Ashley Madison Clinic #5: Most Improved

Well, friends, it's been... almost two months since this lesson and I'm finally getting around to finishing my post about it! I wrote up my thoughts right away, but I just ran out of time to get media together, and have been going through all the anxiety and emotions and feeling lost that the rest of the world is right now. I'll be copping out with video links and crummy screen shots this time! Sorry y'all!

Ashley flew up from Florida in January to grace us with her presence and do a day of lessons at the farm, and our lesson was nothing short of empowering, encouraging, and challenging, as is per usual at this point. It was also the first time she got to witness a true, full-fledged pony'tude tantrum!

Dino is 110% OVER the indoor at this point in the year. I've been trying to give him plenty of rest days in between hard dressage workouts, ride tackless, and jump on occasion, but he's still pretty sour about the whole situation right now. I got to warm him up on a loose rein in walk and a bit of trot before my lesson, and while he was mostly complicit, I could feel the resistance that was lurking just beneath the surface. It broke through pretty much as soon as I picked him up and asked for forward, and he stamped his little pony feet and slapped his ears back and made a wicked face and threatened to buck. He also had to poop for the entire lesson and 100% used it as an excuse to slow down and stop until he couldn't hold it any more.

The 'tude. He has it.

But I was glad Ashley got to see it, because she helped me have the conversation I need to have with him in a tactful, clear, non-dramatic way. She said it was OK if I needed to give up the connection to have a conversation about response to the leg, but I needed to demand a REALLY SHARP response to the leg. If Dino won't go forward into contact, he has to go REALLY REALLY FORWARD off a very minimal aid. As soon as I had a reliable, sharp response to the forward aids, Ashley wanted me to immediately go back to asking for round & forward with connection, and keep asking until Dino settled into the contact and in front of the leg, at which point he would get a ton of praise. Later on in the lesson when I had trouble flexing Dino's neck to the right without bringing the rest of his body right, Ashley reminded me not to avoid doing it because I knew I wasn't going to get the response I wanted, but to keep asking, correcting him when I didn't get a response, and explaining to Dino what I wanted. This is how we train horses and improve them.

Wild, right?

It was a really good, back-to-basics discussion about how to get Dino where I need him to be in a quiet, effective way. I also told Ashley that my goal for 2020 was to show 2-1 once without totally embarrassing myself. She responded with a very enthusiastic, "YEAH! Let's do it!" and went on to say that she was pretty sure Dino and I were the most improved of all her clinic students, and that she was just so happy and impressed with how much he's changed and grown over the past six months. I had to agree - this pony is doing things I never, ever could have imagined were possible, especially at his age.

In any case, it was time to get to work! I asked for some help with the lateral work, since that was one of the things I'd been working on most since our last lesson. We started with a couple turns on the forehand to get the sideways warmed up, and then moved right into the leg yields. Again, it was all about getting the hind end snappy off my leg and pushing it into a strong outside rein, with half halts on that rein to balance as needed. When the sideways response wasn't where it needed to be, Ashley had me ride trot-halt-TOF-straighten-trot-leg yield. It did a great job of keeping Dino sharp and correcting his response to the lateral aids quickly, so he had that recent muscle memory to help him respond correctly. He did some super nice leg yields in both directions, and though the crossover of his legs still isn't super deep, I was really happy with how he stepped up and put a great effort into it. We talked a lot about stopping and correcting the response instead of continuing to do umpteen terrible leg yields, which is something I definitely needed to be reminded of!

After one really nice leg yield left, Ashley asked me to come across the long diagonal in medium trot.

HOLY. COW. Y'ALL.

It was the absolute BEST medium Dino has offered to date! He came WAY UP in his wither, tucked his haunches under, and absolutely rocketed across the ring. It felt amazing, and it was so awesome to feel him say, "LET'S GO! I got this!" in such a demanding gait. This pony, you guys. He's something else.

After a little break, we dove right in to haunches-in at the walk on a 10m circle to prepare for walk pirouettes and half pass, which is an exercise I don't think I've ever even attempted. I've done haunches-in on the rail or quarter line before, but probably not well, and definitely never on such a small circle! My timing proved once again to leave a lot to be desired, and it was incredibly difficult for me to feel the right moment of flight in the outside hind leg to ask Dino to step that leg under. When I did manage to get the haunches in the right place, Ashley had me then just bring the shoulders around into a few steps of walk pirouette. I got it right a couple times, but this will definitely be something we have to work on A LOT in our homework! I hadn't understood before this lesson that the haunches-in was such a critical piece of the walk pirouette, but having felt it go mostly right a couple times, I think I understand why that positioning is so essential. We then tried an exercise which involved riding a 10m half circle in haunches-in, then riding the haunches-in across the long diagonal in a baby half pass. This was also so, so, SO hard for me, and I don't think I got it right at all! Again, my timing and rhythm are terrible, it was a brand new movement, and the whole thing was just sloppy, but I'm suuuper excited to have started walk pirouette and the very bitty beginnings of half pass! We need loads of practice, but just the fact that we're capable of starting these movements is very cool.

We ended the lesson with a bit of canter work, with the intention of doing some counter-canter so Ashley could see where we were with that. I had explained to her the problems I have with the counter-canter pattern from 2-1 - namely that we come across the diagonal too strung out and behind the leg, I push Dino past his balance in an attempt to keep him in canter, and then by the time we hit the opposite wall he physically CAN'T balance in counter canter, so he breaks. Unfortunately at this point in the ride, however, Dino was really tired, so we just did a few big canter circles in each direction just working on the quality and straightness of the gait, and did a couple of walk-canter-walk. transitions. In the canter depart from the walk, Ashley instructed me to make the walk "super round", ask for canter, and then wait and give Dino space to respond. He LOVED that way of setting him up for the depart, and stepped into a lovely, round collected canter from that walk! We quit the day with a spot-on canter-walk transition, and despite not getting to lots of things Ashley wanted to work on with us, I was thrilled with the work we'd put in.

Homework and takeaways from this ride include:

• Take video of the counter-canter and send to Ashley so she can see how that's going for us and provide some insight.
• Lateral work. All the lateral work. If Dino isn't giving the response I want, STOP, correct it, and then go right back to what I was asking. 
• Haunches-in, walk piro, baby half pass forever and ever, amen. I will probably need a ground person to help me with this one. 
• Come back to the medium trot-leg yield-medium trot on the long diagonal exercise. 
• Continue working on timing in the walk-canter-walk. Make the walk extra round before asking for canter. 
• Have tactful, direct conversations with Dino about his response to the forward aid. If you must give up the connection, make sure the forward is VERY SNAPPY. 
• Keep working on fitness! I've been lifting weights for a solid month now (and weirdly love it), and I hope to be able to take Dino out to do some longer hacks and gallops once the weather improves. 2nd Level is a big ask for both of us physically, and we're going to need to get really strong as a team to do this! 

There's a TON of work to do to get ready for 2nd, but each lesson with Ashley makes me feel like Dino and I are so, so capable. I wish I could take him down for a week of dressage camp to get some intensive instruction, but I'm definitely going to need every bit of the next month or so to work on our homework before she comes back to help us again.