2nd lesson

I had a really great dressage lesson yesterday. I did a lot of pre-riding in my mind over the last week, pondering what can be done to turn Metal-Mouth-Upside-Down-Cob into a soft responsive horse that someone wouldn’t mistake for an overused German school horse.

I came up with a plan, a list of exercises that can help in reforming a horse who leans heavily on the reins. Going back to square one was going to be my plan: getting a good forward, and doing multiple transitions. I also thought I could do a whole session with just working on stop, back, trot, and walk. I would work on circles and serpentines and not use the long side at all if possible to keep the horse thinking and not going into school horse mode.

(I know the concept “hard mouth” is controversial, but it’s been years since I’ve felt such heaviness.)

I even wrote my plan down so I could show the instructor. But I forgot it.

It turns out it didn’t matter, the instructor/owner was on my same wavelength, even if there is a big language barrier. (I only understood ¾ of her commands.) She worked us on a 20 meter circle, a 10 meter, had us do a serpentines, and we didn’t do any one thing more than 20 seconds (or however long it takes to canter a 20 meter circle 3 times – he has a rushy canter; I was so glad we were on a circle!).

I did not like that one time the horse listened to her command and not me. I stopped him and started over. I seem to remember my old instructor spelling things out so the horses would not listen to her. In any case, having verbal commands coming every 5-20 seconds (for transitions) is sort of like a half-halt to prepare the horse for a change.

He did great. I asked her if she rode him over the last week and she said no, but he’s more relaxed because they’ve had some turnout. I think the horse remembered me, and remembered at least partially how to respond to my leg. And I learned after last time to not get into a pulling war with him. Though his downward transitions were becoming smooth, getting him to stop is still a challenge. I think school horses must not stop at all in their lessons until they’re over. I would ask for a stop, 1)sit deep, 2)half halt 3) stop following the movement and then if he still was walking, I’d really, really stop my movement. His tendency is to just push through that and keep going. It was almost funny how long he’d resist simply stopping. And when he finally did, it was hard to get him to stay stopped, but eventually he learned that he’d get a big release and some rubs on his withers. Sometimes to stop him I’d just turn him into the wall – a one-rein arena stop. That is, after going through the three steps and finding no inclination to stop at all. I think using one rein at a time with him is the key to preventing his bracing.

Likewise trying to back up is a real challenge. If I use any leg at all, he thinks it must be a forward cue. By the end he was backing rhythmically (in diagonal pairs) 3 strides. The instructor was happy with 2 but I wanted 3. : )

It was so cool how the instructor had the same plan that was in my head. She would have me walk a 10 meter circle, transition directly to a canter on the 20 meter circle 2-3 times around. She said our canter departs were lovely. Wish I had a photo!

I threw in the idea of letting the reins out all the way to the buckle to see what he’d do with that, and the instructor thought that was a good tool and had me do it a few more times. He was definitely looser last night and although still very stiff to the left, to the right we were bending. I’d like to start leg yielding with him but he’s still working on quick up transitions – I have to use the whip sometimes when he ignores my leg.

Working on me: I don’t know why I handle the reins backwards from what she wants me to do. I tend to set my inside hand and give and take with the outside. That is the opposite of what she wants, and she kept telling me to shorten my outside rein, over and over. Agh.

All in all I felt that she asked way more than I would have (I wouldn’t have cantered at all at this point) but she apparently thought we were ready. I also think she was privately thrilled to see someone working intensely on her very own horse, and getting results. I don’t know why she doesn’t ride her own horse, but I guess that’s what happens when you work with horses; you don’t make the time to ride.

Now for the negative stuff. Every barn has people who do questionable to cruel things, and I need to prepare my conscience for it if I’m riding in a big barn. I liked this barn because I saw no gadgets on every single lesson horse. That alone is a rare thing in Germany. But there is this young Andalusian gelding who is being treated badly by his rider. My first visit I noticed it – she was cantering in the arena for great lengths of time, as if she was trying to wear him down or something. She did nothing else, just cantering nonstop. It bothered me because the horse is obviously young.

But last night she had him on a very short lunge line and cantered him in 10 meter circles for the entire time I was in my lesson. She had to keep him on a 10 meter circle because she had to use the lunge whip a lot to keep him from breaking into a trot. That poor horse! She will ruin his mind and his legs with endless lunging on such a tight circle! I tried to think why she would do this to that horse – what is her goal? The only thing I could come up with – she wants him fit. She’s lunging him to “condition” him. Because there was absolutely no training going on, only a horse who wants to shut down, but is too young to know how. Those poor legs! A normal 20 meter circle would have been bad, but 10!! I know it’s no use to say anything, because the barn owner probably authorizes this as a conditioning method for his Spanish show horses. But if I ever have the opportunity, I’ll go to the top and talk to the owner. Of course that’s the guy who thinks I’m brutal because I am not afraid to use the whip if the horse ignores my leg. So it’s not the time yet. This is the way barn drama gets started, so I’d better be careful.

Wish I had photos, maybe next time.