Yesterday was our final lesson of the semester, but in two weeks we’re having a three-day evening course. However, it has turned into just a two-day course for me, as Elio and I are going to a Pet Shop Boys concert one of the days. Given that the last opportunity I had to see them at a proper concert was 1991 or so, I decided I could miss the ponies for one evening. Stupid timing, though.

The lesson yesterday wasn’t much of a lesson, as such, since the other half of the group did their dressage tests. That meant the rest of us rode without supervision, and as I was placed on Heddvig instead of Murphy I was at a bit of a loss as to what to train. So, it turned out to be pretty light on work, though I did try to use some basic exercises just to make her more relaxed before I tried some cantering. She’s still having issues getting into canter, and holding it for long, but she’s improving and she’s certainly fun to ride.

Afterwards, I chatted with Ulrika a bit about the possibility of doing a private lesson focused on riding a dressage test, and she thought that was a good idea. So, that’s on the menu for next semester, if I’ve got some spare money for extra riding.

Mixed results with my dressage test on Tuesday. I had a couple of things I wanted to focus on, and I managed with some of them, but not others. And a few things went rather worse than I had thought, but I somehow always manage to be overly optimistic in the middle of being nervous and pessimistic.

We started off with about half an hour of warm-up on our own, and I guess I didn’t use that time as efficiently as I could have. When 99% of your riding is done for an instructor, it can be really hard to be on your own. I tried to practice some of the things I knew would be troublesome, but while I managed to sort out a few potential problems (like making sure Murphy would continue to think forward even without a whip, since I don’t ride with spurs), I didn’t manage to do a very cohesive warm-up and I didn’t manage to get him really working before it was time for me to go in.

The good parts about the actual test was that I managed not to stress through it. I am often so focused on the next part (or, when jumping, on the next jump), that I constantly push forward. This leads to sloppy lines and to me doing too much with my legs, my hands and my upper body. For the most part, I stayed calm. I rode careful corners, and the only point where I got a little over-active was the canter circles. The rest of the canter I sat through quite calmly, though, and even the transitions too canter were calm. It definitely help that Murphy enjoys being alone in the arena and automatically is more forward-going.

The bad parts had a lot to do with the canter, though. Specifically, the canter circles and the half-turns in reverse at a canter. Murphy’s canter is not good. Its very hard to collect it without him dropping down to a trot without a lot of focused canter-work before hand, and I didn’t want to tire him out during the warm-up. So, the circles turned into gigantic ovals, and on the turns he was nowhere near the intended line. I really lost control over his outside, and I could certainly have demanded a bit more of him there. But my focus was elsewhere.

So, pleased that I didn’t rush it, but I have a long way to go in terms of making sure I can do more than one thing at a time.

For our last jumping lesson, we had talked about jumping out in one of the fields were we have some obstacles setup. However, it was threatening to rain and our instructor—who from now on will be known as Ulrika or Ulle, because its easier to type ;P—also wasn’t certain that some of the horses might not be a little too frisky. So, we put that off for the autumn. Instead, we jumped a series of four obstacles, with one stride between 1 and 2, one between 2 and 3 and two between 3 and 4.

Mostly Ulrika wanted us to do it in as uncomplicated a way as possible, with good drive forward. Most people were asked to come in at a trot, but for me and Murphy she asked for canter right off. Its easier for him, and I also get less pushy that way. Even so, I did get a little too active on some occasions, but after she’d told me to jump the series once and then gallop him around the paddock once before coming onto the jumps again, I definitely had him charged up enough that I could relax. He even changed canter on me at one point. Not something I asked for, but he usually has nowhere near the canter to be able to do that.

And yes, I avoided doing any sharp corners. ;P I did, however, try to keep in mind the comments from the competition, so I tried to work on keeping my legs in the same position over the jumps. Other than that, there wasn’t too much for me to work on once I had the “hands off” approach down. Murphy got the distances sorted out after one attempt, though he did keep knocking down the second jump for no good reason other than laziness, since he cleared the higher and broader jumps after that with no problem.

When we returned to the stables, he stopped a little oddly as he got in there. He does that now and then, and Ulrika saw it and explained that he seems to have some slight vision issue. Specifically, when going from light to dark or vice versa, he takes longer than most horses to readjust. But it doesn’t seem to affect anything else, though perhaps he is a little nearsighted or farsighted since he can get stuck looking at things for a long time. He never spooks, he just studies them with curiosity. I think that also has to do with a total lack of survival instincts. ;P

Today’s lesson was not a real lesson but rather our once-per-semester little trek. I wouldn’t mind getting a chance to ride out more often when its on a horse I trust as much as Murphy, though I do prefer my once a week riding lesson to be more “meaty”. However, Murphy enjoyed it (and was a pest who tried to bring whole trees along to chew on ;P), and it was a nice, leisurely little ride. No galloping, alas, but the weather was pleasant and the birds were singing.

Jumping competition today. Ringo thought we were getting ready for a dog show in the morning, and looked mildly confused when nothing came of it. He’s convinced that everyone getting up at the same hour in the morning and going somewhere by car means a dog show. No such luck today, though next Sunday its his turn.

Today, though, it was about me and Murphy. Some not so lovely showers forced us to use the indoor arena instead of the very muddy paddock. Not even Murphy, who doesn’t really mind a bit of rain (he’s from Ireland, after all), cared much for moving around in there. Once it was my turn to ride him (another girl jumped him first, in the lowest class), I managed to wake him up fairly well, though it didn’t really feel as if he would keep the speed up on his own without lots of work from me. That always makes me a little pushy, and that’s not a good combination with how I usually react to competitions.

At first, we were supposed to have ridden out yesterday, but there were some pretty dark clouds hanging around so we ended up having a regular dressage lesson instead. It didn’t actually end up raining, but most of us were happy to get a proper lesson anyway. Though Murphy would no doubt have preferred a little trek in the woods.

However, that’s not to say he wasn’t having fun with the dressage. He certainly felt quite eager and was easily woken up to a more alert and engaged state. We did some final bits of polishing on a piece of the dressage program, namely riding down the centre line. Just riding a straight line really pushes home the point of how hard some of the fundamentals of riding can be. Like straightness and forward engagement.

I thought I was doing pretty well, but then Murphy started getting a little too charged and I guess that I reacted by just trying to settle him instead of riding through it, so again I was nagged for being too nice. I don’t think I had been, up until then, since he was moving ahead so well. But I guess I do still sometimes do the wrong thing when he tries to get away from work by going too much forward. I need to get used to riding through that, just as I would ride through him not going forward enough. Even if I don’t get nervous at all from Murphy being frisky, I imagine its ingrained into me to back off when I get too much of a response.

Once I changed my strategy, however, he gave me some very nicely engaged trot. He’s such fun to ride, because its such a marked difference when he starts working. You can really tell when you’re doing something right. Or more or less right, anyway. I did get a little over-active at the end, and had some issues getting myself to rest while not allowing him to rest. But, the fine-tuning continues. And on Friday I will be competing in our club championships on Murphy. Its a really small affair, but I will be just as nervous anyway. Like a dog show, except with jumps. And horses.

No Murphy this week either, though he seemed fine where he was out in the field, enjoying a bit of grass. Of course, as long as I am riding a horse that doesn’t scare me, I enjoy the riding, and I know that I need to get used to riding more horses. I guess its mainly that I just have the one lesson each week, so it always feels a little sad not to be riding Murphy since that is without question what I enjoy the most.

The bad news: I didn’t get Murphy this week. I got Fleur, and it was extremely windy and unseasonably cold outside, so she was a bit tense and so was I.

The good news: Murphy’s fine, but he and a bunch of the other horses had some therapeutic massage on Monday, so no hard work for them for a few days. I did okay on managing my nerves on Fleur, though I paid the price afterwards for being on a horse for an hour and a half in a cold wind and jumping while a bit tense. My back was kind of screwy and I felt a bit weird. So, that’s not so good, though I am still pleased I managed to avoid shutting down when my nerves acted up.

I got reacquainted with an old friend this week; Nelson. He’s a sturdy grey pony, with a nice square build, and tons of energy. Very hard-working, sometimes so much that he ends up with muscle strains. As a result of that, he ends up set to carry lower weights only quite often, which is why I haven’t had a chance to ride him in a while. Nelson is also a very cheeky pony who, unlike Murphy, does not beg politely. He’ll nip and push, so he needs to be told that such bullying gets him nowhere. Mostly he’s pretty sweet, though.

It was somewhat coincidental that I had ended up on Nelson since one of the other instructors had been the one to list which horses needed to be used, but he was perfectly suited to the exercise we did. Basically, lots and lots of canter transitions, and unlike Murphy and (so far) Hedvig, Nelson has a pretty fabulous canter. In fact, its probably his best gait. His walk is a little rushed, and in the trot he’s very hard to keep off the forehand, but the canter is nice and round, with a good amount of energy and a steadiness that is just perfect for working on your seat with.

In fact, after she had seen me canter him a few times, she said she would definitely have to let me ride him more often, because it was perfect for making sure I keep working on sitting very still in the canter.

The first transitions he did came easily, though he ended up very rushed when we went back down to a trot, so I had to work on actually bringing him to a halt each time to get him to respect those aids as well as he was respecting the cue to canter. Of course, that and the fact that I started asking for more collecting in the transitions too canter made him rethink how fun it was to canter since it actually became more work. So, for a bit he ended up not taking the cues to canter as well, though once we had a talk about that he gave me some very nice transitions followed by some really nice canter (so balanced that I could pretty much leave the reins alone entirely, which is a very sharp difference from his trot), and some pretty decent downwards transitions too. Definitely a fun and useful lesson.

Yesterday’s theory lesson was…interesting.

We were supposed to plan out the rest of the lessons, to decide when we’d do our double-length jumping lesson and when we’d ride the dressage test we’ve been practicing in pieces during the semester. I guess we sort of managed that, but we mostly ended up talking about weird experiences with horses. Weird being things like the foal our instructor helped deliver the day before which had very badly bent legs, and the horse that died while she was riding it.

Next week, its dressage again, and then our extra-long jumping lesson.

Back in the pattern of lateness, it appears. Last week was spent wrestling with a particularly pesky subtitling job and work for the “writing historical novels” class. But I did ride, of course, even though I felt rather miserable before heading off to the stables. Fortunately, I left feeling much better. Unfortunately, I believe it is just a theory lesson this week, so we’ll see how that goes in terms of my mood.

In any case, I was back on Hedvig, and had an interesting ride on her out in the paddock. As she had already shown indoors, she is a bit of a silly girl, and there was plenty to be silly about outdoors. In fact, I didn’t really get a lot of good work out of her as she was a bit too high-strung to really settle down. However, I enjoyed not being nervous on a flighty horse even when out in the paddock. It also seems as if she’s getting fitter by the day, so that’s good news, and she has definitely shed some weight since she first came to the stables.

We worked with transitions, first between walk and trot and then a bit between walk and canter, and I did get to feel that she has quite some power in her hind quarters when they are properly engaged. I probably only got a few strides of it at walk and trot, but I could feel it very distinctly.

As for the cantering, I did get to try out some of that too. She finds it pretty hard to actually pick up the canter, and at first I was being too lenient on her. But once reminded to be a little firmer, she managed pretty well (though she does have to run into it a bit), and she’s certainly very enthusiastic once cantering. She can’t be collected at all yet, the strength isn’t there, but I could tell she has much more potential for a good canter than for example Murphy. It is not at all as flat and ground-tied.

I’ll blame Easter for this one. First I had to cook a bunch of food, then I had to eat a bunch of food. Exhausting.

I had a pretty good jumping lesson last Tuesday. We were out in the paddock for the first full lesson of the semester, and that was probably a good call because Murphy was actually a bit lazy even outdoors. Possibly, he found it a bit too dusty (I certainly did), but I think he’s just having a bit of a lazy period.

Given that we were going to be jumping some tricky curving and bending lines, I knew I’d need decently engaged, so I tried to focus on getting him a little charged up during the warm-up. At first, I got a little too active, but after a reminder (and a suggestion to use transitions; I have to keep that in mind) I managed to wind him up so I didn’t have to constantly be there with my legs reminding him. Its very much been a focus of our instructor’s of late: get the horses thinking forward so that you’re not carrying them every step of the way, because you need to focus on other things than just maintaining movement.

This proved to be a key ingredient for this particular lesson. We had some tricky turns to negotiate that first resulted in a lot of drifting out to the side, but where I managed to get a pretty good feel for how to turn him after a few tries. Even with his rather terrible canter, I managed to get him lighter in front so I could raise him up through the turn instead of tilting him over to one side and letting him dig. I am not sure if he’s gotten a little bit stronger or if I have learned a few new tricks, but I am definitely having more success at getting a bit of an uphill feel in the canter.

For the last exercise, he was almost too forward, but he wasn’t just running and getting long and flat. So, when my instructor asked me to slow him down, I was able to do so without losing the canter, and for the last jump I got a nice, controlled turn afterwards where I clearly felt he was going slow enough that I could easily turn him, but that didn’t mean he was going to lose the canter. Afterwards, she said this was the first time she’d dared to tell me to slow down, because otherwise it usually just means losing the canter entirely on him.

When I got to the stables this Tuesday, I found Murphy was still turned out. Darn, I thought. He must be injured. Fortunately, they had just forgotten to get him in because our regular instructor was ill and everything was a bit disorderly. So, I got him anyway and he was mostly okay with coming in with me.

I was back on Murphy this week, perhaps because we were going to be doing a fair bit of cantering (which Murphy is bad at, but Hedvig is worse), or perhaps because Hedvig had already taken part in at least one jumping lesson and she doesn’t have the stamina for a full set of lessons so far. Of course, no complaints from me about riding Murphy. ;)

Well, at least I got to ride the whole lesson this last Tuesday. However, I can’t say I was entirely pleased with how I did. I was a little too ... mellow, but then again, I had been rather sick for a week prior to the lesson.

I was back on Hedvig, and apart from a little dancing around as we got into the arena (which would have rattled my nerves if she was taller) as well some silliness about the door and one little buck during the lesson, she was quite well-behaved. As for last week, they never really found anything wrong with her. It may have been something little bothering her, or she was just being a mare. I started without my whip, just in case it had been the issue, but was then able to take it back without any problems when she needed a few little nudges.

The work we did was pretty well suited to improving Hedvig, since we focused almost entirely on half-halts. Since she has a tendency to hurry up, she needs a lot of help to settle into a more work-friendly rhythm, and in theory half-halts should be good for that. In theory, that is. I find them very tricky myself, and on her it was particularly difficult because she was almost too responsive. I had to concentrate a lot on getting them smooth rather than having very distinct starts and stops. No wonder I gave up on learning to drive a car. ;P My coordination stinks, and while it is improved by riding, it always seems to lag behind the curve.

Still, I did get some more relaxed work out of Hedvig too, and it feels like she moves quite nicely once she starts lengthening out a bit. I didn’t try cantering her, though. She’s very bad at it, and I didn’t want to mess up what I had managed to get in the trot by letting her rush into a canter. But I am hoping to try soon, and I do hope they will keep her even though she’s got a bit of a temper, since she’s just my kind of horse (both in terms of her size and her temper).