I had a bunch of words typed out, but they were all no longer applicable. Talking about our show plans, what we were working on for our April 19 show, and our plan of attack to kick ass doesn't apply anymore. And then the world fell apart with Covid and quarantine. So....updates?
When we left you last, Mia was lame. After a week of rest, the farrier was out and didn't see anything despite my waffling on if I DID see her being lame or not. So we went with the "ride it until it is good or breaks" mentality and Mia has stayed sound. We did a short week of fitness before we had lesson 8.
Lesson 8 was very good! We were really focusing on power and control and that carried over into our first jump lesson with A. I warned A before the ride that I had have had tons of jump lessons and I haven't had one that was worth the $ since the early 2000's. I always fell like I have a babysitter and am simply paying a jump crew. I told her that I was really looking forward to A's lesson bc her dressage rides are SO informative. She took that as a challenge, set up a grid and worked us! It started as a small one stride to a two stride to a 3 stride.
A has changed so much about our rides in dressage, it was no surprise that she changed our jumping. I ride 90% in two point when jumping. I drive with my seat at some of the bigger jumps, but otherwise I am in two point all of the time. Freedom of movement for the horse, she can balance herself at all times, I am not in the way. A wants me to sit the canter more, 50% of the time at least. Her argument was that I can't control Mia's tempo with my seat bones if they are out of the saddle, I would have to rely only on my hands and/or weight/balance. It should easier to simply use the skills from dressage to control her canter when approaching her jump bc that is what we have been working on. Anytime I am near/can see a jump, I should be sitting down to control Mia's tempo. Makes sense, but it was SUPER hard for me to do. Fighting muscle memory is legit hard!
The jumps stayed small, nothing over 2'9", and the two stride was taken out so we could work on pacing. We worked to get Mia's canter size changed between the jumps WHILE I am sitting down between the jumps. While it wasn't a perfect lesson (I blame the severe rust on our skills), it was definitely worth the money and I am now looking forward to taking another jump lesson!
Lesson 9 was a dressage ride and it was a much more laid back ride than normal. We really focused on getting power, straightness, and getting it faster and with less fuss. We discovered one of my habits of throwing my connection away during a down transition has come back so I have to focus on not doing that. We also worked on a cool "butterfly" exercise that I have done a couple of times since. We ride the centerline and turn to the rail, do (something), turn up centerline 1/2 to 3/4 down the arena and ride back up the centerline doing (something), turn back to the rail and continue.
Sounds easy enough, right? I thought so too, until we are doing things like lengthened trot on those straight sides. Or leg yields, counter canter, haunches out/in, collected trot, collected/lengthened canter, etc. When you only have about 25m to do the movement before getting control back to make the 10m circle, it gets interesting and difficult fast! We can only fit about a stride and a half of lengthened canter before we are pulling back up, but actually getting it and getting it back is a great accomplishment.
We were already under a stay-at-home and social distance order for lesson 9 on March 10. On March 13, all non essential business was shut down and all lessons were cancelled. Then all shows were cancelled. Then only life essential businesses were allowed to be open. *sigh* You know. You are in it with me.
It took me several weeks to get back to riding with purpose again, as I went through a mini depressive state. I think everyone did. Since then I have done some fitness rides and I jumped some of the XC jumps! We didn't jump any of the biggest ones, but we jumped all but 5 of the XC jumps at the farm. Mia was fabulous, as expected, and seemed to really enjoy the change of pace. Our last dressage ride on Monday made me super happy. Mia didn't fight, she changed her gait speeds via my seat, she picked up/dropped gaits via my seat, and felt straight in her canter in both directions. If the ONLY thing we accomplish this year is having a dressage test that doesn't say "haunches in" under the canter section, I am going to be so proud.
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