Oh FuFu... you're growing up!! Dressage was FUN today!
We had a lesson with Jacel so we only managed to get on early enough to walk around the arena's and up to the jump arena. Then we got to walk in the dressage arena for another 5 minutes or so before Jacel was ready. We walked a square to help get her ready. And she was good. And we were even on a soft contact.. not just on the buckle!
Jacel and I chatted briefly but then she told me to pick her and we got to work. We started off trotting and she told me to move her haunches over. Aha.. that's right.. it's not just moving her barrel... it's moving the haunches and the barrel to engage the inside hind. And catching it with the outside rein, although it's still a very soft contact. Similar to my jump lesson last week that was so tough because I was thinking more leg yielding vs engaging the inside hind. So we did that and when she got fussy or quick, we did a 10ish meter circle. And a slight wiggle of the inside rein to soften the brace in her neck. And I had to ride with my outside shoulder forward. I keep getting twisted to the outside, both ways. So when I would bring my outside shoulder forward, and ride her inside hind to the outside, she would get nice and soft and round! And her back started lifting. And she was so soft in the bridle. And she wasn't curling anymore or slinging her head about. She was still slightly chompy (and I had an epiphany... she's chompy and I don't assume that she's dying, whereas when Lyric chomps, I assume Lyrics dying) but definitely not as fussy as she can be. Whoo hoo!!! Then we added in the "collection". We talked about how most horses you work on lengthening first, but... Funny's gonna lengthen. We need to teach her how to compress and load the hind end because as long as I just "allow", she'll get bigger and reach. And, our "collected trot" is still really a proper working trot. But dang it feels nice!! We got a nice regular trot and then I tightened the muscles around my belly button, sat up taller, made my post smaller, and squeezed my thighs. I tried not to pinch with my knee while squeezing my thighs, which is hard. But again, thinking of lifting the saddle with my thighs helps. And when I sit, close my fingers on the rein, and wiggle if needed the inside rein to soften. AND... keep my outside shoulder forward, and... she got so small and compressed! It almost felt like a piaffe! And I know it wasn't anywhere near that, but... comparatively to what her normal trot feels like, it was a HUGE change!! And it's so nice because she really does it off my seat and leg aids with a tiny bit of finger squeeze. And it takes us a minute, literally, to get there, but... she's not fighting me about it. She's just gradually shortening til she gets pretty compressed. And she even started to lose a little energy today so I had to add leg and then she really started to sit and push and lift! It was awesome!!
So then we played with some lengthens. She had me get her compressed and then go across the diagonal (the shorter one... To P vs M or whatever) and just allow her to get bigger. Which was a little harder than on the circle, because... I wanted more and pushed. But when I pushed, I closed my knees and shut her down, so she inverted and got hollow and rushy. But when I finally manage to do all the things I just mentioned, plus keep my knees open.. holy cow!! She gave me some really nice baby lengthens! And then to get her smaller again, if I just rode the haunches to the outside and pushed my outside shoulder back and wiggled my inside rein, she collected right up. If I tried to just shorten her with the reins and my seat but didn't get her bent again, then she would hollow and get quick. So it took me a few tries to get the hang of it, but I did and we had some really nice working trot to lengthen trot to working trot diagonals!! And maybe not first level ready, but... getting so much closer!
So then we took a break and baby girl was tired! I picked her back up and she was immediately doing her prop and rear nonsense. Ugh. She needs the rest for her hiney but not for her brain. But she quickly settled back down and went back to work. We got a nice collected trot and from there asked for the canter. It made the canters much better! We tried to get a more collected canter, and focused more on me lifting the saddle with my thighs, and... it worked but it's much harder for her to collect in the canter. She tried... but then she would give up too quickly. Or I would. ;) But we managed to get a few steps of really nicer canter where you could feel her start to "dribble" and lift and then she'd fall out of it or almost fall out of it. But we did get a few steps here and there!
So.. homework is to keep doing all those things but also practice the canter from the collected trot. Hopefully I can recreate this at our next flat ride because it was definitely way better than when I rode on my own the other day. I think the shoulder might be part of the key.
We took a short hack after to cool off because despite it being January 6th and Funny being partially clipped, she was sweaty! I let her snack a good bit in the XC field because we don't have grass currently and they do. Then we hacked around pterydactyl lake. Then we found Judy and Teller in the parking lot and had a nice chat.
GOOD PONY!!! I might have to do some first level tests with her for fun this year.
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