Baby Steps

Every journey starts with a single step . . . when you are talking horses, however, those steps may include forward, sideways, uncontrolled bolt, backwards, only two feet on the ground. You get the idea. When Ashke and I started lessons with Amanda, my focus was on developing his canter and on me getting better at riding. The world of dressage was completely new and even now there are things I struggle to understand, that others seem to know intuitively. I am not a student of dressage, but rather a student of Amanda and Ashke. I expected Ashke to hate the lessons, to fight against what we were learning, like he had originally, but what I have found is that he loves to learn new stuff, even if sometimes he's a pill about the work.

The other thing that amuses me to no end, is his ability to work and stay focused when Amanda is in the arena. He strives to make her proud of him and his happiest moments are when we walk to her in the center of the arena for face rubs and praise. Sometimes I think he values that more than me telling him what a good job he is doing.

Tuesday night we worked all of the things we have been practicing: shoulder in, haunches in, canter circles both big and small, trot sets with medium trot and collected. I also spent time at the canter, slowing him with my seat until the cadence of his canter was walk slow, then transitioned him down to the walk. My friend, CS, had explained that as a way to make our transitions better and it really helped. We finished the ride with canter on a square with square turns in each direction and some half-pass at the walk. He was able to do the canter turns without speeding up (indicative of stronger through the back and haunches) and our walking half-pass was very good (although I still struggle with how that is supposed to feel - I tend to make the angle to steep).

Throughout that ride, Ashke was focused and we ignored any flick of the ear or slight movement in the south end of the arena. The horse eating cat also failed to make an appearance.

Last night was our lesson. Ashke breezed through all of the things, even when we added the haunches out through the south end of the arena (if he's going to be stupid, we will give him something hard to focus on). We worked on the movements from the test at the trot, plus he gave me some fantastic trot serpentines with a very collected and smooth gait.

We also got a distinct medium trot across the diagonal with transitions to the collected trot in the corner. For the first time, I got the lifted, surging trot he does so well on trail, only he was still balanced and not strung out. It felt really good. Now we just need to develop the medium canter.

Then we tried a canter half pass.

This was our third attempt

I think Ashke is completely capable from a physical standpoint of completing this maneuver, our struggle lies in him figuring out what I am asking, and me figuring out how to ask. At the end of the third try, he gave me several steps. I was ecstatic. He was so proud!!! 

Then we tried the hard side and it was much more difficult. I think we need to work more of the haunches in at the canter going forward, just to help him strengthen and develop the muscle, plus develop the maneuverability we've been working on at the trot and walk for application to the canter.

To the Right

You can't really see it, but there were several steps at the very end of this attempt that were a canter half pass. We ended there.

We tried to do some double slalom work after, but the boy was absolutely fried. He couldn't do another canter transition to save his life. We went back and trotted patterns around the cones, while I focused on moving him and changing bend off my legs and seat. He was fluid, relaxed and moved his body easily. We ended the lesson at that point. 

For my next week's worth of rides, we will focus on the canter, haunches in at the canter (along the rail), medium canter, and medium trot. I'm planning on riding Thurs, Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues, a lesson on Weds morning and then he will have Thurs and Friday off.