Good, Better, Best...

Since my time spent at the 3/4 clinic, I have been actively working to better myself and my riding in particular. I've learned that my horse is capable of performing at a higher level and it is myself who needs to work up to that level of capability. I know that my riding is far from perfect, but I have really been working on using my whole body- focus, seat, and legs- rather than relying so much on my reins for control during the ride. I know Rydel prefers to have her head and not be micromanaged and it makes me feel much more connected to her to be able to communicate using primarily my seat and legs. I have posted a video demonstrating how I have begun to prepare for bridleless riding. As you will notice I use the "helicopter cheat" that Jesse taught me at the clinic. This is mostly for my benefit as it helps me remember to engage my whole body including my shoulders for turns. It is also helpful in case I need to use my stick to reinforce where I want her to go. My goal is to get better and better each week so that eventually I don't have to use the helicopter technique, and then don't have to use the stick, and then am able to achieve the same precision at higher gaits. Here's the video. It may be easier to view on youtube directly here!

In the past few weeks I've been trying to find ways to make riding fun for both of us. One of those ways has been to branch out and ride outside the arena. It's helped provide an area that's more fun to canter in and does not require quick turns. (Sorry for the semi-blury pics).

Soaring With Eagles (Part 3)

(Click to go back to Part 1 and Part 2)

Part 3: Outside My Comfort Zone

Some "wait" time for my RBI

Now, I know I was just saying how much the Level 3/4 clinic was a major boost to my confidence, and in just a few sentences it may sound like I'm about to retract that statement, but bear with me! The final day of the the clinic we focused on two of my biggest personal challenges, liberty and freestyle in an open, unfenced area.*gulp* Here's the story....

The day started out well enough, we began by troubleshooting issues from the previous day and recapping what we all learned, as we talked we enjoyed sitting outside in the cool(ish) morning breeze and it set the mood for a great day. Next we took our horses into the field on the 45 foot line. I didn't have one of my own so Jesse graciously let me borrow one of his. This was the first time we had ever played on the 45 and I was quite nervous about looking foolish. I certainly did not know how to coil the rope back up as I reeled it in, and found out pretty quickly that our phase 1 and 2 were pretty ineffective starting at about 23 feet! :/ After a quick warm up, Jesse asked everyone to work on flying lead changes either online or at liberty. Well, we had never done them but I figured, "why not!" and began watching Jesse instruct a fellow participant on how to use the fence to aid in the change of direction. Standing so the horse creates an arc or half circle as them move using the fence to block their path, Jesse would tell us to "drive, drive, drive" the horse to the fence, then "draw, draw, draw" them back in at a canter and then ask for the lead change by "drive, drive, drive-ing" them the other way. We were essentially using the figure 8 pattern in a very long range and using the fence to help aid the turn. At first Jesse pointed out that I wasn't bringing my energy up enough to encourage her to canter in to me, I literally had to run backwards and then send her out again. After some laps of counter-cantering, we finally got some really good lead changes in both directions! I was ecstatic and exhausted as the sun had risen overhead to about 95 degrees. After just 3 flying changes we moved on to a new task altogether (short, sweet, and successful!)

Rydel after doing a perfect flying change!

Not surprised to see our "draw" was broken, we have this problem at shorter ranges too. It took a lot of effort to get her to come into me at the right speed.

The next task was liberty, which required starting in individual round pens with the idea of slowly moving into bigger and bigger spaces. Let me preface this by saying, yes, we have done some liberty practice before, but I dont normally demand much during our sessions and definitely do not try to work through RB behavior without putting on my safety net (rope). Of course, being in a new setting with many other horses was not conducive for helping her stay focused on me while at liberty. Again, our hide your hinny was broken and we played with this as the key to perfecting our stick to me game. Whenever she would break free from me, it was hide your hinny until you connect with me with both eyes, and game over. That's the game- can you stay connected? For almost two hours we played with this in various capacities.

Stick To Me.

The most challenging was when we had to put all our horses together in the same open space, surrounded by a big fence (the largest part of the honeycomb), the idea was to have your horse stay with you and protect "your" space by making it very uncomfortable for a horse who has broken free from its human to do anything but go back to its proper human. Well, this was definitely a fun game for the left brain horses, but for the right brain ones, as soon as a little pressure was put on them, they couldn't think at all to try to get back to their humans. Not only was this a challenge for my horse, but it was challenging for me to stay calm and focus on keeping my horse connected to me while worrying about fending off other horses and not brining my energy up in a way that my horse felt it was being directed at her! Ack! Eventually I was able to keep her relaxed enough to stick with me but we were never able to achieve some of the higher level tasks such as having your horse maintain a circle around you. By the end, I was hot and miserable and feeling slightly defeated. 

Partial view of the Honeycomb.

The final task was freestyle in a wooded area without a fence. This was definitely outside my comfort zone and I was not feeing good about it. I knew it would be difficult to keep myself and my horse focused on a pattern with no rail to follow and no straight lines to use. I tried doing the figure 8 around some trees but it was difficult to maintain consistency and things fell apart at higher gaits. Next, Jesse had everyone work on steady rein and practicing stretching into the bit, something I couldnt do because I wasn't in a bridle, just a natural hackamore. As the session went on I rode around aimlessly feeling really depressed. Jesse seemed to ignore this though, I believe now he was waiting for me to find the courage to ask questions, something I'm not very good at. Finally he started giving us more directive tasks, sideways from point to point, back around a tree (which we were actually REALLY good at!) These simple tasks helped me regain confidence and after the backing I was feeling a lot better. Finally, Jesse had us pair up and do a trail ride through the woods two at a time. Rydel and I were paired with Sjoujke Janssen and her arab, Dyna. The arabs loved running through the wooded trail! Rydel was really excited and extroverted and was putting a lot of effort into going forward. She even jumped some logs and cantered willingly! I it was a lot of fun and she stayed pretty LB all things considered. On that good note we did a few more things and then ended our ride and consequently our clinic.

Really happy with her flexion here!

Trying hard!

How interesting, I weight my right stirrup more than my left.

We wrapped up with some final words sharing what we all learned. For me, it was a total mix of emotions. Happy because of all we had accomplished and grateful for the glimpse of our potential. A little frustrated at how good everyone was compared to us, but determined at the same time to go home and get to work. And finally, empowered thanks to having the tools and savvy necessary to make our dreams happen! :D 

Two hearts, one soul <3

Soaring With Eagles (Part 2)

(This is Part 2 in the series of blog posts written about the Level 3/4 Clinic with Jesse Peters, if you have not yet read Part 1, please go here now.)

Part 2: Expect A Lot, Accept A Little...

Learning to expect a lot of my horse had become a theme for the weekend.

After we all had a wonderful lunch prepared by Stacy Peters, we each had the opportunity to take a 20 minute private lesson with Jesse to work on something specific to our individual needs. I was a little nervous because I was the only one who ended up choosing to ride for my lesson, but I knew it was what we must work on if the rest of the clinic were to go smoothly. Hesitantly I saddled up and quickly had Jesse advise on saddle fit with my new Equipedic pad. Then, Jesse had me get on and start doing the figure 8 pattern around two cones at the walk. My responsibilities were to have a strong focus on where I wanted to go, use my whole body and energy, support with my legs and finally my stick. Amazingly, Rydel did great and we were doing perfect figure 8's in no time! Next he has us alternate which cones in the arena we were doing the pattern around so that we could use more space and work our way up to a trot. During this time, Jesse instructed me to focus on the downward part of my posting trot so as to not drive her forward and ride more in a more extroverted manner than she needed. He also had me wait to correct her until she had made a full downward transition. In other words, I was not to correct her when I simply anticipated she was about to walk. Pretty soon we were both gaining confidence and relaxing and as we did, Jesse had us use more and more of the arena until we were riding follow the rail around the entire arena at a trot. Rydel even offered to canter which was a BIG deal, because she typically hates doing it.

Rydel still has a negative opinion about moving forward.

Slowly we both became more comfortable!

Rydel offers to canter with a nasty face- probably because I was so stiff and surprised!

Slowly we both became more comfortable with the idea of moving forward at the trot and canter and Jesse helped me loosen up and learn to ride like an extrovert as Rydel started wanting to move forward more and more. After our lesson I felt like a new person, I had much more confidence in my ability to be a leader while in the saddle, and it felt great that Rydel was able to relax and not get right brained during our ride. (Major points for Jesse here!) Later that evening we all rode in the honeycomb (series of round pens within a big round pen). Here we practiced carrot stick riding with out much aid from the reins. We played with a million transitions including indirect turns to change direction. Jesse also taught us the helicopter game which helps us exaggerate our body movement to help the horse find our focus. It was a great tool for me and Rydel caught on really quickly!

Moving forward a lot more willingly now

Practicing the helicopter- look how relaxed Rydel is!

We ended our evening of riding playing "can you" with a partner and then going on a group trail ride which was so much fun!! The final challenge was some more cantering practice in the round pen using the question box. I was so proud of how well we both did. I never expected our riding to be that good, and while there were plenty of people in the clinic who did better than us, Rydel definitely deserved a blue ribbon for how quickly she was able to pick things up and how much she was offering me at the end. I truly cannot wait to start riding more and more. Freestyle was a major highlight of this clinic and I'm so glad I pushed myself to do it! :D