Straight

No new media, so you may have to suffer with pics from our last show. Cuz they are awesome!!

This past week was pretty intense. I did a half-lesson with Amanda on Wednesday night (she was prepping students for a dressage show this weekend at CSU). Ashke was warm and moving easily when we started and we mostly worked on our canter. It’s the current theme. At the end, Amanda had me walk the rail, keeping Ashke completely straight and then tipping his head to the inside one inch, without losing his shoulder or his hip. It was incredibly difficult. Once we could do it (kinda) at the walk, we tried at the trot. His go-to is to take a step out with his left hind leg. We have to rewire that inclination. It was an exercise in me having to be very specific in my ask, and to feel his evasion prior to his movement, so I could correct it.

Hard.

Friday, I had an hour clinic with Tarrin Warren. We focused on the same thing: keeping control of his hind leg regardless of what we are asking him to do. We started with an exercise that used two ground poles about three feet apart, then two more sets of ground poles ten feet or so ahead and off set to each side. We trotted into the first set of poles, halted, reinback three steps and trot forward, then half-pass to the next set of poles and ask for a canter once we were in line with the second set of poles. We cantered forward and turned around a barrel then rode back. We halted every time I lost control of his hip, asked him to shift it back into line, and then pick up the canter again. It was very obvious that Ashke was not expecting to be corrected EVERY TIME he did it wrong. He was pissed. The other thing Tarrin had me do is raise my hands slightly (an inch) and hold the reins with a thumb and finger when asking for the downward transition. She caught that I was shutting the door with my hands and he is stiffening his hind legs and bouncing to a stop. Doing that really made me use my seat when asking for the downward transition and he stopped being so abrupt. 

Our next exercise was a 10m circle holding the garrocha pole in one hand. I HAD  to use my legs to keep his hip in line, since I was holding the pole with one hand. That exercise really highlighted how frequently homie takes a step out when starting or stopping any gait. It was like riding a drunken sailor. I wasn’t getting mad, mostly amused, but he was livid pissed. He was trying to bargain his way out of doing it the correct way. Then we went back to the first exercise and did it again with leg yields.

I had sweat dripping down my shoulders when we were done. Tarrin told me that we were fine tuning our ride and our aids. Working to the left is hard on him while working to the right is hard for me (left leg is non-dominant and he is left sided dominant, so the combination is hard on me.) She also said that Amanda has done a great job with us and its obvious that I have been working hard. She agrees with Amanda that he is about ready for his flying changes. 

This morning we did a photo session with Ashke. Then I rode. I did some of the exercises that we worked on in the lesson and in the clinic. He seems to have figured out that I don’t want him throwing his hip in and it was much easier to get him straight. We practiced the half-pass at the canter to the canter transition and it was amazing. He is really lifting through the shoulders in that transition. The leg yield to the canter was a little harder. I really have to work to make sure he is straight in the leg yield prior to asking for the canter. We also did our leg yield at the canter. The only thing I didn’t work on is shoulder in at the canter (so hard). We also worked on our transitions with me keeping my hands soft and not blocking him, which seemed to help his downward transitions. 

I know that this will really help us going forward. It’s funny how something little can make such a big difference.