I rode Unico with Wanda in a private lesson which was pretty amazing. Unico is a 15hh Lusitano stallion, in a previous life he was a bullfighting horse, now he is trained to Advanced level and is available for lessons.
He is sooooo different to ride than any of the other horses here. Although to be honest, every single advanced horse is so different and the aids must be used in different ways. The problem I had with Unico is pressing the right button. Each aid has several possible outcomes, so it was very easy to ask for, say, a medium trot instead of a canter transition. Or a piaffe instead of a trot transition.
I found myself continually apologising to Unico for confusing him!
Thankfully for this lesson it was mostly about finding what works for him, and controlling him more with my core and less with my hands and legs.
Unico really showed the weakness in my core. I am obviously trying to compensate with my legs and hands, which works for the lower level horses, but absolutely does not work for the advanced horses. So much of controlling him was release and tense of my stomach, and weight aids.
For instance, for the right canter transition- I had to step into my right stirrup/right seat bone, lift my core and use my inside leg on the girth. The outside leg came back, but did absolutely nothing. So difficult! I kept trying to use my outside leg to pop him into canter, which just told him to half pass.
We finished with some no stirrup work, trying to make my position solid and stomach muscles constantly working. I was very sweaty after this lesson!
Crappy phone pic of me on Unico without stirrups
I've had two lessons on the Big Orange warmblood Lula this week. Really, really love this horse. Never thought I'd love a warmblood so much, but she is just so comfy and responsive. I feel like a dressage queen riding her.
First lesson was a pretty quick lesson, working over trot poles. Lula found this VERY exciting. She doesn't jump, and she mostly does plain flat lessons, so trot poles got her engine going. She is so strong (and big. 17hh is too big)
The exercise was to trot over three trot poles keeping her together (core engage!), leg yield or half pass to the track and then a canter transition.
What I particularly love about Lula is how much she teaches me in the laterals. Laterals are her strong point, but you must be perfectly positioned to get it. I have the habit of not turning my body enough in the half pass- but Lula demands it!
Just to be extra confusing after my lesson with Unico, Lula's canter transition comes more from the outside leg, too much inside leg = extended trot. Thankfully I realised my mistake after the first unexpected extended trot, and we had lovely transitions from then on.
Such a beautiful big orange
The second lesson on Lula with Dawn was SERIOUSLY intense. It was three of the advanced horses in a lesson, which I haven't experienced yet. We started with some shoulder-in down the centreline ( a lot harder to do than it sounds. No wall to block the outside of the horse!) and then going from shoulder-in to half pass.
We also did a bit of travers and renvers. I find travers very easy, horses generally travel with their quarters in anways. Renvers is a bit harder, but I find if I can get the horse into shoulder-in, it's somewhat easy to just change the bend from there, rather than trying to start off in renvers.
And then the intense part started! Started out with some walk pirouettes. This should have clued me in to what was coming next.
In the canter, we were instructed to canter down each quarter line, so basically a straight line with a 10m half circle at each end. Okay. Not too bad.
Then we were instructed down the centreline in canter and onto the quarterline. Freakin-hard! That is not much space at all! Especially for a giant orange warmblood!
I found I could get the turn, but I couldn't keep the canter after the turn, I just kept letting it fizz out. Once again it was my balance of inside and outside leg, and also my overall position- going against all my previous training, I was to sit BEHIND the movement of the canter. Crazy, but it worked.
And then... across the diagonal in the canter, half pirouette, and canter back the same way. Holy shiiiit!
Took me a few tries, but damn I got it! And even got a clean flying change afterwards! Took about every ounce of core strength I have, which still isn't enough, but damn it, I did it!
And finally, I had a half hour private lesson with Tina herself on Unico. Super nervous about this one. I always feel like I'm not riding her horses well enough, and I'm afraid to push them. Instead I'm 100% focused on my position, which is not a bad thing I guess.
Since it was such a brief lesson, we didn't do a huge amount of exercises- it was still just getting used to him, making sure his positioning was correct before I even tried to put aids on, and making a lot of mistakes and confusing the hell out of the poor horse.
We worked a bit on some shoulder-in, travers and half pass which was fine. Moving into canter I was struggling with the transition again. I kept asking him for piaffe! I really need to work on my weight aids and making sure he is on the same wavelength as me. It is so easy on Unico to move your leg an inch without realising, and suddenly he's thinking about a flying change, not a bend to the inside.
So basically, I need more control, more awareness of my body, and once again, more strength.
I did come out smiling from this lesson- Tina told me how much I had improved, and praised me heavily for the lesson. Yay yay!
I still feel like a sack of potatoes, but I'm obviously less of a sack of potatoes than I was two months ago.
I've gotta go out a ride now! Another advanced lesson with Joao on Real. Will update soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment