Postby Dresseur » Mon Jul 10, 2017 2:28 pm
I can try to go over who I'm riding, I'm keeping notes, but it's mostly on things I'm feeling and stuff I'm putting together as I'm working them. I'm definitely under no illusions that I'm helping to train anyone - they're all training me!
So, Tito: he is an ex PSG horse, around 14 or 15 years old. I say ex because he was out of work for a long time and is now being brought back as either a schoolmaster or a sales horse. He's a lot of fun. Most of what is being done is conditioning work. Nothing fancy until he regains strength. He's a lot of fun... a bit of a hothead but very, very safe feeling. Which sounds at odds with each other, but I don't know how else to describe it. He's just fun. So, what I find very interesting with him is that he has a very correct feeling in terms of responses, but because the suppleness and musculature isn't there yet, it's a brittle feeling. But, each time I'm on him, he feels better and better.
R is a larger gelding, when he first came into training, he was downright dangerous. He has some odd markings and scars that seem to indicate some sort of abuse or lack of self preservation. He has been in training for the better part of 2 years and is now a very solid citizen. He is a client horse, but is being used for lessons with advanced students as well. I really, really enjoy riding him. He does all the lateral work, and the biggest thing for him is that he must allow the rider to touch him and work him. If he goes too many days with someone riding too preciously, you can feel a tension start bubbling up. What I find fascinating with him is that when I'm feeling textures in his back - when I first get on, he's very smooth in the back. What I didn't realize is that at first, I was loosing that smoothness - which in hindsight, meant that I was losing throughness and he was starting to get too still and posey. Now, I am able to regain the smoothness if I loose it. He is also the one that happily pointed out that I was doing circles all wrong. I couldn't figure out why he never seemed to soften from the circles - he would follow the inside rein when I indicated it, but he kept falling out of them. Cue the realization that I wasn't doing enough with my outside leg to drive the circle around. No wonder even Gala would motorcycle in the circles a bit. I need to make sure the horse isn't just following the inside rein, but allow much more on the outside and make sure the outside hind keeps driving the circle around. Cue the realization that I was creating 2 short sides on Miro by not allowing enough on the outside. Cue hitting my head against the wall. sigh....
Caz, he came with Tito, much lower level, and out of work for a while. His conformation is fairly atrocious. Very high in the neck, dropped in the chest - very, very long back that borders on a sway back. He is longed first then ridden lightly. The first day that I rode him, I found him to be balky. Turns out, I was using too much thigh on him and shutting him down. The circle lesson from R was huge on him. It really gets him even and swinging. If you don't have that, in the canter, he tries to switch leads every few steps as he jams his back up. So, circles, serpentines, changes of directions, making sure that he is bending as evenly as he can. Leg yields and very light shoulder fore bordering on shoulder in. He just feels very different from anything I've been on, but the main thing is that again, she gets him very even and smooth feeling in the back. I lose it on him.
Louie - one of her sales horses, a 5 year old... very, very unfortunate build to his neck. But despite that, a lovely, lovely mover. I've only been on him 3 times. The first 2 rides I had on him were good. Then I rode too quietly and he got very behind me and started flinging his head. So, I promptly got pulled from him. oops :/ Andrea assures me that it's not because I suck that badly, but, she's not willing to let that slide either. Standards are high!
Rio - he's a friend of mine's horse, so I have permission to ride him now and again to feel things. I have to say, one of the few that I actively dislike riding. The way I sit on him feels like my center of gravity is way, way up high. Other than that, he's relatively normal in his work.
Gala, of course every one knows her at this point. What I'm finding is that with each horse I'm on... I feel something at the basic level that I can attribute to an issue I'm having at a higher level. For instance. In the canter, I still want to soften my shoulders a bit - so, I can't hold her on my back which means that the contact is heavier than it should be. I was leaving every corner in shoulder in because I was just pulling her around with the inside rein. DUH. *cue more head banging off walls. My bilateral hh were not working because I persist in over bending her neck. DUH * cue even MORE banging head off the wall. Funny how things get much better when you stop over bending the horse. sigh.... I feel like I'm forgetting things, but we've even started to isolate a bit of an asymmetry in my hip and that I'm letting go in my core when doing changes, which means that I try to get the change by swinging her neck back and forth - which doesn't work. at all. ever. sigh.
The other one that I got an opportunity to sit on is a client horse, she is also a friend of mine, and he's starting to work on working pirouettes. Andrea wanted me to feel what he does, which is a very exaggerated version of what Gala does to me. He slows down and the hind stops working, which makes him hop up and down rather than sweep around. The second I felt it - a light bulb went off. So I was very, very thankful to sit on him for those few minutes.
Ted is a schoolmaster - and he's interesting. He was trained to pose a long time ago and he was quite uncomfortable when he first came into training. He also ka-chunked the bit off his mouth and dropped the contact all the time. I had sat on him at varying points in his training and it is amazing the difference. His whole body has changed, and now he has a light, lively contact that doesn't feel stiff or brittle and he is very comfortable.
Herbie belongs to a student of A's and she's out of riding due to a pregnancy. Herbie is in training, but also teaches lessons as a way to offset training fees. She is a 21- 22?) year old 4th level horse, who is knocking on the door of PSG. Her owner did an amazing job with her, but had to ride more carefully at a critical point in the horse's training - the changes. So, as a result, Herbie has some interesting habits there... which include blasting through the changes and being late behind. So, watching Andrea re-school that, and having had the opportunity to feel what is going on in her back as she does those things, is very interesting. I've only been on her once.
I think that covers it... They have each showed me things that I consistently do across the board both good and bad. And my feel for things is refining as I feel different sensations across different conformations, personalities, and levels of training and how as they continue to be worked by Andrea, how similarities start to show up in terms of how they feel in the bridle and in their backs.
Will reassess at the beginning of August.
hope it is an uneventful and short layup).
