Avandarre in Dressage

I had a lesson last Tuesday, and during the lesson, my instructor (Bernadette Radke) had me canter Ava down the quarter line. Guess what happened?  Yeah... Ava can't hold the canter without the wall holding her up. Doh. I feel so dumb. Here I thought we were doing wonderfully, and BAM... this glaring hole has been revealed. Thank my lucky stars I have such an amazingly, knowledgeable trainer. The lesson started off with Bern pointing out that Ava has me completely suckered into not keeping contact with the bit. Then, after I gave her plenty of room to wiggly and contort, Ava drags her body around with her inside shoulder. Not a good thing. We started off with just connecting her back end at the walk. Then moved on to the trot. Ava has been giving me fits about one end of the arena, and of course she had to throw that into high gear during our lesson. Bern had me settle in, bend her poll slightly to the inside, and ride as though I'm riding a shoulder-fore. Then I had to j...

My day:  5:30 AM - Wake up. Slam coffee. 6:30 AM - Auto-pilot to work. 7:00 AM - Get to work, breath a sigh of relief that I made it safely, sit down at cubicle and stare at the screen for 20 minutes w/no brain function. 4:15 PM - Answer the question "can you do this 1 quick thing before you leave" while I'm putting my coat on. 4:30 PM - That "one quick thing" is going to take 3 hours, but boss makes that 'noise' when he see's me start to pack up. 5:00 PM - run screaming from cubicle and peel out of parking lot, laughing manically. 5:30 PM - Get to Barn (heaven) and sit in car for 10 minutes while trying to regain sanity. 5:15 PM - Slowly relax as I groom Ava... . 6:00 PM - ride Ava. 7:30 PM - Realize how late it is, panic... put Ava up. Delay at stall.. pet Ava. delay. One last pat. delay, refill her already full water bucket. delay.  8:00 PM - sit outside house for 10 minutes while reliving every detail of the ride. Silly grin plastered...

I first learned about e-TRAK a few months ago, and honestly... I scoffed at it a bit. Not that I think it's a bad idea, but I figured it'd be the same as every other dressage oriented content where all articles focuse on either the super, baby-green horse, or how to improve the one-tempi changes.  I'm not even close to worrying about Piaffe/Passage, and I may never be at that point. I have more pressing concerns about dressage training on my mind. Like how the heck am I supposed to get a clean canter depart from a walk. While clean canter departs are still a monumental achievement for me, then I can safely say that Piaffe/Passage, flying changes, etc, are still out of my realm of immediate concern. So I scoffed, dismissed, and wasted time surfing the web on my own. Until this weekend... OMG they have some great PDF's and videos! And a ton of them are for those of us who need more than just the absolute basics, yet aren't ready for the upper levels. It's fantas...

Varying the length of the steps to develop collection. Keeping the shoulder-in the entire time, trot down the long side and ask for the shoulder in at F. P, make a full transition to walk. At B, resume trot while in shoulder-in. Every other letter make a transition. At M, straighten the horse and trot normal through the corner. While in shoulder-in, trot down the long side and ask for the shoulder-in at F. At B, shorten the stride for a few steps.There should be more steps because of the shorter stride. Do not go slower, there should be more steps with the shorter stride, but the tempo/rhythm should stay the same. Shorten the strides at every second letter. Then trot on through the corner. Looking for relaxed short steps. If the horse isn't listening to the half halt's, go back to doing the full transitions down the rail. If you're asking for the shortened steps and you feel as though your horse is going to walk, then go back to the normal trot. After the above two exerc...

The Unwritten Rules of Dressage Test Riding By Janet Foy http://www.equisearch.com/horses_riding_training/english/dressage/the-unwritten-rules-of-dressage-test-riding/ Janet Foy discusses circles, diagonal lines, free walk, transitions, and the movements in the different levels. Very informative!

A change or passing from one gait to another or from one pace to another pace within a gait or from a gait to a halt. Ava is getting more fit, so I've been asking her to collect/engage more each ride. Today, I forgot to grab my whip (which I normally ride with). At first, Ava was very unwilling to move forward. In fact, I had to two-leg boot her to get her to walk forward from a halt. I'm not a big fan of doing that. It was good though, it made me think more about how to motivate her without that false sense of power the whip gives me. I'm thinking I might set aside the whip altogether. I've been stuck on the general concept of transitions. You know... you walk, you halt, you walk. Or you trot, halt, trot, etc.  Ava's smart though, and I'm predictable, so the more I do those, the heavier Ava gets (and less responsive).  Today it felt like a little light bulb finally went off in my head. You know what? There are other gaits and variations within the gate! Why...

Now that Ava's leg is all better, I am so excited to start planning for the upcoming show season. I did find out that one of my goals for 2012 will need to be pushed back to 2013 (or later). I found out that the IFSHA world championships will be in California in 2012, and I can't afford that kind of trip (yet). Hopefully, the following years will be closer to home. I am looking forward to competing at some USDF ranked shows. Not that I don't enjoy the glass-Ed shows here, but I get so discouraged when I go on the USDF website and I have NO scores associated with my name. Not even the ones I earned as a kid show up. I'd like to change that! So this year, we're going to some rated shows and get our name to show on the dang website, at least once! Ha. I have to say though... I'm really intimidated by the quality of the riders competing today. As a kid, the adult amateur classes were, hmmm... how do I say this politely... Well, they weren't hard to win. And ...

I didn't feel well Saturday. For the past month, if I haven't felt well, I've sucked it up and gone to the barn anyway. Ava needed the additional attention at that point. But yesterday... It was so nice to just relax and know that Ava was fine. Absolutely wonderful. Today, I can't wait to get to the barn and ride! :)

Yesterday I moved Ava to a new barn, for (hopefully) the last time in a long time. I have to say... I'm not sure how many of you have attempted to move a horse who's dinner had been delayed for 3 hours, but that was not fun. She was massively cranky. However, she loaded up well. And in fact, stepped out of the trailer beautifully without the ramp attached. That was a nice bonus. After settling Ava in, I hung around the barn. I was impressed with how many people were there. And from talking to another boarder I learned that nearly every horse boarded there gets ridden consistently throughout the week. I was also excited to learn that a few of the boarders are interested in dressage and showed at the local dressage shows this year. Also, the barn includes several amenities that will be very helpful to a person who works long hours. Not only do they fly spray in the summer, but they'll put on/off fly masks, fly sheets, etc. They blanket and unblanket, will apply ointm...