#lessonnotes

No picture today, I need to get in the habit of taking them before I ride again.

Canter:  The canter starting out today was much more forward and supple than yesterday, today we focused on packaging the canter up a bit more. To get him more collected and uphill we used a lot of forward and back transitions to use the energy he naturally came out with to work toward our goal degree of collection. Once I was satisfied with the shape of the canter, we went onto the canter halfpasses. We have recently started incorporating fairly steep, wall-to-wall (in a short indoor) halfpasses that simulate the degress of the steepness that are in the tests for next season. The sideways part of these halfpasses is the easy part- the biggest thing I need to focus on is ensuring that I start them with proper positioning. I sometimes let the shoulders fall down in the first stride, and let the haunches get way too far behind, and then have to rush to catch them up. I find that I get wrapped up in how far sideways we need to go, that I start rushing early on. Once I started focusing on a proper introduction, we were able to go from wall to wall seamlessly. The right halfpasses are starting to match in quality compared to the left ones. 

Trot: We had a major breakthrough in the piaffe today. Schaneur came with a fair knowledge of passage, but really had no idea about piaffe and as a result he naturally wants to hover too much in the piaffe (more like passage on the spot than trot on the spot) and result in him bouncing his croup. To fix this we have been incorporating reinbacks in the trot work leading up to working on the halfsteps. Once he is lowering his croup correctly in the reinback and I am confident in my ability to drive him forward and bring him back we move onto the halfsteps. We typically approach the first attempt from either the walk or the reinback, (from the walk I am more able to get his brain a little fired up and thinking quickly with a small kick from the leg/ from the reinback I am more likely to have him in the correct shape) once getting him into the halfsteps from the reinback, he was slow to the leg- but I was able for the first time feel confident in giving him a kick to get him thinking forward again. When I solely rely on my trainer for the cue to kick him forward (and not trust my own feel) it is too late to be effective. Today, when I was more able to trust my feel I was able to improve the halfsteps and get him thinking about a more quick tempo. Following attempts from the trot were some of the absolute best we have ever done, and he felt as forward as he ever has in this work. Once getting several sets of 5-6ish steps, we moved on from the halfsteps- feeling confident in where we finished with it today. 

I have been meaning to write a formal Schaneur update for a while now, detailing our recent training endeavors in preparation for the upcoming North American Championships, but it really hasn’t been since the past two days that I have finally felt like I was accomplishing something.

Our plan had been to take it a little easy the week following our last qualifier, but I think that I mistook light/easy for complacent. Yes, we need to conserve Schaneur’s energy and get him to peak coming into the Championships but training can be on the light side while still having meaning.

I finally realized that our rides were lacking intensity. I first realized that this is something that is lacking in my everyday training over the winter season in Florida. Watching all of the professionals that I could, I noticed that not one of them ever did something without receiving a reaction from the horse, and if they didn’t they would address it- directly, efficiently, and in a drama-free manner. They had a plan, something they were going to address during that ride, and once accomplished and satisfied they left it alone for the day. It is far too easy to get into a routine of getting on the horse and going round and round and filling 45 minutes mindlessly- this kind of riding can be complacent and I am very guilty of it. I promised myself after leaving Florida and the regular eye of the big trainers I would not slip back into my trainer’s repetitive, perfectionist way of riding. While this works for some, I find it to be frustrating.

Intensity (in my definition) isn’t long duration, aggressive, or sloppy to me finding intensity in my rides is riding with purpose, having a goal, and meeting it in effective, kind manner.  With a very important competition less than 2 weeks away, it is definitely time to get myself back into this mindset. Two days ago I officially put the whip away in preparation for NAJYRC, and only am allowing myself to pick it up when absolutely necessary, use it for as short as possible while still getting a result. Riding without the security of the whip somehow sparked this reminder of how I was riding at the end of the winter season. How refined my aids need to be, how reactive I have to have Schaneur, the ability to be both subtle and strong…

The past two days have been some of the best quality work in months and I am so happy with how well Schaneur is going at the present moment, but can’t help but kick myself a bit for letting everything get a little “easy” for too long. To think how much better the season could have been if I had kept my head in a better place. While I cannot take back the end of the qualifying season, I do not see myself falling back to complacency between now and championships- and that is all that counts now.

Okay- Now for a training update (if you have stuck with this post, thank you!)

The biggest thing we have been tackling for the past week has been overall lateral suppleness. Schaneur is very stiff to the right which makes all of the lateral work to the right looks much more labored than the work to the left. We have really been working on making him laterally supple while staying in a proper FEI carriage, as he is perfectly content to get supple laterally if we let the frame come too low. Keeping him up in the poll and addressing the ability to make him adjustable there in all of the gaits and within each movement has been our major focus and there has definitely been improvement. Schaneur has a tendency to sometimes get too round and low in the poll, mostly at shows and new places when he is a bit stronger in the bridle- so we are trying very hard at home to not let his school that way to try and stop the habit since it doesn’t always present at home. We have eliminated the low warmup when I ride in the snaffle and only stretch when the work is clearly over

We have been touching on the walk quite regularly, working to keep it as regular and relaxed as possible. Again something that usually pops up at shows more than home, which means our practice at home needs to be close to perfect so in less than ideal conditions it will still be ok.

We have been addressing the pirouettes through good quality canter half-halts rather than over schooling the pirouettes. Getting him to sit down, keep the hind legs jumping, and the neck soft in the half-halt and being able to ride out of it into normal collected canter.  Schooling the pirouettes less and the half-halts more have made the pirouettes easy again. For me, the less I think about the pirouette, and the more I think about the right canter, the easier they are. Less preparation is better with Schaneur as his tendency is to sit too much and spin- this tendency when managed well by me, results in really nice turns.