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...