The Last Few Rides

I have only had two lessons since my last post, I didn't ride at all for three days as we were running a dressage two-day course and a showjumping day-course which took all the spare time and energy we had.
And then of course I had my day off, which I don't ride on. Nevertheless! I still did loads this week.

As you can see from my last post, I did a bit of vaulting. SUPER fun. The girls who are part of the vaulting club are just incredible- extremely strong and graceful. They make it look very easy.
I was very sore after vaulting on Puro. I only did a few moves, but holding my weight up and flinging my legs around in a controlled manner is hard!

Puro

I also went on an English 'hack', i.e. trail ride. Very different from Australia. Even though we are considered to be in a very country area, we had to ride quite a bit on the road with cars, motorcycles and trucks zooming past (and some shouting obscenities. I now know what a cyclist feels like)

It's beautiful, though. Extremely green and lush, even though Spring hasn't really sprung yet. I rode Millie, a 13.3hh mare.

We had a few great little gallops (Poor Millie was left in the dust). A nice change from the arena!

My lessons were both on Saffy the Wb, but were about as different as you can get. The first was with Nikki, and I felt we really got somewhere. During the lesson we worked on voltes in walk and trot, and walk pirouettes.
Nikki had me focusing on the feel of my reins, and bending Saffy with my body rather than my hands. So instead of giving a little vibration on the inside rein (along with outside leg slightly back and inside leg on girth), she had me turn my shoulders ever so slightly and use my elbow to control the rein, rather than my wrist and fingers, and still using my legs as before.
This REALLY worked with Saffy. All the tension in the rein disappeared and it was easier on me (as well as Saffy!)
These tiny little adjustments seriously matter. It seems like nit-picking, but the proof is in the pudding. Saffy was soft, forward and round. Lovely.
We did a little bit of canter work, where I managed to keep myself together a bit more. Yay.
My biggest flaws of the lesson- I need to lengthen my leg and push down into the stirrup, which is actually a sign I'm tense in my hips, thighs and knees.
As per usual- I gotta keep those damn hands still and quiet!!

The second lesson was another disaster lesson where I felt a bit teary afterwards. This time with Wanda, I just couldn't get myself together to ride. As per usual I was trying too hard, becoming stressed, tense and frustrated- and thus making absolutely no progress.
We didn't do much in the way of exercises. More just trying to get Saffy off my leg and controlling my body to some degree.
It sucked- but you've gotta start somewhere! I don't think I can list one good thing from the lesson, other than the reminder that I need to chill out.
What can I say? I'm a try hard.

I did get to sit in on a few of the lectures for the dressage course which was very educational. We had a demo with the advanced horses where they showed us the high level movements and how to ride them. Really cool- I've never actually been taught the aids for these higher movements (one-time tempis, piaffe, passage etc.) so it was interesting to see how the buttons worked in detail.
We also did a bit of in-hand work, once again putting the horses through some advanced movements from the ground and learning the aids. Ground work is my 'thing', so I felt a lot more comfortable asking the horses to work with both of my feet on the ground.

One of the demos which I found  particularly interesting was a direct comparison of a Lusitano and a Warmblood- both trained to Grand Prix level. It is rare when you get to see these two very different breeds piaffing and passaging side by side. I'm sure you can guess which breed I prefer, but it was interesting to look from a judging point of view and analyse why each breed may get higher marks in particular movements based on their conformation and movement.
The Lusitanos (and Baroque breeds in general) excel in the movements needing high collection and energy, where the Warmbloods excel in the movements needing a more forward-and-out action. It was very clear that the Lusitano could piaffe perfectly (wheras the Wb struggled to keep it), and the Warmblood did some textbook lengthenings and tempi changes (where the Lusitano got tense).


Another post is on it's way! So much to catch up on.