It has been a while since last western lesson, infact 4 weeks 
Not counting lesson 5 which turned in to a hack due to the school being too wet
So this morning I headded down the M1 after my morning run (5km today). Early as usual. I was handed a head colar as my western RI headed off to teach and English lesson before mine. So I headed down to the field to get Smokey. She was here usual relaxed self, no problem to catch. We walked up to the barn to start grooming. I gave her a good brush and then tacked her up. And so to todays first mistake - I managed to put the saddle pad on up side down It gave the RI a smile anyway.
So to the school, as we walked in I was told that today we would be working on transitions. I walked round the school on each rein so Smokey and I could relax in to working.
The first thing we did was to sort out my lower leg, this is another thing that is contry to English riding. My lower leg is too still and secure! I need to relax my lowerleg so it almost 'flaps' with the movement of the horse.
So no stirups and on to a 20m circle in walk. In walk, if I relax into the saddle I can now feel the movement of the horse and can feel as each back foot is placed on the ground. Part of this improvement has to be due to the Mark Rashid Foot Fall DVD that cvb lent me, so thanks cvb, it seems to have had the right effect
Then still with no stirups we did some transitions to jog and back. The biggest thing that has to be remebered for the transitions is that the originating gate (walk in this case) must be slow and relaxed so that the new gate achived via the transition will also be slow and relaxed.
Things were not going too badly. Smokey raises her head when she is not relaxed, so the aim is to get her to keep her poll level with her withers (in that classic western outline). While she is like this she is relaxed, but this is a working yard and sundays are busy so there were several of Smokey's firends wanting to say hello and draw her attention away from her work. To regain her attention you check her with the reins (a little flick down the loose rein until she gets her mind back on to working).
I took my stirups back (which now felt quite short) and we did a few more walk - jog transitions.
Then at the half way point we moved onto do a few turns on the haunches. These were not my best. The mistake I had today was allowing the hind quaters to move. Then having sorted that I managed to get Smokey to cross over her feet the wrong way round resulting in a slight backwards motion through the turn. The aids to rember are, open the inside rein, apply the outside leg infront of the girth and use the outside rein to stop forward motion and to stop any neck bend. You also have to remeber to not apply the inside leg, I find it easy to allow this to happen as a couter action to applying the outside leg. Also note to self, must sit upright and keep my weight to the center!
Back to transitions, this time we included the lope too and this is where things went a bit wrong. The problem I have is that I am tencing up on the downwards transition from lope to job resulting in a very fast bouncy jog rather than a nice smooth relaxed jog. This problem has several causes, firstly my legs tence up and I put too much weigh to my feet, secondly I lean forwards and thirdly I forget to breath!
I did manage a nice walk to lope transition which I was very pleased about.
We did not manage to correct these problems, so it will have to wait until my next lesson
My RI is still facing problems with me not manageing to get a relaxed flexible seat at all times, this in turn means that poor old Smokey is not relaxed all the time and the result is we end up with rushed gaits and hurried transitions. The RI said some more intensive riding would sort it, probably an hour a day for a week. Sadly that is not going to be an option.
So dispite the problems listed above I do still feel that each lesson I am learning more and moving forward at quite a rapid rate
Not counting lesson 5 which turned in to a hack due to the school being too wet So this morning I headded down the M1 after my morning run (5km today). Early as usual. I was handed a head colar as my western RI headed off to teach and English lesson before mine. So I headed down to the field to get Smokey. She was here usual relaxed self, no problem to catch. We walked up to the barn to start grooming. I gave her a good brush and then tacked her up. And so to todays first mistake - I managed to put the saddle pad on up side down
It gave the RI a smile anyway.So to the school, as we walked in I was told that today we would be working on transitions. I walked round the school on each rein so Smokey and I could relax in to working.
The first thing we did was to sort out my lower leg, this is another thing that is contry to English riding. My lower leg is too still and secure! I need to relax my lowerleg so it almost 'flaps' with the movement of the horse.
So no stirups and on to a 20m circle in walk. In walk, if I relax into the saddle I can now feel the movement of the horse and can feel as each back foot is placed on the ground. Part of this improvement has to be due to the Mark Rashid Foot Fall DVD that cvb lent me, so thanks cvb, it seems to have had the right effect
Then still with no stirups we did some transitions to jog and back. The biggest thing that has to be remebered for the transitions is that the originating gate (walk in this case) must be slow and relaxed so that the new gate achived via the transition will also be slow and relaxed.
Things were not going too badly. Smokey raises her head when she is not relaxed, so the aim is to get her to keep her poll level with her withers (in that classic western outline). While she is like this she is relaxed, but this is a working yard and sundays are busy so there were several of Smokey's firends wanting to say hello and draw her attention away from her work. To regain her attention you check her with the reins (a little flick down the loose rein until she gets her mind back on to working).
I took my stirups back (which now felt quite short) and we did a few more walk - jog transitions.
Then at the half way point we moved onto do a few turns on the haunches. These were not my best. The mistake I had today was allowing the hind quaters to move. Then having sorted that I managed to get Smokey to cross over her feet the wrong way round resulting in a slight backwards motion through the turn. The aids to rember are, open the inside rein, apply the outside leg infront of the girth and use the outside rein to stop forward motion and to stop any neck bend. You also have to remeber to not apply the inside leg, I find it easy to allow this to happen as a couter action to applying the outside leg. Also note to self, must sit upright and keep my weight to the center!
Back to transitions, this time we included the lope too and this is where things went a bit wrong. The problem I have is that I am tencing up on the downwards transition from lope to job resulting in a very fast bouncy jog rather than a nice smooth relaxed jog. This problem has several causes, firstly my legs tence up and I put too much weigh to my feet, secondly I lean forwards and thirdly I forget to breath!
I did manage a nice walk to lope transition which I was very pleased about.
We did not manage to correct these problems, so it will have to wait until my next lesson
My RI is still facing problems with me not manageing to get a relaxed flexible seat at all times, this in turn means that poor old Smokey is not relaxed all the time and the result is we end up with rushed gaits and hurried transitions. The RI said some more intensive riding would sort it, probably an hour a day for a week. Sadly that is not going to be an option.
So dispite the problems listed above I do still feel that each lesson I am learning more and moving forward at quite a rapid rate
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