Tuesday, August 28, 2012

August 28th - 9:43pm

Great day at Rancho Pampa. Beautiful weather and fantastic horses. Started off early with Mono over for lessons. I warmed up Mauro and Cylene. Cylene felt reallyreally good on the flat. Mauro was a touch up still after his long vacation but still felt great. If I had the funds to purchase a jumper prospect, Mauro would be my first choice. Luli is right up there as well but Mauro wins. After Mono left I hacked Pierrette and worked on shortening/lengthening in the walk and trot. Mostly the trot because right now if you even think about putting pressure on the reins she tries to slam to a walk. And shes a decently forward horse so its suprising to me she does it. By the end of the ride though I could shorten to a smaller expression of the trot or walk depending on how much leg pressure I held. Such a good girl.
It was on Twilight after her that I had my break through moment with shortening the trot though. Martin uses shortening of the trot to its most minimal expression while still mainting the bounce as a way to put the horses together and work on ridability. Not sure why its taken me so long to get it but on Twilight I did. Its not just holding them until you think they cant trot any smaller. It is more of progressively woahing until the energy in the trot is vertical instead of ground covering. The hold themselves and just bounce off the ground. Id felt it before but that was the first ride Id felt it, recognized it and been able to reproduce it multiple times. And I got the result I wanted. Twilight and I had sharp transitions up and down. As a result our jumping was better than I think its every been before. I was also able to work on sinking closer to him and steering less with my hands and more with my legs. Its a feeling Ive come to look for when riding even if my first inclination is to steer with my hands. I figure eventually it will be like using my outside rein to balance/turn/ect instead of just pulling on my inside rein: if I self correct enough, Ill learn. As of right now about 80% of the time I go for my outside rein first. The remaining 20% is usually when Im cantering and moving faster than Im thinking. Definitely room for improvement there.
Had a brief lesson over some small fences with Jour in the afternoon. He was quite good and I got out with only a few minor corrections. I am a lot better than I use to be about my left thumb turning over and the obvious postion issues so the critique is changing. Less stuff like "heels down" and more work on really riding to produce something. Though since its Martin there is always going to be something postion wise to fix. Now it is my toes sticking out! Every time he has a new critique I simotaneously cringe and smile because it usually means Im getting whatever he use to comment on correct now.
The highlight of the day, though, was showing Olendesa to a client. Yesterdays ride left a lot (a lot, a lot, a alot) to be desired. Got on today though and was able to put all of what Martin said to use. Got a nice relaxed horse on the flat and was able to carry it over to the jumps. Today was the first time Id even cantered Olendesa (a hot, green, mare) let alone jumped her. By then end though we were going over an oxer set at a meter for the client to see. That mare has a funfunfun canter and great jump. I know the goal is to have her sell but I wouldnt mind that one sticking around for a bit. Pierrette too!
After Olendesa I got Herodes untacked (our ride had been interrupted by the client arriving so he'd been stuck on the hot walter to walk) and packed for the show tomorrow. Walter, Martin and I are going to the Aleman tomorrow to school with Luli, Nixon, Skyline, Cor Lit, Vitroso and Mauro. Should be a fun productive day. But an early, early morning!

No comments:

Post a Comment