let him go a little more up a small hill, but even then it was just a big canter, and he was calm and happy afterwards. He turned home the same way we had cantered up with no change in pace, and was happy to walk home. I may have done some singing...

J rode Z yesterday, and Mr. Z was, i quote 'awesome'. I will find out what that means on Friday, J is less than forthcoming on text!

found out why today...

Soo, mr z has been bracing a bit with his neck which is why i was having some difficulty. i was having more difficulty because i was thinking too much. so big lesson from today is think in the walk breaks - what i want to do, then ride in the riding bits.... i.e. get my head out of it. while i am thinking what did he do, what do i do, wheres my hand blahblahblah the moment is gone. I need to feel my way in, which i actually know how to do know, i dont need my brain telling my what to do, i can just let it go, and have a conversation with zando, not with my own head...

so i cant really say what i did today. i dont know. but it was working....

laura rode like a bag of spanners today...

... so after struggling for15 mins i realised i was just annoying Z. So i stopped.

on other news Z has had his beard cut off. thank god, it was driving me nuts. I cannot wait for his hair to finish falling out so he can finish his dressage pony transformation....

in other other news he had a lovely time outside in the sun. I relented and he is now turned out with a friend. They are so cute, and spend all day about 30 cm from each other. very cute!

Zando in the sun...

Wow, two followers! Hi Amy and Pia! You will have to come and meet zando! this is a mammoth post, so i doubt many will read til the end!

Have had a lovely few days. Today, Z's non stressage day, I got my friend Steph to jump Z! he went over a little cross pole and a straight bar, and was really really good! He loved doing  it too, but after the jump went straight back into dressage trot or canter, all round and calm! Steph wants to keep him now! I was pleased that he went forward without spurs or a stick, showing i think that he is getting stronger and happer about the forward thing! I wish i had taken pictures, but i forgot my camera. Anyway, steph agreed she will pop him over a jump or two every month or so, which i think will be good for him mentally.

On friday we had a lesson. I cannot believe how well zando is coming on. He has a neck now! and a bum!

J rode first, and i jsut had this huge grin watching Z look all fab. we are not needing to do the overtempo thing now, as he has gotten the forward idea and is happy making forward transitions. Likewise, although we still do deep, it isnt as BTV now he has the neck to take it forward. I am glad i trusted J on this! when Z comes up he has a lovely 'novice' outline that is soft and forward towards the bit, which is good. and h is just forward. He can still get a little stuffy if you do too much little trot etc., but is easy just to push on for a bit to re energise him. Also  is now doing a moving turn on the forehand in trot - and looking fab! its really hard for him to use his hind like that, but you can see them working and getting stronger.

When i got on it didnt immediately go to pot, which is always nice! At the moment we are doing a lot of just circles, serpentines, going large etc, so nothing exciting to report on that really! however, we also started putting in some transitions - trot, to walk for a few strides then trot. we did some of the turn on the forehand thing in walk. And we finished with some 'ringcraft' as although its more important for z to e set up right for transitions etc, i need to be more accurate with figures etc. when we go competing.. gulp.

anyway, lessons to take away:

1. watch i dont collapse my left hip, all the damn time.
2. keep my legs still!, only use them if i want to change something, and most of the time a click, or a change in seat will get a reaction.
3. when Z hollows, use both legs to bring him down...
4. forward, round straight - all the damn time. thats all i need to do...
5. bend my elbows, thumbs on top, point at his ears. Forearm soft, not tense. hold the rein with a closed hand. I know all this but i keep havin to remind myself...
6. canter transitions, - extra round, extra forward. in the canter i need to ride it (i tend to go a bit passive) and relax my knee so that i can really sit deep with him, rather than perched on him.
7. TOF - get a good flexion to the inside on a smallish circle ( 10-15m), use a touch of whip to keep energy, use inside leg to ask for inside hind to step through. we only want a few good steps, then praise and ride forward. I find it tricky to do the balancing stuff of outside hand and leg with the inside push for flecxion etc. I also need to ensure that I am looking forward, am straight in the saddle and not giving away the outside rein totally...

Yesterday we had another lesson. I rode from the start. It was a really beautiful day and the lesson was very chilled out for all of us! of course, i got frustrated with myself (my hands dont want to behave) but actually it was pretty good for both of us. We did some warming up stuff, concentrating on relaxation and rhthym, played with flexion, and then did some leg yeild back to the track. we finsihed with a little canter work. anyway, things to remember:
1. give my right rein and keep my left, all the time. Atm my right hand is naughty and pulls, and my left is naughty and gives! when i get it right, its much easier
2. when anything goes wrong, i immediately blame myself and think about what i am doing badly, by which time the wrong thing has gone on for half a circle! i need to rethink about this as an opportunity to 'train and get to the pat' ie. allow Z to get it right again and get a neck stratch. I also just need to correct. Most of the time my instints are right now, i just need to let me get on with it.
3. when leg yeilding, we want the training to  be easy. So i am not looking for a perfect legyeild, i am looking for a smooth happy sideways movement. Its ok if his shouders go first, we can gradually make him straighter. Lots of praise. Let the outside hand come down and out to give the shoulder space to move into. Get flexion and straight first - circle if needed, then do the LY down the longside.
5. canter transitions needs to extra round and etra forward to get the nice forward transisiont. Its ok if i do 50 bad ones as long as i get one good one, but I have to get that good one!

so although i was a bit cross with myself, J thought we did well, so maybe i need to trust him on that one too....

Hacking and schooling...

I am so pleased with boy. i totally lucked out on him!

Sunday I went for a hack on our own round the lanes. despite much of the fauna of ashorne trying to attack Z he kept his head! we had several incidents of note, including a baby lamb who got confused and decided Z was his mother... he was so happy to see us he ran baaing through the fence and froliced right in front of Z's legs. I was terrified pony would squash him with on massive hoof, but bless him, Z just snorted at him, and stood very still. We turned and lamb followed us for a few feet, but luckily his mum realised and shouted at him, so he left us alone... A bird decided to fly out in front of us along the lane, which was very scary for Mr. Z. But he held it together, even if he was a bit tall past that bit of hedge!


Today I was in london for work, so i came home and went round to the stables for a cheeky school in the daylight. Z was amazing! forward, soft, lovely, just made everything easy. He was so good we only did about 30 mins, no point pushing it!