Half pass, check.

Do you ever have those days when you finally put together all the little pieces of work from the past few months and it actually works?
Today I did.
T-Bone was in such good frame of mind today, that I could basically work on anything I wanted. After warming up and doing some collected canter, I worked a little on half steps. We had only been asking for a little bit up until now, and of course it was confusing - I mean basically you are telling the horse to stop and go at the same time. Well today, he did it! It finally clicked! It's still just in the baby stages, as I have to ask him for half steps by doing turn on the haunches in the trot - this sort of forces him to collect and trot on the spot. But it was way cool!
I decided to leave half steps alone after that ... and moved on to half pass. (at the trot) I always start out doing shoulder in, circle at E, then travers to warm up. After I feel the lateral movements are going well, I picked a long side ... started shoulder-in and then I asked "Would you move sideways?" (with the appropriate aids of course, wouldn't it be nice if you could just vocally ask for the movements? haha!) ... and he did! I was watching in the mirror and was astonished to see a lovely half-pass. I only asked him to half pass from the wall to the quarter line, immediately dropped the reins and said "good horse!" and finished on that. My instructor happened to be watching too and was so tickled. I was so proud of my horse. I still can't believe what progress we've made since August.
That's all me gots for today. Peace!

Over the river and through the woods

Finally, I have a few moments to reflect on Sunday's trail ride. This week has been SO busy that I havn't been able to wrap my mind around much.
Anyway, the state park we went to was about an hour drive from the farm. We packed 7 horses into the trailer and off we went. T-Bone was an angel and loaded right up, having never been on a trailer of this size before - especially not one full with other horses.
We arrived safe and sound and unloaded. I went ahead and tied T-Bone to the hitching post thing "just to see" ... and was really impressed that he stood there like he does this everyday! I was expecting him to be nervous, looking around, ancy ... nope. A couple of people commented on how quiet he was. If only they could have seen him two years ago! His confidence and serenity now is a result of putting all that mileage on him. Finally, it's starting to pay off.
Once everyone was tacked up, we walked around for a bit and T-Bone was right off the bat incredibly relaxed and mellow. For a second I thought maybe I had the wrong horse. haha! And off we went into the woods. The scenery was gorgeous, and while we did spend a good time walking and enjoying the park - I'd say we mostly trotting and galloped like hooligans - scaring other trail riders off the trail and resulting in VERY tired horses at the end of the ride. All the hills I am sure made for a good workout for the horses. It's pretty cool how your dressage training pays off on the trails too. Our horses were by far the most obedient bunch, and during our galloping rampages - sometimes you had to make sharp turns around a tree or whatnot. No problem - just half half, add some leg, and T-Bone bends around the tree without a hitch. It really makes you feel a lot safer knowing that your horse is able to listen to you and not just fling himself around trees. Oh - we jumped a few logs too! Perhaps T-Bone has some eventer in him? He was afraid of NOTHING.
Even tho the other horses were all draft horses or draft crosses and larger than T-Bone, we not only kept up with the group but ended up way out in front for a while with a couple of other "speed demons." It was pretty cool. We were both tired at the end, and I've given him Tues, Wed and Thurs off to let his muscles recover.
Well I'm off to go ride now ... I think I'll make it an easy day. Peace out!

**
Today's quote: "It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed." -- Billy Collins

By the way, the rest of the videos for Randy Pausch can be found at YouTube

The last lecture of Randy Pausch 1

Another video not horse or dressage-related, but truly nspirational. This is Randy Pausch, and he is dying of pancreatic cancer. This is his last lecture he gave to a university class. Watch it, it's worth it.

Trail ride!

I CANNOT WAIT! Eight of us from the barn are piling into a trailer and driving to a nearby campgrounds for a day of trail riding on Sunday. It has been years since I have been on a "real" trail ride, and this will be T-Bone's first experience out with a group of horses. We trail ride around the farm and stuff, and of course we've been to shows - but I don't know how the whole galloping in a field with 7 other horses is going to go. :-) I'm really amped about it tho, and I hope the weather holds.

Now I have to go shopping for bug spray. And bell boots wouldn't hurt either.

Around and around we go

So today was an amazing lesson. After warming up, we started working on shoulder-in down the long side, 10 meter circle at E or B, and then haunches-in (travers) when we got back to the rail. Lateral work is getting MUCH easier for T-Bone and altho it isn't perfect yet, every day gets better.

We moved on to some turns on the haunches at the walk - our best movement by far. After a couple of times each direction, my instructor (Jen) says to trot and think turn on the haunches at the trot. At first, both T-Bone and I were confused (it's a difficult movement to do), but when we did nail it - wa-lah - HALF STEPS! We didn't spend too long on this, just enough to let T-Bone know he was on the right track and that he was making good efforts. Canter work included some colelction exercises - including "think push his haunches out" at the canter, almost as if to make him cross his back legs. Well this resulted in a really uphill, collected canter. And when Jen said "think turn on the haunches in canter", it was as if we had been doing canter piroettes all summer ... ok, it wasn't as tight as it should be, but be nailed a very nice schooling half piroette. T-Bone's best gait is the canter and he has no problem sitting and cantering in a very collected fashion. It's so cool! Trot lengthenings will be a different story ... it's not his strong point, and never will be. We'll have to make everything else awesome in order to make up for a lack-luster extensions.

Toward the end, we did more shoulder-in down the long side, and half-pass off the rail to the quarter line. Our first steps of half pass! We did this at trot and canter. Half pass to the quarter line, then go straight. I wanted to make sure T-Bone knew what he was doing was correct, so I didn't push it any more than that. He was such a good horse today, what an amazing work ethic he has.

The horse gets vaccinated tomorrow (Tuesday) so I won't ride him again until Thursday. I can't wait to work more on my own on this exercises. What's really awesome is that by increasing the level of difficulty, all of a sudden the easy stuff gets SO much easier. My homework from Jen was to work on the counter canter loops that appear in Second Level Test 1 as well. Counter canter is a little difficult, and he needs to be more supple for sure. But it'll get there.

**

In other news, I'm going to need to find another form of exercise over the winter to keep myself in shape. Now that softball is ending, I won't have that extra hour or so of exercise. It really helped my riding and I'll definately miss it. Maybe yoga or pilates will be a good choice.

THE ELMS, "Promises"

Wow. Not horse related or dressage related, but worth posting.

THE ELMS, "Promises"

It's 92 and it's October

Saturday's lesson was fantastic. My 'rents came out to watch and I think were impressed with how far we have come in a month. They were also amazed at how hard both of us work (didn't make things any better that it was 92 degrees). Horse and I were both drenched in sweat by the end.

We started out working on changing the bend within the trot. We did shallow loops on and off the rail and then loops on the centerline. This was followed by work on shoulder in and leg yielding. This is clearly not T-Bone's favorite movement, and I think he still is insecure from the bad experience back in March during which we spent and hour leg yielding and pissing him off. Ugh. But, it's getting better. It's just a matter of time and practice. What we do well, tho, is turn on the haunches. I've never really worked that much on this movement with the horse, but both of us have a real knack for it. So much infact, that walk piroettes are not far away. TOH really helps lighten his front end as well. The lesson ended with more canter work - this will be the horse's strong point. He is incredibly talented and able to sit down on his haunches and damn near canter on the spot already. This is after maybe 2 weeks of asking for just a little more collection each day in the canter. It isn't perfect, he still tends to get tense in the neck and stiff in the jaw, but I just have to work through it.

Anyway, the photos are from yesterday.

Tired human and pony!