Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Boot Camp Day 2 & 3: Plenty of "Ah-ha!" Moments

Granted I am writing this a couple days after the last day of boot camp, I have my reasons....I was exhausted!! I have been taking lessons for many years but I have not had the opportunity to do a cluster of lessons in one shot like I did this weekend. It was so worth it! Now onto the nitty gritty...

Day 2 
When I came back on Saturday morning, Buddy looked very well rested in his new stall. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, he called when I got out of the car (Yay! my horse still loves me even after I put him through the ringer). I was one of the first rides since the rider before me had to cancel her first lesson due to a severely pulled hamstring. It was cool but Buddy was fresh and ready to work. We used the same warm-up of making sure he was loose and swinging before testing out his bend-ability. He went right to work making my life slightly easier. Lynn had me start to put him together more and more with "core half-halts" in order to lift his shoulders. She also gave me two new weapons to use when he started to get stiff of tense due to the level of difficulty in the work:

The first tool was giving in to his bracing. During the transitions, I have formed an unfortunate habit of helping him brace in his head and neck in order to achieve roundness. I had to let this go during the exercise and not touch his face at all during transitions. It initially resulted in a high neck nose out transition but the back legs stayed active without disrupting the flow. When added with a slight massage of the rein (versus the steady and firm hold) our transitions did a 180 in look and effectiveness! Yippee!!

The second tool is called the "bending sliding" rein. This is merely keeping the current of your hand to his mouth alive with tiny half-halts coming from each rein in order to keep him soft and supple. It is mostly done with the upper body and you know your doing too much with your hands if the horse's nose starts wagging. This concept was not the easiest to me but when applied correctly I got great feedback from Buddy. I felt it was much easier in the canter although it was more difficult for him. Buddy was fantastic! He felt light and supple by the end and put in no arguments about the difficulty of things asked. I was so proud! He had worked so hard I was forced to give him a small bath but at least it had warmed-up enough by this time. Buddy spent the remainder of the day in the paddock outside his stall so he could watch Lynn's lessons for the rest of the day (another excellent learning experience for him ;) ).

Day 3
Today was the moment of judgement, could I put everything that I had learned this weekend together to make Buddy travel like the third level horse I wanted him to be. Again, Buddy showed no signs of distress in his new surroundings and had even taken a strong liking to his handsome neighbor across the aisle, Costello. On a quick side note, you have to love Mother Nature. She gives us warm and sunny the first two days and pouring rain yet still warm on Sunday. So now it was muggy and my glasses begin to fog...awesome! But we keep on trekking. We mount up in the rain but thank goodness for her covered arena! As soon as the warm-up started, I knew Buddy was starting to feel the work. He was not as supple or easily bendable. I eventually had to permanently implant my spur into his side to keep him moving forward. Along with this I had to remember my new position in the saddle with long loose legs, elbows closer to my ribs, core activated and pelvis more forward. Now I had to incorporate this without forcing Buddy into roundness during transitions, keep him bent and activated with my seat/core/legs and keep bending sliding at trot, canter, circles, leg-yield, half-pass and mediums...UGH!!! This was HARD!!! Buddy was tired, sore and grouchy! It felt absolutely awful and times and I would get frustrated when he dropped out or just stopped refusing to go forward (after watching the video though, it rode much worse than it looked). Lynn kept me cool and talked me through it reminding me to be sympathetic to him since this was still technically new and very hard on top of that. Boo also showed his frustration through multiple sneezing fits which ended up ripping the reins from my hands. At one point, she asked if I wanted to quit since he looked mentally fried but I said lets give him a minute and try one last time. It was just what we needed. I was able to regroup and picture the canter exactly how I wanted it while Buddy was able to take a mental breather. I collected myself and him asked for the canter and got the beautiful result of a lovely up transition, elevated shoulders, active hind legs and true collection. HUZZAH!!! With that we called it quits and lots of praise and a banana was had afterwards :)

Lynn was extremely pleased with the progress we made over the weekend and admitted that she threw quite a bit at us but we rose to the challenge. We have our homework and are going to work on it for the next month since the first show is just a couple of weeks away! The only thing I regret is that no pictures were taken during this experience...this just means I will have to take twice as many the next opportunity I have :) Until next time!

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