6th March 2008

I haven't posted for ages because I have been really busy bringing Endy to live back at home as he was getting mega stressed at the livery yard. On Sunday I rode him home and settled him in his new stable.

He seems much calmer here and has near enough stopped biting and also I havent seen him windsucking at all. Here he has hay 24/7 and is fed more twice a day too. He is turned out from about 10am until 5pm so he doesnt really have time to fret in a stable.

I have ridden him out on some hacks and he is doing really nicely. I am far more relaxed and my hand position is really improving. I do catch myself with my hands dropping towards my thighs but not half as often as before. The leg position now feels like second nature.

I have been reading a lot on the sustainable Dressage site and have been learning loads. I have been playing with the bit contact today and noticing how light I can be with it. The problem that I am having trouble getting my head around is that as soon as I make the lightest of contacts Endy slows down or stops. I am teaching him to be light but then by being light I cannot make a contact. I am sure there is an answer to this but I cant work it out at the moment.

I have also been practicing my leg aids and trying not to kick but to just squeeze with my lower leg. Sometimes we get a response and sometimes we dont. The thing is I am trying to teach myself and also my 16 year old horse which isnt easy. I have stopped the constant nagging now with my leg and only use it to change speed.

Hopefully tomorrow or in the next few days Mike will take some pics of me working in the field and I can see myself and if I look any better.

I am looking forward to really getting back into riding regularly now that Endy is home and to doing some more schooling for him and me. I am going to try and lunge him or maybe longline him. I dont think he had been long lined before because he didnt seem to understand what I was trying to get him to do the last time I tried it.

26th February 2008

After reading Trudi's comments earlier in my blog I decided to concentrate on my hands today.

It was a misty cool day today but perfect for riding so I decided to go for an hours hack. My feet are now much better and I only have to check very occasionally whilst trotting to make sure that they haven't slipped backwards. So far so good!

The hands are a different matter. I started off just by raising them above the withers and spacing them about 6" apart but I couldnt believe it when I checked about 2 minutes later and sure enough they were level with my hips and almost resting on my thighs. Now had Trudi not seen the pictures I posted I would not have thought that they were too low.

At first I just couldnt keep them up and every time my mind was distracted they would drop down. I tried bridging my reins so that they were a fixed distance apart but had to give up on that because I am still trying to keep a very light contact with Endy's mouth and I couldn't regulate that enough.

I then had the idea of using my whip as a measure across the gap and held that with both hands. Because it is fixed it keeps them 6" apart and also I cannot lower them. This really worked well and it is schooling my muscle memory to remember the place where they should be. I realise that my hands will be facing downwards but that is something I can easily fix once my hands remember to be higher.
I notice that by raising my hands it makes me sit taller in the saddle and also it keeps my head up and straight.

We did a couple of leg yeilds and I found that from the right to the left track he does it no trouble at all with no loss of forward movement at all. The opposite way is totally different and he just stops dead.
I played with my weight and found that if I kept my weight in the stirrup on the side that I wanted him to step towards then he did not lose any forward motion at all. I presume that this is because I am slightly lifting the weight out of the saddle on that side? I dont know why it worked just that it did.

By the time we got home he was moving very freely and I felt lighter in the saddle. In fact we were having such fun I wished we could have stayed out longer.... Still there is always tomorrow!

25th February 2008

I haven't ridden over the weekend because of being so busy and was a bit worried about riding Endy today as I thought he might be a bit fresh but all in all he was quite good and we worked very hard.

I found a classical dressage site on the internet written by Roger and Eleanor Taylor and after reading that I found that I learnt a lot. I learned the reasons for doing some of the things I do. Although I know they are good to do I didn't appreciate why. For instance Leg Yielding. I thought that the reason I am doing some leg yields is just to teach Endy to step across and to change to the outside track but after reading the site I realise that it is to teach the horse to listen to the leg so that you can ride corners better. Call me stupid but this just never occurred to me.

Today I spent my time in the sand school and we did lots of up and down transitions using light leg aids and very light contact with the bit. We did lots of circles and figures of eight. Occasionally I would just let him trot as fast as he wanted on the buckle end of the reins and let him stretch. By the end he was really stretching his neck down, probably not as well as he could but he is definately starting to do it.
He is still falling in on the corners through his shoulder so it feels like riding a motorbike around them. I couldnt use the whole school because there was a lesson going on in there but I tried to do a 5metre circle in the odd corner at a walk and then slightly bigger at the trot. I still cannot get any contact without him immediately raising his head so what I tried to do today is to shorten and lengthen my reins without really touching his mouth. Before as soon as he felt me adjusting the rein length he would raise his head but now he pretty well ignores it until I actually make the contact.

We did a bit of leg yielding but I couldnt keep the forward movement going in trot on the left rein and he kept going back to walk. On the right rein he is fine. I reckon this is something to do with my seat blocking him so I am going to work on that.

Mike arrived towards the end and was watching me and he commented on how much better my leg position is and that I seem to be finding it more natural now to keep it on the girth. I dont have to struggle to keep it forward. My right leg is better than my left though.

At the end we popped over a cross pole for a bit of fun and he was fine.

I am really enjoying this horse and feel that I am definately improving, slowly but surely.

22nd February 2008

Rode for the first time this week today. With one thing and another I haven't had chance and yesterday he had his vaccinations and so I let him rest.

Anyway we went out for a nice long hack. We did lots and lots of transitions up and down and we did a bit of cantering too. I have stopped tying my stirrup to the girth and can't believe it today that my leg is in a definately better position and it is staying there. In walk now I don't have to think about it at all as it just lies in a natural position and in trot I just have to keep checking that I don't let is slide back. My right leg seems to stay in the right place but my left still keeps sliding backwards. Today I was doing just a couple of strides in trot and then back to walk and then a couple of strides and then trot again. Endy is much happier now and we hardly get any ears back at all because I try and keep my reins at a sensible length so that he has very light contact with the bit but I do have brakes. He is becoming more and more responsive to my voice and my aids. I try to hardly use my legs unless we are changing direction i.e. leg yielding or changing pace. Once he is going forward I leave him alone. It is definately working as he seems much more free and forward than he was.

My big problem now is that because he is much more free and forward he is also more fizzy. At one point he spooked at something going by us and we ended up bucking down the road which isnt good fun! Also when he is like this I HAVE to take a better contact on the reins because he shies or spooks or shoots forward and I have no control. I talk to him to calm him but I have to take a firmer contact to stop him jogging and then up comes his head. I try to do the three levels of the stopping aid as Trudi showed me but sometimes he just ignores it and brings his head higher and higher getting more spooky.

It's early days and I know it will take weeks to get him used to me not hanging onto his mouth but sometimes I don't feel safe and in control.

We did some leg yielding on the track and he is really good though I noticed that he is better going from right to left than the other way. I reckon this is something to do with my weight stopping him being able to step across so easily and so I am trying now to make a mental note of my position and how it changes when I give the aid for the leg yield.

I am feeling more positive and I can feel that my whole seat and body position has changed with my leg position changing. My body is taller and straighter and I am more centred and I feel that the weight is going down through my leg into my little toe. I am also looking up more as before I know I kept looking down and this took my weight forward and down.

Small changes make such a big difference and I can really feel the difference and I like it.

Friday 15th after a bit of work

Here are some pics which Mike took of me after I had got him a bit more settled. There are some of us working on the flat and some doing some trotting poles in walk and trot.

Because I was having so much trouble with my lower leg I tied the left stirrup to the girth. I only had one strap. I made a huge difference and I am going to try tying both in future.

I look like a bliddy Potty Man... Do you remember Michael Bentines Potty Men?

Anyway today I was concentrating on my lower leg and My contact. I reckon there is a nice difference by the end. He is more relaxed and his head carriage is better.

Here are a couple of us doing a leg yield at a walk

And finally us doing a couple of trotting

poles

Afternoon Friday 15th

Here are some pics which I have tried to recreate how my leg position was before I had my lesson with Trudi and how Endy kept fighting against me as I tried to effect a contact.

Not a pretty sight!

Friday 15th February 2008

Last night Trudi sent me the pictures that she took at THE END of our lesson on Tuesday. When I saw them I was devastated. I reckon it was the lowest point ever of my riding career. It's not a career though, I am a happy hacker not a bloody three day eventer......!!

I look so awful and I look so massively fat as well. (Don't worry I know I am fat.) I look as though I don't know how to ride at all... which is a funny statement to make as I by the looks of things I obviously don't.

I have been awake half the night trying to justify to myself that a) I don't need to post the pics for everyone to see and laugh at. b) I could make this a closed blog so that only people I thought would be nice to me could look at it. c) I could just not post them at all and just write about it.

After a hell of a lot of thought I have decided to post them because I am trying to keep this blog as a record of my progress. Other people are interested and want to see how I am progressing.

I am going to go to the yard today and Mike is going to take some pics of my old seat. In that my leg is much further back and my body is more forward but I am more balanced than I look in these pictures. Endy doesn't look very comfortable in these pictures either but his head is lower than it will be in the pictures that I take for the before pics.

I will post again this afternoon after I get back from riding.

OK here goes.... The dreaded pictures. All I ask that when you look at them you see with what we call in the Acupuncture and healing profession 'Soft Eyes'. Don't be too judgemental of me.