So, first is first, I always have to do a little blurb at the beginning about something that usually isn't really significant at all. I've taken to tricking Grimsey onto the trailer (if you don't know about my trailer woes, see the June clinic), and so Grim and I showed up rough and ready for our ride with Sherry. I was a little (okay, a lot) appalled with myself for not having a proper turnout. In my defense, it's been averaging 103 degrees (yes, that's fareinheight) and the only good time to ride is in the morning. Well, I work in the morning. As such, I've been desperately trying to squeeze in rides at dusk whilst simultaneously trying to not melt. Add to that my back injury turning me into all but a useless blob and you have a recipe for disaster.
All right, so that's a little dramatic. All the same, Grimsey had had, at this point, three weeks off (mostly credited to my farrier who was too busy to drive down and put a lost shoe back on). In the past month, I'd ridden him a grand total of three times. Two of the three times, he broke into two at the canter depart. For those of you who can't read between those horribly subtle lines: He bucked. Big.
As always, Sherry's comments are bold and my additions are in italics.
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07 - 25 - 2012
Grimsey
Spiral in to 10m CircleOn its face, this is a simple exercise, but there are many nuances. It's a yield in and out of a circle, so you cannot just let your horse fall into the circle.
Start on 20m circle.
1 & 2 aidsThis is in referance to the 1-2-3-4 aids, from the April clinic. To make it easy on you, 1 = inside rein, 2 = inside leg.
Use inside rein, bend nose to inside, use inside weight to turn onto 10cm circle.Inside weight, again, goes back to a previous clinic; however, I can't be arsed to go find which one it was (probably April), so I'll just do a quick overview. A while ago, Sherry taught me the Drunken Line (ahh, yes, it was April) in which she enouraged me to push him over with my thigh whilst simultaneously putting a small bit of weight in the opposite stirrup. It's a momentary push, and not consistant - like a pulsating feeling. So, putting that theory to this exercise, were you to spiral in to a 10m circle, you would weight your inside stirrup (another way of thinking about it would be to "drop the inside knee") and push him over with the outside thigh - all of this while maintaining the bend with the inside leg and still asking him to step over. When he sticks his nose in the air, bend him to the inside, not asking him to put his head down.
Aside from the obvious, her reasoning for not asking him to put his head down is because simply bending him around the leg will encourage him to release at the withers on his own - this, however, does not mean he "gets out of" bending (the whole "look, ma, I'm putting my head down!" should not distract you from the ultimate goal of the exercise - an inside bend and a yield).
Work on the hard side more frequently, not for longer periods of time.
Go straight, bend to inside and then push him out with leg.This is typically easier. You'll keep the inside bend and use your Outside Weight to ask him to move out - either by weighting the outside stirrup or by dropping the outside knee - and push with your inside calf as the inside hind is coming forward to ask him for that step over.
Three Ways to "Round"
1.) Do exercises that develop muscle that make it easy.Bow Ties, for example.2.) Repetition of aids - Communication.
3.) ContractIt's been a while since the clinic, so I'll see if I can remember every detail she told me (probably not) about this so-called "contract."
The Contract (from here on out will always be capitalized, so remember that if it comes up in later posts, but I'm pretty sure I'll just link back to it anyways...) is kind of like "if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." Or, if I use my inside leg and close my inside hand on the rein, you soften in the jaw and bend, and I'll not fuss at you - and to top it off, I'll ride better and it'll be easier for you.
Sherry wants the ultimate goal of this exercise to be to teach that the inside rein means soften and give. To top that off, it's great for the horse.
Here, Grim and I worked on the Nose to Rail Leg Yield (from the June clinic)Walk helps loosen his back and hips
ALL TRANSITIONS ARE THROUGH LEG YIELD for now.
Yes ma'am!! (yes, she really did capitalize all of that)
360* Turn on the ForehandIrrefutably my least favourite exercises she's ever taught me.Small circle into turn on the forehand. Half halts make the difference AND the knee pulling down in the direction you want to go.So, again, a reference to the weight. One thing she was sure to beat into me is that the knee doesn't drop and stay down, it drops for just a second and becomes neutral again (I feel it's important to note I did not say "comes up"). The knee dropping will have the same effect as weight in the stirrup and encourage the horse to come into the circle (whereas if I were to push with my thigh he would yield out). At the same time, I am using my inside leg to push him over and keep the motor running.
About at this point, Grimsey was completely out of gas and the whole exercise felt as though it were being executed in three feet of mud. Note were were only walking whilst doing this.
This exercise, for me, was a little hard to grasp. I wasn't quite getting the timing/feeling of it, and for me this is not unusual. It takes me a while to feel something new and in fact took me a week or two to start using my leg in time with his hind leg properly and automatically. I've not been able to work on it, so there have been no stunning revelations concerning it, but I'll share if I suddenly have a brain wave.
One of the things Sherry did not mention in the notes (and why should she, it wasn't a huge part of the lesson), is that Grimsey and I cantered for her for the first time. Of course it was all a spectacular failure. We started to the right (his poor lead), missed the lead, and then broke a chip off of one of the poles Marti uses for the dressage arena (whoops). To the left, Sherry described it to me as "He broke into three pieces." Grim dropped his withers, picked up his head and his butt, and promptly fell apart at the canter. When I say promptly, I mean, we got approximately five steps of canter work.
We didn't canter again.
She did suggest to me, however, that lunging would be a good thing for him, and so it's too bad that lunging on a line turns Grimsey into a complete lunatic (no matter what I said in my post Philippe Karl's School of Legrete).
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And so that's it. We actually got quite a lot accomplished, I thought. The next clinic is August 29th, and with luck Grimsey will load once again. Although, I've been considering taking Faun instead to see if Sherry can help me with his canter.
And for those of you who are wondering: Yes, I did finish this in one sitting.
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