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which_chickI have blurry and craptacular video of Birb doing a lateral thing. This is not an item of general interest and you are free to bypass the delights of fifteen seconds (each clip) of excessively blurry potato quality video of my horse doing a thing.
I want to treat the entirety of dressage as an a-la-carte menu (It is not designed for that. Also, me trying to do this makes real dressage people Very Disappointed And Sad.) wherein one may just order the exciting sideways stuff and not bother with basics like rhythm, relaxation, blah blah blah. The only person this pleases is me.
I am cognizant of how physically demanding sideways tricks are for my horse and we work carefully and progressively towards being able to do more, better sideways tricks while keeping the demanding nature of them firmly in mind. They're (as I have stated previously) kind of like chin-ups for horses.
But we've been haunches-inning and shoulder-inning over here for quite a while. Bird is adjustable in his shapes and his degree of bend. He's absolutely stone cold solid on which shape I want and how much bend I want. He's getting better about being-able-to-do-the-shapes in nicer, higher-quality gaits. (Still walk and trot. I have tried for shoulder-in in canter and he's like, "Lol, lady." I think we need a floofier canter to work with and so we are working on a floofier canter first.) He's able to flip shoulder in and haunches in and oilcan himself into new bends, like, promptly. It's snappy. He doesn't lose rhythm or alter his trot flipping from shoulder-in to haunches-in. (See? I do, actually, care about rhythm. A little.) I'm working on doing these existing tricks in a bigger trot but he's totally solid in his slightly smaller "let's go sideways" trot.
With the understanding and basic competence we have where we are now, there are two paths ahead. Path one is "perfect and buff existing skillset until it can be no better than it is" and path two is "reach for new and different things that build on this skillset, even if you might suck at them". I think we can all guess which path Imma go for, here.
Near as I can tell, which is squinting through a glass darkly, the order of laterals appears to be turn on hq, turn on fh, leg yield, sidepass, shoulder-in, haunches-in, halfpass, pirouettes maybe? I don't know what comes after halfpass. Not really there yet, so not an item of interest for me. I'm at "you can start fucking up halfpass" here.
So, here are the obligatory fifteen second clips of blurry horse doing a thing.
Right and Left
Couple of observations, before we start.
1. This is quite possibly the shittiest excuse for shitty halfpass in the entire history of shitty halfpass efforts. The overall quality of this work... isn't.
2. This horse is not round or through or using his back effectively. He looks a bit stiff and brace-y. Rhythm, relaxation, connection, blah blah, looks like you're just fucking ignoring the fundamental pillars of dressage over here.
3. Halfpass is done with the shoulders leading. This half-ass effort is haunches-led and the horse is not displaying enough bend through his ribcage. Also we are substantially more fluid (in the same way that sewage is fluid) going off the left leg. Off right leg effort is... lol.
4. The degree of him stepping over is teensy. See item 2.
5. That is a tiny shuffle-y trot. It's certainly not very expressive. See item 2.
6. I am a horrible human being who is cruelly abusing this poor animal and I should go die in a ditch right now and also feel very ashamed about myself while doing it.
7. I would probably be better served working on a more reliable connection and throughness in ordinary gaits and maybe some walking leg yield. Smearing shit all over the homework for differential equations when I can't add and subtract is a bit willfully counterproductive, innit? (All Together Now: See Item 2.)
If your commentary is going to be along any of the above seven points, thank you but no. You will not be adding to the conversation because I already know these things. Not going to die in a ditch, but I am working on the rest of it. The clips show the very beginnings of a horse struggling with "hold this fancy bend and now move it diagonally sideways please" combined with a rider who isn't exactly sure what she's doing, how to ask for the movement, or how to tell if the horse is DOING the movement. Everybody is clenched up pretty hard Trying To Do The Thing and not sure they are Doing The Thing and a bit fraught about it all. With practice, we will develop strength, certainty, and relaxation. We will get better.
But which_chick, why don't you focus on the fundamental pillars of dressage instead of twinking around with things that clearly exceed your abilities and your horse's abilities?
Because that stuff is boring af. Also I really want to go sideways and diagonally at the same time. Fwiw, I do not *totally* ignore fundamental pillars. I just don't want to do twenty meter trot circles and ONLY twenty meter trot circles for the rest of my life.
But which_chick, why doesn't your trainer install this stuff for you?
Same reason we're riding in a hayfield instead of a ring. (For the slow of thinking, there isn't a ring and there isn't a trainer.)
But which_chick, why don't you just buy a schoolmaster who can do a REAL halfpass so that you can ride that and get the feeling?
I do not have thirty thousand dollars.
You are being difficult. You could still RENT rides on a schoolmaster and that'd be super helpful.
Nobody who owns a legit schoolmaster is going to rent him out to rando rednecks showing up at the barn and going "Hey, can I buy like three lessons of 'riding halfpass' on your schoolmaster during which you teach me how to get him to do it so that I can see how it feels?" That is not how schoolmaster access works.
There is video from my cellphone because it helps me to see what we are doing. Having reviewed this footage, such as it is, I have since made more concerted efforts to...
(a) put more bend and angle into my shoulder-in and haunches-in efforts which I also now want to be more through and active-back in a better overall quality of effort.
(b) breathe myself while attempting to halfpass.
(c) aim shoulder of horse towards objective on diagonal line, then bring haunches to side for better mechanical effort. This does seem to work, though I imagine it would be harder if horse didn't have "move your butt over" down cold. Like, if your horse is still wobbly on the concept of haunches-over, maybe don't go this route.
(d) follow advice of internet to, when gait fades, proceed bang straight forward in an On Wisconsin! sort of way rather than letting horse deflate to a walk. We are not really ever On Wisconsin! in the forward department, but we are trying.
Is it any better? I dunno. Ask again in six months. This is a half-vast effort that proceeds at a snail's pace because I have no idea what I am doing.
I want to treat the entirety of dressage as an a-la-carte menu (It is not designed for that. Also, me trying to do this makes real dressage people Very Disappointed And Sad.) wherein one may just order the exciting sideways stuff and not bother with basics like rhythm, relaxation, blah blah blah. The only person this pleases is me.
I am cognizant of how physically demanding sideways tricks are for my horse and we work carefully and progressively towards being able to do more, better sideways tricks while keeping the demanding nature of them firmly in mind. They're (as I have stated previously) kind of like chin-ups for horses.
But we've been haunches-inning and shoulder-inning over here for quite a while. Bird is adjustable in his shapes and his degree of bend. He's absolutely stone cold solid on which shape I want and how much bend I want. He's getting better about being-able-to-do-the-shapes in nicer, higher-quality gaits. (Still walk and trot. I have tried for shoulder-in in canter and he's like, "Lol, lady." I think we need a floofier canter to work with and so we are working on a floofier canter first.) He's able to flip shoulder in and haunches in and oilcan himself into new bends, like, promptly. It's snappy. He doesn't lose rhythm or alter his trot flipping from shoulder-in to haunches-in. (See? I do, actually, care about rhythm. A little.) I'm working on doing these existing tricks in a bigger trot but he's totally solid in his slightly smaller "let's go sideways" trot.
With the understanding and basic competence we have where we are now, there are two paths ahead. Path one is "perfect and buff existing skillset until it can be no better than it is" and path two is "reach for new and different things that build on this skillset, even if you might suck at them". I think we can all guess which path Imma go for, here.
Near as I can tell, which is squinting through a glass darkly, the order of laterals appears to be turn on hq, turn on fh, leg yield, sidepass, shoulder-in, haunches-in, halfpass, pirouettes maybe? I don't know what comes after halfpass. Not really there yet, so not an item of interest for me. I'm at "you can start fucking up halfpass" here.
So, here are the obligatory fifteen second clips of blurry horse doing a thing.
Right and Left
Couple of observations, before we start.
1. This is quite possibly the shittiest excuse for shitty halfpass in the entire history of shitty halfpass efforts. The overall quality of this work... isn't.
2. This horse is not round or through or using his back effectively. He looks a bit stiff and brace-y. Rhythm, relaxation, connection, blah blah, looks like you're just fucking ignoring the fundamental pillars of dressage over here.
3. Halfpass is done with the shoulders leading. This half-ass effort is haunches-led and the horse is not displaying enough bend through his ribcage. Also we are substantially more fluid (in the same way that sewage is fluid) going off the left leg. Off right leg effort is... lol.
4. The degree of him stepping over is teensy. See item 2.
5. That is a tiny shuffle-y trot. It's certainly not very expressive. See item 2.
6. I am a horrible human being who is cruelly abusing this poor animal and I should go die in a ditch right now and also feel very ashamed about myself while doing it.
7. I would probably be better served working on a more reliable connection and throughness in ordinary gaits and maybe some walking leg yield. Smearing shit all over the homework for differential equations when I can't add and subtract is a bit willfully counterproductive, innit? (All Together Now: See Item 2.)
If your commentary is going to be along any of the above seven points, thank you but no. You will not be adding to the conversation because I already know these things. Not going to die in a ditch, but I am working on the rest of it. The clips show the very beginnings of a horse struggling with "hold this fancy bend and now move it diagonally sideways please" combined with a rider who isn't exactly sure what she's doing, how to ask for the movement, or how to tell if the horse is DOING the movement. Everybody is clenched up pretty hard Trying To Do The Thing and not sure they are Doing The Thing and a bit fraught about it all. With practice, we will develop strength, certainty, and relaxation. We will get better.
But which_chick, why don't you focus on the fundamental pillars of dressage instead of twinking around with things that clearly exceed your abilities and your horse's abilities?
Because that stuff is boring af. Also I really want to go sideways and diagonally at the same time. Fwiw, I do not *totally* ignore fundamental pillars. I just don't want to do twenty meter trot circles and ONLY twenty meter trot circles for the rest of my life.
But which_chick, why doesn't your trainer install this stuff for you?
Same reason we're riding in a hayfield instead of a ring. (For the slow of thinking, there isn't a ring and there isn't a trainer.)
But which_chick, why don't you just buy a schoolmaster who can do a REAL halfpass so that you can ride that and get the feeling?
I do not have thirty thousand dollars.
You are being difficult. You could still RENT rides on a schoolmaster and that'd be super helpful.
Nobody who owns a legit schoolmaster is going to rent him out to rando rednecks showing up at the barn and going "Hey, can I buy like three lessons of 'riding halfpass' on your schoolmaster during which you teach me how to get him to do it so that I can see how it feels?" That is not how schoolmaster access works.
There is video from my cellphone because it helps me to see what we are doing. Having reviewed this footage, such as it is, I have since made more concerted efforts to...
(a) put more bend and angle into my shoulder-in and haunches-in efforts which I also now want to be more through and active-back in a better overall quality of effort.
(b) breathe myself while attempting to halfpass.
(c) aim shoulder of horse towards objective on diagonal line, then bring haunches to side for better mechanical effort. This does seem to work, though I imagine it would be harder if horse didn't have "move your butt over" down cold. Like, if your horse is still wobbly on the concept of haunches-over, maybe don't go this route.
(d) follow advice of internet to, when gait fades, proceed bang straight forward in an On Wisconsin! sort of way rather than letting horse deflate to a walk. We are not really ever On Wisconsin! in the forward department, but we are trying.
Is it any better? I dunno. Ask again in six months. This is a half-vast effort that proceeds at a snail's pace because I have no idea what I am doing.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-09 02:31 pm (UTC)