29th May - Why is there never a camera when you need it?

Xaile was brilliant today.  I remembered to think about all the points that came up yesterday and he went fantastically.

He was a happy horse to start with because I lunged him over the jumps that were up in the school.  He flew over them with great enthusiasm.  So he was very happy and relaxed when I got on, no tension in his jaw to start with.

The walk was very good from the start, not perfect but good enough.  He was happily in both hands.  So I went on to trot and he was much easier to ride.  I hardly counter flexed at all on the left rein and he seem quite happy to accept the left leg and it only took a couple of strides for him to bend around it.

He did occasionally block down his right side, so I looked at what I was doing and corrected myeslf and he softened again.

I do have one question though, to ask Bento.  He seems to have two ways of going 'well'.  In one he becomes very light on his front feet, and holds himself nicely in front, but quite high neck carriage (but no bugling muscle under his neck) and seems to dance along.  I have an even contact in both hands, but it is a very light contact.  It feels lovely.

In the other he streches down and feels a bit flat and heavy in the contact.  It feels dull and lifeless.  However he is very even and balanced in the contact.

I wonder which is better.  I suspect neither of them are quite right.  I wish he'd done the dancing light one in my lesson yesterday so I could ask.

28th May- Lesson with Marcia

Neither Xaile nor I were in the best frame of mind.  He was tense and spooky- possibly because of the Enigma/ Enzo/ Sidney situation, possibly because I was not in the best frame of mind.  As a result his walk was tight and tense, but Marcia commented that his neck it looking a much better shape, and stronger where it comes out of the shoulder.

We worked on getting him soft on the left rein without conterflexing him.  Marcia pointed out that he doesn't accept my left legs, so that I have to flex him to the outside to get him to soften on the left rein, when I should be able to do it by using my left leg.  So we got him soft and even on the right rein (yesterday's work had paid off and it was much easier to get him into my left rein and keep him there) and then changed the rein keeping the same contact using my left leg to encourage the change of bend.  Initially he stiffened and raised his head, but didn't drop the left contact so I didn't fiddle and just kept the left leg on and after half a 20m circle he softened - what a revelation.

A relatively even contact, and a bit of bend to the left.

Relaxed and accepting the left leg and hand.

On the right rein we concentrated on keeping him straighter with less bend in his neck.  This is getting much easier now I can get something in my left hand.

Stretching into an even contact.  I need to sit up.

The wintec Isabel seems to be really helping my leg position.

Marcia commented that he tilted his head to the left when I dropped the right rein, but I said that I felt it happened when I had too much contact on the right and was forgetting the left and so I was correcting it by dropping the right a bit.  She agreed, we also agreed that it would all be a lot easier if I didn't drop the left in the first place.

I've dropped the contact on the left, and he is diving down through the left side and tilting his nose.  I think he's looking for the contact I've dropped rather than trying to evade.  The result, though, is that he blocks through his right side so it's hard to sort out.

Dropping the left contact again.  This tends to go with me holing too much on the right as  well.

Better, even contact.

I then pointed out to Marcia that despite the fact that I'm sure I'm not raising and tightening my right leg the upper inside of my right thigh begins to really ache.  She walked around me and pointed out that my right hip was significantly further forward than my left.  When I concentrated on really pushing my right hip back, so it felt really exagerated, Xaile softened through his right side and clearly found it much easier to take the left contact.  Poor boy- he's been struggling to cope with my twisted position.  I need to go to the chiropracter! SOON!!

The canter transitions were much better from the start as I didn't fiddle and hold onto his mouth through the transition.  They improved even more when Marcia pointed out that be was struggling to maintain canter because of my twist so I cantered out of the saddle and he found it much easier.  When I did the whole transition and canter out of the saddle he found it really easy.

Not our best transition of the day (I've GOT to stop leaning forward) but SO much better than last week as I'm not resitricting th forwards movement.

Cantering out of the saddle- much easier for him.

Then we did a little spanish walk.  Need to start with a really slow walk with a higher head carriage to lighten the weight on his shoulders.  I clearly have no sense of timing or rythm, if I mananged to count three strides in and then half halt with the leg I wanted him to raise then it worked and totally understood what I wanted.  However 90% I didn't manage to get the timing right.

Jambette

Getting the 1, 2, 3 timing right for once

On the whole it could all have been a lot better, we definitely lacked brightness and sparkle.  But given the mood I was in and how very tense Xaile had been to start with I think it was really quite successful.  I think he was the most consistent he's been so far.  I'm pretty sure he was lowering his neck from the wither rather than higher up too, and he was less wobbly in front of the wither too.

27th May I've been asking too much too soon....

Doh!

Poor Xaile. If I'd thought about it I'd have realised that I'm asking Xaile to do things I've never truly asked him to do before using muscles he's probably not used for years. And I'm expecting him to do it easily and consistently for extended periods.  How totally unreasonable of me.

It went really well today because I didn't ask for much. But I did try to make sure that the little bits I asked for were as good as they could be.

I also realise he has very little faith in my left hand.  So I concentrated incredibly hard on keeping a still firm contact that's always there to push him into.   I've also been telling him how very good he is whenever I get a good contact in my left hand.

When we got it right for a few steps, with enough leg from me his steps lengthened and lightened noticeably. When it was an even contact, but not enough leg from me his front feet hit the ground much harder.

When I let him have his final stretch I think it was the best walk he has produced so far and he even halted with his neck soft on a long rein.

26th May

He is still a bit unsettled by the presence of Enigma and Enzo, but walked straight away from the field without planting. It was easier to work him in the end of the school from which he can't see his field. So I did that to avoid adding to our problems.

Our walk at the start was fantastic!!! Only a couple of circles on each rein and he was soft and even in both hands. Woohoo!!!

Trot was not so good initially. I wish I knew what I do to make him block his right side against me and refuse to take a contact in the left rein. I'm so sure it's me. Anyway. After lots circles we weren't getting very far. I ended up doing a figure of eight which did help.

He'll do a couple of lovely even strides and then starts to set his right hand side of his neck and jaw and drop the left contact and eventually tilts his nose to the left.  He focuses very quickly on this and I lose his attention. I ask him to circle right, with an open right rein and strong inside leg, trying to push him into my left hand. He seems genuinely surprised every time I do this.  Once he's softened and I have a contact in my left rein I start to go straighter again. At which point he rushes off, so I try to slow the rhythm with my rising. If I manage to stop the rushing I get a few good steps then we go back to the beginning off the paragraph again. It is most frustrating for both of us.  I'm sure that as he relaxes for a few strides I do too and probably drop the left rein a bit, but there must be more to it than that. (This happens on both the left and right rein, but its always the near side rein I loose contact in).

I can return to walk and get him even again and after a couple of circles in walk his stride lengthens and I have an even contact.

Anyway, after driving each other mad like this for a while I had an idea. I would only expect a couple of good strides and then ask for a transition or change of rein. This works. I can manage a few nice strides of trot and before we lose it I distract him (and possibly me?) by changing something. I imagine that through doing this I will be able to extend the periods of time before making a change.  It just seems a bit depressing that we can't do better than this.

I also find it easier to keep an even contact if I raise my right hand.

We finished our session in relative peace with each other.


I sent part of this as a message to Bento and this was his reply:


About your question: I got passioned about the KISS rule: keep It Simple and Stupid!!!!
Training scale says: Rhythm, Looseness and Contact as the 3 first items. This order is also important!
You need a consistent rhythm (not getting faster, nor slower), the horse getting relaxed through his body and reaching the contact.
Horses tend to be different on one of their sides just to get you distracted.
At a certain moment you say you changed rein and Xaile got better. This means you are getting "maniac" about perfection before moving on to something else! This system makes the horse tense and bored!
Try to get small improvements on very basic things (rythm), then change rein, another small improvement, changing again. Moving on to looseness: a bit on the left, a bit on the right.
If you this well, the contact has to get better!!!
I hope this helps!
Please let me know!

25th May - Stretches, saddles, spurs and circles

I'm very conscious of my bad position and the stiffness that makes it hard to correct. So for the last few days I've been doing everything that I can to stretch my hips and thighs while not riding.  I'm trying to do these stretches as often as possible.

Also on my position I've been pondering saddles. I've got an Isabel Werth wintec with set back stirrup bars that I thought might help me sit straighter. It still fitted Xaile so I rode in it today.  It definitely helped.  It made it me realise quite how stiff my hips are - it let my legs hang more underneath me which made me realise that I'm perching at bit because I can't open my hips as well as I might to sit deep,  I think in need to learn to do the splits!

As I'm a bit to big, especially too tall for Xaile I find myself drawing my leg up to use my spur so I dug out a longer pair of spurs which made it easier to use them without having to move my legs.  Pleased with that idea.

It was a lot easier to get him to soften on the circles in walk today - the work we did on Thursday obviously paid off.  So we tried it in trot.  If it didn't work it was generally because I was either too strong with my right hand or losing the contact in my left.  The spurs and the saddle made it much easier for my to keep my inside leg on.

As he was going well I decided to try a canter too.  I remembered to allow him to move forwards into the transition and he didn't leap. Yay!!!! The canter was a bit stiff, partly because I was a little unsure of my position in the new saddle and partly because I was so pleased with the transition that I abandoned him slightly.  On the second attempt the transition wasn't so good but the canter was much better.  Third time lucky and I got the balance between forwards and keeping the contact much better and it worked well. The downwards transitions are improving and I've found that a small circle as soo as we trot helps.  I might try a small circle in canter before the downwards transition too.

Very pleased all round.

23rd May - back to Bento...

So.... Vicki helped me again.  We only did about 20 mins, and only in walk and it was BRILLIANT.

I'd tried to run before we could walk. Literally. I'd forgotten about the importance of the circles to engage the hind leg and lower the neck and soften the back.  We circled and we circled and we circled.  I wasn't using my inside leg nearly enough. When I did,and didn't allow him to drift out through his outside shoulder though leaving that rein too long or far from the neck he softened.

On the left rein I found I had to alternate the circles with counter flexing him, on the right rein the circles were sufficient.

Having got two circles on the right rein and a change of rein and a circle on the left without him resisting I thought it was a good moment to reward him by stopping.  I was especially pleased its him because he was very distracted at the start because of Enigma and Enzo arriving.

22nd May - Enigma moves in

I moved my rising 4 yo lusitano colt to the same yard as Xaile.  Initially we put him in the field next to Xaile. We quickly discovered that the fence wasn't up to keeping them apart so we moved him to a field on the other side of a path.  Xaile, for once in his life looked rather impressive as he felt the need to show off in front of Enigma.

22nd May - Oh dear, slipping back into bad habits

Rode with Vicki today and it wasn't going well. Xaile was very stiff and resistant through his right side, clinging to the right side of his bit and falling through his right shoulder. We were getting cross with each other.

Vicki pointed out that I wasn't doing bento's circles and when I did that I was giving too much with the outside rein. Forcing him to engage his off hind through the small circles eventually made him soften and relax. There were some pretty impressive tantrums on the way though.

I'm an idiot. How could I have got so over confident about our way of going that I felt that I didn't need the circles anymore. Grrrr. Stupid.

21st May - saddle fitter

Jill came to check the fit of Xaile's saddle today.  It was sitting too low behind and the flocking was more compressed on the left hand side.  This is not surprising given I know I have too much weight to the left and I know I sit too far back in the saddle.  But hopefully having it reflocked will make it a bit easier for me to sit better.

Xaile started really well and we did our flexions and counter flexions.  So I moved onto canter and for some reason this really wound him up and it took ages to get him slow and relaxed again.  While fighting a bit of a battle with him I had a couple of lightbulb moments.  The first was pretty obvious and I expect someone has already pointed it out to me and I just didn't take it in.  It is that if he's stiff on the right side it's generally because I have too much weight in my left side.  So if I concentrate on being more even with my weight he lightens on the right side.

The second lightbulb is also obvious but rather bigger.  Last week I worked out that to get a smooth walk trot transition I had to let him have his head a little to go forwards.  Why on earth it didn't occur to me to do the same thing in canter is beyond me.  But it dawned on me today that it should work and low and behold it did.  However he was rather whizzy today and I needed to do lots of slow calm work and lots of canter transistions wind him up so I did a couple to check it worked and then went back to halt walk and trot transitions.

I took a couple of condition photos while his saddle was being flocked.  I think his under neck muscle is reducing!!!

2oth May - Lesson with Marcia - flexions, counter-flexions and contact

I rode in the myler hanging cheek snaffle with the flash noseband.  This does seem to be Xaile's current favourite and he was calm and relaxed from the start.

This lesson was a contrast with last week's as I was expecting it to go badly as we'd not had the greatest week, and actually Xaile went very sweetly.

We've decided that we are not ready to do too much forwards work yet as he needs to be more balanced in the collected work first to enable him to lengthen his stride.  So if I need to do more forward work don't do too much and try not to let him rush or push him too forwards and therfore out of balance.

I've noticed during the week that on the left rein Xaile finds it easier to be round and soft when I rise on the wrong diagonal.  Marcia says that this is because he is weaker on the near fore / off hind diagonal.  I think this maybe because he has a slightly thickened tendon on his off hind.  So the plan is to work on the wrong diagonal till he is soft and the change diagonals, then change back again to the wrong one.  Extending the length of time on the correct diagonal till he finds it easier.

Flexing to the outside

bringind gently back to straight

We then did lots of flexing to the outside.  I must remember to keep enough contact on the inside rein.  This helps him to balance.  Don't flex too much, if he's struggling and tightening through his back then ask for less.  When he is soft to the outisde gently bring him back to straight, then flex to the inside.  Again not forgetting the contact on the outside this time.  Do this until I have an even contact in both hands that he is happy to accept and take forwards - a mirrored contact.  Then change the rein and repeat.  If he bends his neck from the base rather than his whole body around my leg then put him on a smaller circle and leg yeild out of it.

Canter.  Work in sitting trot for a while first so that he doesn't tense because he is expecting canter when I take up sitting trot.  Prepare him for the canter transition by using the outside leg a bit before the transition.  Only ask for the transition when his neck is down and going down, not coming back up.  Bring him onto a 10m circle to help if necessary.  Use the outside leg in canter to increase the jump in canter.  On the left rein don't abandon the inside rein as it helps him balance.

Getting it wrong

A better trot to ask for canter from

Stretching.  Ask him to bring his nose in a little and poll down, then leg on to take the nose out and down further.  This makes him stretch properly over his back with a longer more swinging stride.