Last week was taken up with worrying about the dog’s test on Saturday, so of course it totally slipped my mind to write about my last lesson. Given that its already Tuesday again, its definitely time to get it done now.
I was put on Gamir instead of Murphy this time, and given that we ended up focusing on a lot of canter work I suspect that was a rather purposeful shift. Gamir needs much less help with his canter, so he’s a good horse for me to work on doing less. Which I still need to work on. A lot. ;P I also managed to continue the trend from last week of mistaking a higher stride frequency for a longer stride when working on varying the tempo, both during the warm-up and during the actual canter work.
Gamir is a very well-trained and obedient horse. He’ll take very slight cues. However, he was a jumper, not a dressage horse, and actually getting genuine collection and good work through his back from him is not easy. He’s very good at pretending to be in a good form, so you really have to pay attention to his hindlegs and his back. I am, finally, getting a little better at sensing when he’s actually working, but when he’s not I am not so great at getting him there.
He does have a bit of a stiff back (he’s feeling his 16-17 years much more than Sammy is feeling his 20 years, and he’s always had some back issues), so he needs to be persuaded to move through his whole body to warm up properly. But here’s where I start making that tempo/frequency mistake. I know she’s suggested riding him forward a lot to start with, just to get him using his whole body, so I did that. However, she soon noted I was letting him get too quick. I slowed him down and finished the rest of the warm-up at a more moderate pace, but without getting any real engagement from the hind legs.
We then moved on to the canter, and since I am often told I ride too slowly on some horses (like Sammy, and sometimes also Gamir), I tried to be more proactive. But again I was told I was getting it wrong. In short, I need some serious practice at lengthening and shortening strides to vary tempo rather than effecting stride frequency and getting horses that move like sewing machines. I also need to get a much better sense for what the right tempo and length of stride is on specific horses.
Of course, that isn’t going to happen when you ride once a week. ;P I can keep the issues in mind though, and try to work on them on an intellectual level, but developing a good feeling for what is right is virtually impossible without much more time in the saddle. I guess I am getting to the point where that will be the case for a lot of things, so I need to consider how I can improve at least some of these issues without actually getting that extra time. Though I do need to get a few private lessons in before the end of the semester.