Can't we just go right forever?

My weekly lessons are becoming more about addressing Savvy's shoulders and that incredibly underused left hind foot.

There has been no doubt about the struggle bending left right from the beginning. I have been working on it to some degree, but it was never the major focus as Savvy was so green we were looking for forward resposiveness and basic yeilding to pressure (and I was really just happy with her feeling broke!). Now she is ready for a bit more attention to detail.

First correct bend, then shoulder in on a circle. I can see where we get

it correct a few seconds at a time, here and there!

Tracking left, Savvy will throw her weight in on her front left shoulder, try to tip her head out and avoid stepping under completely with her left hind. Tracking right, the left shoulder will bulge and she will over-bend to the inside.

It turns out correcting a bulging shoulder is a much easier fix than lifting a dropped shoulder. Ugh. I spent much of my lesson wishing we were tracking right so I could stop working so hard.

We are addressing it, bit by bit. I have to remember patience and kindness for my girl. Asking her to track left with straightness and balance is like asking a right-handed person to write an essay with their left hand.

One exercise I will be using is shoulder in on a 10-meter circle. This well help me to lift her shoulder and help Savvy develop the coordination required to use her weaker hind left by stepping under.

Shoulder in tracking right - may not look like much, but felt awesome after all the struggle trying to accomplish this going the other direction. 

Once I was starting to get Savvy more balanced and bent correctly going right and then asked for the shoulder in, she literally could not stay at the trot. It was just too much for her to use her body differently and came down to a very clumsy walk through it. From past experience, when Savvy is faced with something new or complicated, her response is always to stop or slow down. She was really trying though. She definitely got extra cookies after this lesson.

Overall a great session with lots of little exercises to take home and work on.

Wonder Pony and her Brain Vacation.

I had grand plans of jumping Savvy at home yesterday. She has been so wonderful lately and even though she is not all that great at jumping (would rather step over or knock it down than jump), maybe it would be a nice change for her.

So I set up one tiny cross rail in the arena and headed out to get my pony. She was out in the pasture with her two friends, munching grass and looking sleepy in the afternoon sun. Perfect! A great mood to be in for a fun little ride.

After tacking up and hand walking in the outdoor arena, I hopped up to get started and...nope. Savvy was literally prancing on the spot. What the heck? So I got off, grabbed the lunge line and decided to let her trot a bit and see if she just needed to get some nerves out. Nerves from what, I didn't know--it was just a normal sunny day in an arena she has been worked in for almost three years. After this she looked calm, relaxed and interested in just eating grass. Okay, back to it right? Wrong.

Me: "Can we ride?"
Savvy: "No."
Me: "But..."
Savvy: "No."
 

This went on for about half an hour. When ever I got on, she felt so nervous that she might flip out, or worse, over. I really tried to stay on as long as I felt safely possible, but each time I ended up having to get off and regroup. Finally I ended up taking her back to her pasture friends and got on there. This was to test if this was emotional or physical. If physical, she would be just as bad close to her friends, but if emotional, she would be better because of the comfort of being with the herd.

Luckily she was better. Completely better. So I took her back to the arena and just slowed things down. None of the focused ground work that usually makes her calm and focused had worked today so I decided to approach things differently. I took her over to the scariest corner and then just stood. I focused on my breathing, and was careful to aim my body away from her and look down at the ground. I relaxed and waited.

At first, Savvy could not keep still. She paced in a never-ending circle around me, but I just continued my breathing and stayed calm and relaxed. The only time I moved was to keep her out of my bubble--what she chose to do was up to her.

Finally she stopped. I rewarded her with scratches and then tried a new spot to 'meditate'. This time she just followed and stood with me.

Two hours after beginning this simple little afternoon ride, I was able to get on and walk her without fearing imminent flippage.

And today at our lesson at my coach's barn? A perfect little angel even with a bird trapped in the arena occasionally swooping at us and the neighbours constructing something and all the random loud banging from that.

Mares.

Clinic Day Three - So What Now?

Regular non-horse life has been very busy since the clinic. When I had the chance, I researched more about Legerete proper as well as reflected on what I had learned at the clinic. I wanted to see what was pure Legerete versus Muriel Chestnut's own style, which seemed to be a bit of a melting pot of her own learning from various styles.

I mentioned before the clinic how excited I was about seeing french classical mixed with natural horsemanship. Muriel had specifically studied Parelli which I have not delved into much beyond the seven games, level one on my own using a friend's dvd set. I am not sure what I was expecting, perhaps some education towards a magical blend of high level movements done at liberty? Instead, it was simply use of phases while applying the Legerete in-hand work. Makes sense, but I think I deflated a little.

Day three was much of the same as day two, and I particularly enjoyed watching everyone else throughout the day working on movements that were above my head to say the least.

I left the clinic wondering where to place this new-found information into what I already was doing. Would I take it on full throttle or discard it completely? Frankly I had no idea. I liked a lot of what I had learned, yet some aspects made me a bit uneasy. If you have looked into Philippe Karl at all, you might pick up that he is quite passionate about his training style and it is quite tightly controlled.

I am far from good at horses, but I have become quite open-minded over the years about training style. If you have trained more than a couple of horses, you will know that not all horses are the same and training goes a bit easier with flexability, creativity and a willingness to adjust to the horse you are working with.

I know for myself that I am happy to be the adult ammy, puttering around the sandbox on a horse I trained and I want that horse to be my athletic partner, my well-loved pony that gets too many treats, and a safe friend that can do some fancy when asked.

So with a bit of time to reflect, I am quite happy I dipped my toe into some new information. There is so much about this school of training that appeals to me.

For now though, I think I will take the few little tidbits I liked and add it to what I am already doing.  I will not be donning a Fedora and working on my French skills just yet.

Clinic Day Two - Reset Button

I woke up day two feeling much less overwhelmed. Perhaps I just needed some time to absorb the information from the previous morning. The clinician, Muriel Chestnut, seemed different too. She seemed to get that Savvy was super sensitive and that she was receptive to a whisper, so adjusted her instruction to take this into consideration.

We started with a simple review of what she taught the day before. It all went so much better with a soft ask and then we moved on to Demi-arret, neck flexion and stretching at the walk from the ground.

I found this exercise quite helpful because I could watch the way the bit was working in her mouth as I applied the reins and see the application to the corner of the lips rather than the tongue as well as the reaction of the mobilisation of the jaw and movement of the tongue. When we stopped and relaxed the reins, Savvy let out a huge sigh and licked and chewed. Goal #1: Relaxation achieved.

I then got on and repeated these exercises at a walk. It was much easier today to keep Savvy's poll open and to get her to reach into the bit. After having an entire day of learning in my head, I also found it easier to anticipate what I needed to do with my hands as necessary and I felt a lot less awkward.

My number one issue with Savvy going into this clinic was possibly her lack of consistancy on the bit. I definitely felt like I had a few more tools to address this after day two.

I was encouraged to think of my hands as holding a child's hand in a crowd. The connection cannot be so soft as to possibly lose the child, nor too hard as to hurt them. The horse can find comfort in this type of consistant hold and feel confident to take the bit without fear of pain.

 

As for my leg aids at this point, I was to simply ask for the gait and then leave her alone. The goal was to ride with less power, more harmony. If she slowed, I was to use the crop instead of nagging with more leg. Not only does this help her to be more obedient to the leg, but it quiets the conversation and encourages softer communication. This was a good reminder to me; I often get sucked into nagging Savvy at the trot when she is being lazy, even though I know its going to just make her dull to my leg.

All in all, day two was fantastic! I was starting to see how I could possibly incorporate some ideas into what I was already doing and was looking forward to day three!

Clinic Day One - Introduction to "Legerete"

I would like to pretend I did good on day one of clinic. Remember how I worried about asking the right questions, making a good impression. I wanted to just come in, be polite and professional, get good at stuff and go.

If I were normal I am sure that would have been the case. Alas, I a gifted little comquat and well...do you think falling down is a good impression? Well how about making your horse fall down, and then you falling down, all while just standing on the ground, holding reins?

No worries, Savvy and I bounced right back up and got back to learning, pretending very hard that did not happen.

Fine. Here's video. Get your laughs out and move on to serious absorbtion of some really cool information.

 

 

I especially love my friend's reaction. :P

 

The School of Legerete was founded by Philippe Karl and more information about his philosophy can be found here http://philippe-karl.com/424/School_of_Légèreté_»/English/»_Philosophy.html.

 

Legerete means lightness, and as you saw above, dear Savvy is a very light horse who is probaby wishing to trade me in for a rider with lighter hands.

 

Day one for me was a very basic introduction to terminology and the methods of Legerete.

 

This included:

1. Mise en Main - Education of the Hand, Jaw Yielding
    
The very first step here was in hand work from the ground. Standing in front of my horse, I was to lightly lift on the bit so the pressure was acting on the corners of the mouth, not the tongue or roof of the mouth. The purpose is to mobilize the mouth (horse opens their mouth, moves the tongue and therefore activates the jaw), raise the head, open the poll and shift the balance of the horse (horse steps into a more square, balanced position). This was called a Demi-Arret.
 


Muriel Chestnut demonstrating Demi-Arret



 2. Flexions - Lateral Neck Flexions and Neck Extension

Following the demi-arret, the second phase was to continue this action until the horse moved into the bit, and I was to follow that movement forward and down. This is the horse 'taking your hand'. Then we started working with the reins from the side and worked more on the taking of the bit and opening the poll. 


Activating the jaw and opening the poll. The outside rein is up over Savvy's poll so Muriel is applying
equal pressure on the bit.

 

Then taking the bit and stretching down into it. (Head should be straight, though Savvy had a lot to say about it all!)

 

Next were lateral flexions. We were looking for a clear, straight flexion without bending at the poll. Once this was achieved, we could give the rein and encourage the horse to stretch their neck. Teaching the horse to extend when asked will help stretch the topline of the horse and will be necessary in developing balanced gaits.
 

 
Every exercise is first taught on the ground, then mounted at the halt, then walk, trot and canter.
 

 

Savvy when we first started walk: behind the verticle.

Once I had run through all of these excercises on the ground, it was time to mount up and try them at the halt and walk. Savvy immediately wanted to curl behand the bit because it was such a cold/rainy/windy day and she was very 'up' and nervous.
 
 
This was addressed with a demi-arret, where just like on the ground I would lift the bit on the corners of her mouth, activate the jaw and lift the head.


This not only got her head in better position, but ended up helping her relax from licking and chewing and then finally breathing a bit and listening to me.
 
 
 
 
 

Using demi-arret to lift the head and open the poll, Savvy
then maitained a more true connection further into the ride.

 
That was it for day one! It was a great introduction for me. Even though it doesn't sound like a lot of new information, I really was quite overwhelmed at this point. I had not thought about rein pressure in this way before--corners of the lips versus pulling back and applying tongue pressure. I suddenly felt guilty for 40 years of a riding style that may have been unnecessarily painful for my horses. A door opened in my head and I suddenly realized I could go through it and ride differently. I wasn't expecting any doors. I was a bit uncomfortable with it.
 
But it wasn't over there. Day two yet to come.

 





Muriel Chestnut Clinic

My clinic weekend flew by and all the emotions were felt. I am exhausted, overwhelmed, yet so excited about new possibilities. It is a bit terrifying to discover how much more information is out there that I still do not know. I had a peek through the looking glass and now I am left wondering if I should step through.

I have so much video to look at and notes to complete before it starts to slip away. Once I have a chance to sort through it all, I will tell you all about it!

Clinic Prep

One thing I have discovered after transitioning my focus to dressage is the lack of simple, affordable shows to take part in. Coming from hunters, where schooling shows (or at least shows that included jumping) were abundant, I am already missing that a bit.

On the bright side, I am too green to need dressage shows yet, so I will have to get my thrills through clinics and/or spectating at the 'too-expensive-for-me-right-now' dressage shows.

As for clinics, my first one is coming up this weekend!!!!!!

Savvy and I have been very slowly, but steadily progressing in our lessons. Nothing anyone would notice besides me and my coach, really. I am surprisingly developing new 'good' habits like correcting Savvy's bend in corners effectively and quietly. The list of things we are still NOT doing is massive, but I am choosing to be positive!

I am really excited about this upcoming clinic. The clinician, Muriel Chestnut, is my elusive unicorn: Classical dressage mixed with natural horsemanship. I have never met her, but upon reading about her on her website, http://www.enlightened-dressage.com/home.html I am feeling very lucky for this opportunity!

My biggest worry at the moment is clarifying my goals enough to answer the dreaded (shouldn't it be simple?!!) question of what I would like to work on. So far, my only answer is "all of it."

Like this - can I do this please? (Pic of Karen Rohlf and her lovely horse Natilla)

Seriously though, I have a one-hour spot on each day of a three-day clinic. We do have the difficulty with right bend, but I feel my coach has already given me a great plan for that. Canter is still not fully installed, but that feels more of a practise issue, as in needs more practise. I don't want to limit the experience with a bad choice of direction - does that make any sense?

I have two more days to think about it. Perhaps I should just state how new we both are to dressage and leave it open to whatever the clinician thinks best. Wish us luck!