This just in: the sky hasn’t fallen
Last week was a bad week, for training, for money, for crazy family visits and sick dogs. It threw me for a loop and showed me on one hand that I'm not all there mentally, but on the other, I have managed to come through and keep muddling along. I scratched out of UNH, not feeling prepared mentally or training-wise. I need to find an eventing instructor in addition to my dressage instructor. I made it through Kingsbury last month, but I need to get some regular jumping and occasional cross country schooling under my belt before I go upping the ante. The flatwork helps the jumping immensely, but I commit a plethora of sins over fences, any one of which could spell disaster on cross country, or even a tricky stadium course for that matter. So that's that.
That being said, I did wind up having a groovy lesson tonight, even though it started out pretty tense for me--just carrying real life crap into the arena. Michele kept her cool as I booted Clover around, explained patiently to me that I was being a little too busy with my aids, and said we were going to warm up, then do some work over poles, we always do good pole work, right? So I chilled out, pulled my head out of my ass, picked up the reins, and proceded to have a pretty decent lesson. At some point it started to click, and Michele told me to stick my abs out and I just got Clover in front of me and mostly kept her there.
So, we did some transitions within the stride (slow trot, lengthen trot, back to working trot), 3 loop serpentines, using the more forward trot around the turns; more canter work, which continues to improve for some strange reason--I'm starting to catch myself when I lean forward and get ahead of the motion; and finally work over 3 poles on one quarter of a circle, first on the ground then raised on one side. The good news is I am using more half-halts, and figuring out how to sponge the reins. I can feel myself using my legs more independently. The bad news is, when it goes to hell, it really goes to shit. And the rest of the time is mediocre fumbling around. But look back to the beginning of the year and see how much better it actually has gotten.
That being said, I did wind up having a groovy lesson tonight, even though it started out pretty tense for me--just carrying real life crap into the arena. Michele kept her cool as I booted Clover around, explained patiently to me that I was being a little too busy with my aids, and said we were going to warm up, then do some work over poles, we always do good pole work, right? So I chilled out, pulled my head out of my ass, picked up the reins, and proceded to have a pretty decent lesson. At some point it started to click, and Michele told me to stick my abs out and I just got Clover in front of me and mostly kept her there.
So, we did some transitions within the stride (slow trot, lengthen trot, back to working trot), 3 loop serpentines, using the more forward trot around the turns; more canter work, which continues to improve for some strange reason--I'm starting to catch myself when I lean forward and get ahead of the motion; and finally work over 3 poles on one quarter of a circle, first on the ground then raised on one side. The good news is I am using more half-halts, and figuring out how to sponge the reins. I can feel myself using my legs more independently. The bad news is, when it goes to hell, it really goes to shit. And the rest of the time is mediocre fumbling around. But look back to the beginning of the year and see how much better it actually has gotten.
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