Interesting Lesson last night

[Lucyad]

I had a lesson through our riding club last night with Susan McKie, a BSJA coach. It was very interesting. For a long time I have been slightly unhappy with my usualy RI's method of training in an outline - he promotes a strong contact, which I am uncomfortable with (am a slight 5'4 and my horse a 16.3hh HW draft cross which doesnt help). My horse has a tendency to lean and be heavy on his forehand. My RI then lightens this up with circling, spiraling and leg yeilding, which eventually produces some nice work. My horse is rather lazy, but has good paces for a horse of his type and steps through well but has a tendency to lack impulsion. I hadn't been to my usual RI since early spring, until last weekend, when he went straight back to promoting a strong contact.

I warmed up as usual last night, then was working on the flat, in an outline. My horse was behaving pretty much as normal - possibly not stepping through as well as he might, as it was a much more confined school that he is used to and wasn't as forward as he could be and a little distracted. RI confirmed what I have been thinking for some time. That I am basically holding his forehand up, and that if I don't let go and make him carry himself, he isnt going to get any lighter in front. She got me to go back to my prefered very light (but still there) contact. Of course my horse takes this as an opportunity to poke his nose out, but she said not to bother about this.

We worked on repeated halt / trot transitions, something I find makes him listen to me well when hacking, then transferring these into a very strong half (or more like 3/4 I think) halt. We also did galloping down one leg of the school, collecting, then popping over a small jump, to liven him up, which he really enjoyed. She said that rather than too much schooling, what would be good for him is galloping about and generally having fun - sounds good to me!!! Combined with some suppling work (the exercise we did last night was to bend in a figure 8 round jump wings, over a ground pole between them). And lots of transitions, which can be done while hacking.

Now, how to I break the news to my RI tomorrow morning that this is the way I want to continue....I still want to have weekly lessons with him (I can hack up to his yard easily and he is a good instructor who has helped my riding no end, and this is the only opportunioty I have to school at all). I just want to use a slightly differnt method to obtain the same end result.

[Palomino Mare]

oh i'm glad you had a good lesson. wierd he teaches you to be heavy, i'm heavy handed but get told to go light. i'm hoping to get Jill Grant out when i move.
well he normally has a 5min chat with you at the start of the lesson and asks you how you've been getting on. so i would say "oh great thanks, had a really good lesson at RC last night and did - explain - so i'm keen to carry it on as he's responded well". i know he i quite hard to approach but he doesnt mind working on what you want to work on. good luck!

[capalldubh]

Hmm, that's a bit of a conundrum. It does seem to me that what you describe would suit you and Oscar better (as well as being more fun for both... and you can do it while hacking!). I think it also sounds as if it would help build Oscar's confidence, with jumps and faster work alternating. And it is interesting that he was good and light and working well in a different place with IC not there, because you said before you think he's different with IC there than when you school at the blazes.

I think IC maybe trains the way he rides himself, and doesn't make allowances for the fact that it is possible (and preferable if you're a female with less upper body strength) to take a lighter approach. And that Sylvia Loch DVD you gave me, I looked at again recently - it is so much about "self-carriage", the horse's responsibility to carry himself, not yours to keep holding him up.

Does last night's lady not do lessons locally? It wouldn't be too difficult to go somewhere near would it? (even if you had to trailer there once a week...)
Or make IC every two weeks and the other lady every other week? I don't know, but I think you would feel better working the way you did last night, and if you feel more at home riding like that, you would both progress even faster...

[Lucyad]

She was promoting the way I like to ride, and they way I tend to ride most of the time when RI isn't there! (I was riding 'RI' style in warm up cause there was a RI there!).

Oscar has got a lot more consistent now and is pretty reliable while schooling, though it takes him longer to relax in an open environment like the blaze.

He wasnt working 'properly' when I let his head go in the lesson - I could feel that he wasnt stepping through and rounding his back as well as when I get him working 'properly' in a lesson - but the point was that he was holding himself up (well enough not to fall onto the floor :o), which was a starting point to him acheiving self carriage, rather than getting him working properly and letting go and him landing in a heap.

I will see what RI says when I explain tomorrow as you suggest, PM - it is funny that he teached different people different things - though they are very different horses as well. I do like to ride very light generally, and am not at all strong in my upper body, so he is possibly telling us both to do the same thing - we may perceive it as different!

BSJA instructor does lessons at Ingliston I think, and I have another lesson in a couple of weeks through the riding club. She says she might be in the area more as well, so if I can get a loan of a school, I could make it more regular.

I am dying to get a lesson from Trish Hunter as well, for a 3rd opinion, particularly from discussions about Oscar with her - all about lightening of the forehand. I need to build a school on the back lawn, don't I!

[capalldubh]

I need to build a school on the back lawn, don't I!

That's the answer :D

He was very light and going well when he got back from Trish earlier in the summer - I think it only changed because you weren't getting the chance to school as much.

I guess to some extent, IC is good mainly because you (a) get feedback from someone on the ground watching and (b) get to use the nice big school. If you had your own school, even if it was a bit smaller, you could work more often, and then get regular feedback from RC meet-ups?

Not saying not to use IC, by the way, because yes, there has been a huge change in you and Oscar since you started going there, but it was never the way you liked to ride and that would have been OK if it was the correct way to ride - but since there is an alternative that feels nicer to you and is equally effective, you need to find a way of homing in on that. Maybe tell IC you want to do lots of lessons with no reins :D

[NicP]

Interesting the different methods used isn't it. I think the key is what is right for both you and your horse so hope you can carry on with the 'new' way.

[Palomino Mare]

hi,

Jill Grant does dressage clinics at Ingliston every second weekend **i think**. she will have a quick ride on your horse, see what they are capable of, work with you for the 45mins and give you homework to work on until you see her next. she then hops back on next time to reassess your horse and then will devise something for the 45mins - this has been very productive for the horses at IC's who go.

apparently she was there at RC last night to so you could get lessons that way. new yard i am moving to is also trying to secure the Kilmacolm RC and so that would bring weekly instructors in soo maybe you want to join the KRC?

[Lucyad]

Sounds good. I just need to pass towing test, then I can go further afield. Just now I go to RRC cause I can hack to more things. Your new yard sounds great - imagine having all the riding club training coming to you!

[**greygurlie**]

Lucy, Louise that runs/owns the yard Tillys at West Corseford hires out our school. Its massive if you wanted to use it, noone hardly rides in it, cos 1 horse now has lami, Tilly is getting lunged every 2nd day only still and the other 2 mainly just hack. Its just sitting there on its own. Let me know if you are interested and I will say to Lou for you.

[NZdressage]

That is such a common fault in riders, holding the horse etc. You dont need to "break" the news as such, it shouldnt be a big deal, juts explain what you have learnt and if they are not happy with that then maybe its time to find a different RI any way. If I didnt think what I was learning was right I would ethier confront the RI and if that didnt achieve anything then seriously think about changing trainers.... but thats just my opinion