Precision: A Lesson Recap

I have zero riding media, so you get to look at Wonder Pony's cute mug instead

Dino and I got to have our trainer's eyeballs on us the other night, and the name of the game was precision, specifically in the leg yield, but we'll get to that a bit later. We started with a little re-vamping of the walk warm-up using TOH and TOF, with Madame Trainer reminding me that I'm using these tools as a warm-up - so the movements don't have to be flawless, they just have to get Dino's shoulders and haunches loosened up and prepared for work. I tended to want to let him rush through the movements, especially the TOF, so it was good to have the reminder to SLOW DOWN and take them one step at a time, remembering to pause and re-set if things got messy and to finish each movement with straightness instead of just drifting back into a forward walk. And always, always working towards getting Dino moving his body parts off of a light aid, being specific about which end of him (shoulders or haunches) I wanted to move.

Precision. It's important!

After working on both TOF and TOH on straight lines and on a square, we moved up to trot and let Dino work out the kinks around the whole arena, before making a big circle over a set of three poles. The aim was just to get him reaching and stretching a bit before asking for harder work - again, just using the exercise of the poles to get him moving his body more freely. The reminders to remember that my warm-up is truly a preparation time for my pony's body were really good - it's something I can forget from time to time.

And, because we were warming up appropriately, I didn't really have to put Dino on the bit or make a dramatic change in his way of going, as I shortened my reins and got my own body engaged and energized, he came round all on his own. Instruction to ride his withers up instead of just pushing him flat into my hand helped there, too.

Dino was sticky going into the first canter, but after a lap or so he relaxed and started rolling forward, and we added in the poles again on a circle in each direction, again with the goal of having him stretch and reach and open up his body more. Going to the left, my trainer said she'd never seen him canter that well, which made me feel so good - it wasn't even the best canter work he's capable of lately! Over the poles to the left Dino really got in a groove and I felt him power and lift through the exercise - exactly what we wanted from him there!

Once everyone was warmed up, we moved on to the lateral work, starting with concentric circles at the trot. Instead of a continuous spiral in and out, my trainer wanted me to swing Dino's body over onto each new track with my hips and legs, keeping a strong, elastic feel on the outside rein, and using the inside rein only to maintain flexion if needed. This exercise helped me a lot with being definitive about when my lateral aids were on vs. off, making it a lot clearer for Dino and helping me feel a distinct transition between moving sideways onto a new track and then continuing forward on that circle. The focus on making my aids very clear also helped a TON with keeping Dino upright and straight, especially to the left where we both love to just dump on our inside shoulder and careen around like unstable wheelbarrows.

The meat of the lesson, however, was really digging into the leg yields on and off the rail. In 1-3, which I made the possibly-poor decision of riding at a show this weekend (but hey, it's just dressage, ain't nobody gon' die), the leg yield is quite steep and goes from the rail to the centerline, and then right into a 10m trot circle.

This has been... challenging in schooling. I can get it done, but it often isn't straight, isn't steep enough, and I either end up stalling out my pony or shooting him off into the sunset.

So yeah, we needed the help.

Turns out that the biggest determining factor in how the leg yields went was how my turns were executed way, way before the movement. Straight, square, balanced turns = pretty darn acceptable leg yields. Crooked, sloppy, lazy turns = ain't no way this movement is getting done. Ever. At all.

Showtime is almost heeeeere! 

We really, really drilled those square turns, practicing turning up the rail and the quarterline and leg yielding to the inside and outside in both directions. Here's what worked:

• Turning to the left, it was important to create a feeling of holding Dino's haunches strong in the turn, almost anchored, and let his shoulders just kind of float around the corner, riding more with my body than my hands. 
• Turning to the right, I had to really focus on bringing the shoulders around all the way, so that by the time we were through the corner, pointed straight, and ready to leg yield (especially when going towards the centerline) he was already set up in that direction. 
• In the leg yield itself, I need to make the CLEAR, PRECISE distinction between "we are going straight" and "we are now going sideways". My trainer used the word "activate", which made me think of some kind of sci-fi space robot dramatically doing something, but it helped me "turn on" the leg yield aids (strong inside leg into strong, elastic outside rein) to achieve a very passable movement that ended us up in more or less the correct place. 
• Timing light taps with the whip on Dino's inside haunches with the leg yield aid GREATLY improved straightness and crossover. I tried this in my last attempt, and it felt AWESOME. 
• Right now, this movement isn't real pretty, and I need to bring my driving inside leg pretty far back to engage Dino's haunches in the leg yield and bring them along with us, but the key was to do it in rhythm with the trot and to time my "inside leg back" pushes with the movement of Dino's hind leg. When I got it right, it made a big difference in the quality of the leg yield. Eventually, we'll be able to do this with my leg in a more correct place, but it's where we're at now. 

I feel a lot better about the leg yields after this lesson. My trainer helped me achieve a lot of correct feelings in this movement, giving me something to strive to reproduce in schooling. And as for the show, well, my plan is to keep on improving my score at 1-1, and ride 1-3 the best I can even though we're probably not exactly ready to ride that test in public. My pony is 21. Life is short, and every show could be our last. In the spirit of Carly's most recent post, I'm gonna go for it. If I can qualify for a First Level championship class with Dino in his senior years, I'll be absolutely delighted!