Fun but very hot day at lesson today.
Jul. 21st, 2022 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So pony lessons are on Thursdays most of the time. I usually ride a lesson-barn horse and most of the time (but not always) that's the reasonably sensible and honest Mystic, a black hony of about 20 years old with not-a-lotta legit training. When she arrived, she rode like something that had been used for unskilled gaming efforts, like barrels, poles, timed events but not the people that win. The people that do-not-win. But she's been at lesson barn for a couple of years and she's doing better and kinda has some skills these days. I like Mystic pretty well. She's all right and I kinda know how she is.
But today was a Tara day. Tara is instructor's aged horse who is working on... whatever you do that you need to be halfpassing. Looks like (I just did a cursory glance through the tests) that's third level. (I do not have a lot of time for levels. I want to go sideways and basically I only give as much of a shit about the other stuff as it relates to better-going-sideways.) Anyway, I think she shows Tara 2nd level but they are (with DLB) working on halfpassing and it's... going, kinda.
Tara is a Clyde/Tb cross. She's (compared to the relatively slight and noodle-y bending 14.3hh Arab that I ride at home) big and wide and long. So, she doesn't feel like he does. She doesn't pull, but she's heavier in the hand than Bird would *ever* be... and that's her normal contact. So, okay, she's not like Birb and that's fine. I don't ride Tara enough to be familiar with her buttons, not like I am with Mystic. So we spent some time at the outset (it was super hot) figuring out the buttons on the Tara, using the basic lateral stuff.
We did a little leg yield, which went OK except she tends to throw the inside shoulder and half-ass the leg yield, so you gotta attend to that inside shoulder and be sure that she doesn't half ass it. Once I straightened out the inside shoulder, it was fine. Fine both ways, no issues. We did some leg yield from quarterline to rail, then halfpass back to quarterline (in walk). And that was also fine but not as smooth as it could be.
We did some shoulder-ins. Shoulder-ins (in the walk and trot) were fine, up the long sides. Up the centerline. Instructor wanted "more angle" in shoulder-ins. *sigh* So I was like "I do not want to be doing neck-in. The internet suggests strongly that mouthbreathing rednecks who are fucking around with self-taught dressage AT HOME with their horse who also does not know how to dressage will 100% of the time, NO EXCEPTIONS, do neck-in instead of shoulder-in." And then she said that I was not doing neck-in and could I please do more than 25 degrees of angle. Efforts were made on that front. I can do more angle on Bird but Tara is ... not Bird.
We haunches-inned up the long sides. Tara does not offer a suitable walk for haunches-inning off the bat and we had some miscommunication wherein there was unexpected jogging instead of better walk suitable for haunches-in but after a couple of tries we got that worked out. Haunches-inning works pretty well for Tara and she doesn't "break" at the shoulder and fall to the outside like a broken toy. Worked OK in trot, too. Might could be that this was helped by the rail, but later when we did stuff up centerline, there was no issue with breaking at the shoulder there.
Next exercise was along the rail to flip from shoulder-in to haunches-in and back, in trot. This is a fun and easy thing that I've been able to do since about 2014. I think Instructor was maybe expecting this to take me longer to get organized and it wasn't like forever. It's a nice oilcan-y movement. Once I found out where Tara's buttons were, I just... did the things. She's pretty honest and she's not evil about it and if you can talk to her in a reasonable way, she's going to hand the movements over. We also did shoulder-in to haunches-in on the centerline and that was also just fine.
And then we did like haunches-in to halfpass, in walk and trot, which is also A Thing I Know How To Do largely because Bird and I have worked through it over the last year and a half. Tara isn't bad about handing it over, but she is different in feel than da Birb, who kinda understands within himself the shape he needs to have to hand over halfpass and he does at least half the work of assuming the position for me these days. Tara ... it feels like she needs more of what I think of as handholding, kind of "Ok, horse, I need you to move like this, with this kind of impulsion and energy and balance, now bend like this, and now we're gonna Do The Thing." You can't just go "Ok, halfpass" to Tara. She isn't going to assume the position or do any of the lifting on autopilot. (Maybe this would be different if I rode her on the regular. There's always sand in the transmission when you're riding a horse you don't normally ride.) I think Instructor was having me do this one to see... what was going on and how much control I had over various parts of the process.
It is definitely one thing to have a student say "Yeah, I can Do The Thing on my Special Snowflake Horse At Home, But Nobody Has Ever Seen Me Do It, Very Singing Frog: Hello My Baby Hello My Honey Hello My Ragtime Doll" and it is a whole different thing for a student to demonstrate the thing in a ring, on demand, on a known horse whom the student does not regularly ride, and whose (the horse's) grasp of The Thing is not... autopilot. Like, I totally get that the proof is in the pudding.
You want it on the rail? Boom. There it is on the rail. You want it up the centerline? Boom, up the centerline. I do not need a volte, I can just do the damn thing. The shape I get is the same whether or not there's a volte. I understand the value of volte, but it is not necessary. Tara knows what I want, I know what I want and what it feels like, let's just do the thing.
I did feel it was kind of a productive lesson if for no other reason than giving visual proof to the instructor that I do have some of the skills I've been going on about. Not only do I know how to flip shoulder-in to haunches-in and how to haunches-in to halfpass but also I can buff the gait and balance before starting so that the lateral stuff is both possible and also not-shitty. I can tell how much walk we need in order to do things with it and I can produce the amount of walk needed to do the thing. I can fix issues with bend, balance, shape, etc. I can feel how the horse is shaped and I can troubleshoot that.
So, that was fun.
But today was a Tara day. Tara is instructor's aged horse who is working on... whatever you do that you need to be halfpassing. Looks like (I just did a cursory glance through the tests) that's third level. (I do not have a lot of time for levels. I want to go sideways and basically I only give as much of a shit about the other stuff as it relates to better-going-sideways.) Anyway, I think she shows Tara 2nd level but they are (with DLB) working on halfpassing and it's... going, kinda.
Tara is a Clyde/Tb cross. She's (compared to the relatively slight and noodle-y bending 14.3hh Arab that I ride at home) big and wide and long. So, she doesn't feel like he does. She doesn't pull, but she's heavier in the hand than Bird would *ever* be... and that's her normal contact. So, okay, she's not like Birb and that's fine. I don't ride Tara enough to be familiar with her buttons, not like I am with Mystic. So we spent some time at the outset (it was super hot) figuring out the buttons on the Tara, using the basic lateral stuff.
We did a little leg yield, which went OK except she tends to throw the inside shoulder and half-ass the leg yield, so you gotta attend to that inside shoulder and be sure that she doesn't half ass it. Once I straightened out the inside shoulder, it was fine. Fine both ways, no issues. We did some leg yield from quarterline to rail, then halfpass back to quarterline (in walk). And that was also fine but not as smooth as it could be.
We did some shoulder-ins. Shoulder-ins (in the walk and trot) were fine, up the long sides. Up the centerline. Instructor wanted "more angle" in shoulder-ins. *sigh* So I was like "I do not want to be doing neck-in. The internet suggests strongly that mouthbreathing rednecks who are fucking around with self-taught dressage AT HOME with their horse who also does not know how to dressage will 100% of the time, NO EXCEPTIONS, do neck-in instead of shoulder-in." And then she said that I was not doing neck-in and could I please do more than 25 degrees of angle. Efforts were made on that front. I can do more angle on Bird but Tara is ... not Bird.
We haunches-inned up the long sides. Tara does not offer a suitable walk for haunches-inning off the bat and we had some miscommunication wherein there was unexpected jogging instead of better walk suitable for haunches-in but after a couple of tries we got that worked out. Haunches-inning works pretty well for Tara and she doesn't "break" at the shoulder and fall to the outside like a broken toy. Worked OK in trot, too. Might could be that this was helped by the rail, but later when we did stuff up centerline, there was no issue with breaking at the shoulder there.
Next exercise was along the rail to flip from shoulder-in to haunches-in and back, in trot. This is a fun and easy thing that I've been able to do since about 2014. I think Instructor was maybe expecting this to take me longer to get organized and it wasn't like forever. It's a nice oilcan-y movement. Once I found out where Tara's buttons were, I just... did the things. She's pretty honest and she's not evil about it and if you can talk to her in a reasonable way, she's going to hand the movements over. We also did shoulder-in to haunches-in on the centerline and that was also just fine.
And then we did like haunches-in to halfpass, in walk and trot, which is also A Thing I Know How To Do largely because Bird and I have worked through it over the last year and a half. Tara isn't bad about handing it over, but she is different in feel than da Birb, who kinda understands within himself the shape he needs to have to hand over halfpass and he does at least half the work of assuming the position for me these days. Tara ... it feels like she needs more of what I think of as handholding, kind of "Ok, horse, I need you to move like this, with this kind of impulsion and energy and balance, now bend like this, and now we're gonna Do The Thing." You can't just go "Ok, halfpass" to Tara. She isn't going to assume the position or do any of the lifting on autopilot. (Maybe this would be different if I rode her on the regular. There's always sand in the transmission when you're riding a horse you don't normally ride.) I think Instructor was having me do this one to see... what was going on and how much control I had over various parts of the process.
It is definitely one thing to have a student say "Yeah, I can Do The Thing on my Special Snowflake Horse At Home, But Nobody Has Ever Seen Me Do It, Very Singing Frog: Hello My Baby Hello My Honey Hello My Ragtime Doll" and it is a whole different thing for a student to demonstrate the thing in a ring, on demand, on a known horse whom the student does not regularly ride, and whose (the horse's) grasp of The Thing is not... autopilot. Like, I totally get that the proof is in the pudding.
You want it on the rail? Boom. There it is on the rail. You want it up the centerline? Boom, up the centerline. I do not need a volte, I can just do the damn thing. The shape I get is the same whether or not there's a volte. I understand the value of volte, but it is not necessary. Tara knows what I want, I know what I want and what it feels like, let's just do the thing.
I did feel it was kind of a productive lesson if for no other reason than giving visual proof to the instructor that I do have some of the skills I've been going on about. Not only do I know how to flip shoulder-in to haunches-in and how to haunches-in to halfpass but also I can buff the gait and balance before starting so that the lateral stuff is both possible and also not-shitty. I can tell how much walk we need in order to do things with it and I can produce the amount of walk needed to do the thing. I can fix issues with bend, balance, shape, etc. I can feel how the horse is shaped and I can troubleshoot that.
So, that was fun.