Shorten Your Reins Already: A Lesson Recap

Greeting his adoring fans. Pivo ate the majority of my videos from both days, so you get a paltry handful of blurry stills from Day 2. Sorry! 

I took two lessons in a row last weekend with Ashley, and wow, did we need them! I have so much homework and so many insights to share, but let's begin at the beginning. 

Day 1 was a seriously back-to-basics lesson. I shared that my goal for the season was to finish my First and Second Level bronze scores if at all possible, and that I'd been having trouble getting Dino up through his withers. So, naturally, we started with the fact that I'd been riding with my reins way, way too long. As you can see in the photo below from a recent schooling ride, Dino is dropped in his wither and the base of his neck, thinking about coming off the bit, and his whole body looks a bit "long". My elbows are quite open, and you can see Dino is a bit braced in his underneck muscles as well:

And let's not talk about my rounded back and the way I'm falling behind the motion. I just don't love anything that's going on here, really. 

My catastrophic brain obviously thought that this was due to the fact that my pony MUST be hurting somewhere and probably needed a slew of joint injections or other therapies or that retirement was looming near, and that the hideously expensive Legend that I'd just pumped into his veins wasn't working. 

Guys. I just needed to shorten my reins. Like. A lot. 

Once I got my reins to an appropriate length, I felt Dino's withers and the base of his neck come up, and he let go of his underneck and felt shorter and rounder and bouncier underneath me. With my reins too long and his nose poked out, all of the energy created by his hind end was just dumping out through his face instead of being recycled back. Ashley helped me feel what an appropriate rein length and level of nose-poke should be, and I really worked to keep that feeling throughout my rides during the weekend. Even though we want Dino's face on the vertical, it's not about just cranking his head in, but about making it easier for him to cycle his energy efficiently. 

With that established, we moved on to the leg yield movements from 1-2. Our first attempts were uninspiring to say the least, which exposed the big fat training hole I keep finding in Dino's response to lateral aids. I was having to work WAY too hard to get a very minimal response from him, so we worked for what seemed like the umpteenth time on asking for a leg yield, correcting with a TOF if I didn't get what I wanted, and repeat ad nauseam. I had trouble keeping his haunches moving as quick or quicker than his shoulders in the movement as well, and we talked a lot about how even though I can get a leg yield from Dino, I have zero adjustability in the angle of said leg yield, or how much shoulder or haunch movement I can ask for. 

Short reins, better trot. 

Once we made a few satisfactory leg yields, we moved on to the canter pattern from that test - a 15m circle to a lengthening. It was here that Dino started to get really tired from the heat (it was the first truly hot and humid day he's had to work this hard), so things got a little ugly for a while. We worked on getting the canter to a place where I can add energy with my leg over 2 or 3 strides, and then take my leg off and just cruise. The lengthenings took some serious effort that day, but I was overall pretty pleased with the circles in balance and impulsion, and the whole thing did improve over the course of the lesson. After working those movements for a while, Dino was BEAT and we called it a day there. We did have another lesson the next day, after all! 

Overall themes and homework from this session include: 

• While Dino's muscling hasn't suffered much from his time off over the winter, he isn't as fit as he could be. Ashley prescribed some out-of-the-ring fitness work for us to get him stronger in the lengthened and medium gaits. I can absolutely dust off my eventing skills and get this done!
• On that same note, she also thought pole work would be super helpful for Dino in this area.
• And branching off of both those items, Ashley suggested that I long-line and ground drive Dino in the trot as another addition to our fitness routine. (This will also help me as I run behind him, out of breath.) She wants to teach him to piaffe this summer (!!) so long-lining will be a necessary prerequisite to that! 
• I need to really buckle down on the response to lateral aids. This hole just won't close, and it's really detrimental to our progress at this point. I hope that by our next lesson, Dino will be more laterally flexible and responsive to my requests for him to move his shoulders and haunches in all gaits. The process is tedious - ask, correct, repeat - but needs to be done. 
• Ashley commended me on how well I'm doing with the double bridle. She noted that I have good, quiet hands, an independent seat, and have done a really good job using this tool to improve my horse. That felt really, REALLY good to hear. 
• We also talked a bit about having all of our conversations about appropriate response to the aids in warm-up - I need to have these discussions with Dino first thing, get them out of the way, and then move on to the work for the day. If I let them drag out through the ride, by the end of it everyone's exhausted. 

After Day 1, I had a LOT to chew on and think about, but I left this first lesson feeling well tuned up and ready to get down to work the next day. Stay tuned for Day 2, coming soon!