DefinitelyDressage.com

Dresseur

Chisamba makes excellent points. I think that of course, riding as quietly as we can is the goal. But horses are also able to tune all manner of things out. Again, consistency is the key. If you are consistently flapping without asking for anything - the horse will learn to tune it out and go along ...

Dresseur

Excellent Hot4Spots! Keep being careful, but I'm glad to hear that things are settling down for you both! So, while I don't have any goals for myself right now, I'm happy to say that we're able to finally start getting some goals on the table for Charm, my student's horse. He's been a solid citizen ...

Dresseur

I love the photos, updates and goals! It seems like it's been a rough year for horses and humans alike. I can't wait for spring. Miro received his first round of shock wave on Wednesday. When I walked him yesterday, he looked like he was feeling REALLY good. He had his normal 3-4 hoof print over tra...

Dresseur

Chisamba, that is a super update, and fairly fast progress! I hear you on the seasonal depression, not only is it still cold, dark and gloomy, but the weather conditions have continued to be challenging. I know a lot of people are really struggling this year. Everyone else, I am reading updates and ...

Dresseur

Well, the latest depressing Miro update is in. We started an exploratory mission to see if there were any other structures involved other than his hip, and he blocked 50% sounder when we did his hind suspensory. So, while his hip is still the main culprit, apparently he tweaked the hind suspensory i...

Dresseur

You can push the door with as little or as much connected core as you want. Anywhere from a tiny nudge to a big push. But it’s only for a moment. So from regular trot to passage will be a bigger drive as you ask the horse to stay forward, yet bring the hinds up with activity, and from passage to pia...

Dresseur

Lol, yup. I rode with him for 10+ years, got to see it demonstrated many times. There was also a demo sitting where you would sit in a saddle on a rickety saddle rack that would rock back and forth. You had to hold your hands in riding position and move the rack without moving your hands. In any cas...

Dresseur

Sue no, a swinging seat doesn't have to be a driving seat - often times, seats that just swing along without any core control can be fairly ineffective actually. And, a driving seat doesn't need to be leaning back. If you really tense your muscles and sit heavy - you can drive like hell and be perfe...

Dresseur

IMO you're either going to pay up front or in training. Sometimes both :lol: :lol: For a lot of people, paying up front for the training is a good bet - then you can ride the horse and maintain the training rather than to drop the horse into a high dollar training program (this is assuming that you ...

Dresseur

I fully endorse making sure that there isn't soreness, and giving time off... but, when you longe again, make sure she's forward on the longe as well - when horses are behind the aids there too, they can appear short and stiff in their movements because they aren't moving freely forward. If she is b...

Dresseur

But right now it feels like an impossible struggle. And I tend to leave my rides either feeling completely ineffective or like I have been unfair. Blob, I can commiserate. And, IMO, this is completely normal, and you will start to figure things out. I'm sure that you and your instructor have discus...

Dresseur

Rye, I agree that focus on the horses hind end solves a lot, including a lot of bridle and straightness issues. You need enough forward to funnel the horse, and I find that the more I work on myself, the easier it is to listen to the horse. I think where people get into trouble is that they forget t...

Dresseur

I definitely love that metaphor.

Dresseur

Hope everyone dealing with weather sees some respite soon! The conditions have not been easy for most! I have a Miro update, the vet came out yesterday to check for soundness and Miro was still off. It is getting incrementally better, but the vet says he expected this to be better at this point. So,...

Dresseur

Since the original teaching came to Chisamba from Peter Bowker, she will have more context behind the explanation, but I can try to explain what it means to me. So, when you are first learning to ride - you are a bit stiff, trying to hold your position in a similar way to that of a dancer who is fir...

Dresseur

The jelly butt, eggshell butt, jelly butt method of seat aid was taught to me by Peter Bowker, so it's not mine, I just use it because it still makes sense to me. It was particularly emphasized in tempi changes to make sure there was a moment of jelly butt in each change to avoid pushing too much h...

Dresseur

Rye, it's funny, because in the past, I had to expend more effort because I wasn't connected - at some point, my mechanics got better, and I didn't adapt to the change of feel in my body. So all of a sudden, I went from decent rides, to everyone landing in my hands, and transitions NOT getting light...

Dresseur

I know this thread has morphed a bit, but my understanding of driving has shifted pretty dramatically over the last few weeks. I think that the driving seat/back has a time and a place, but in my case, I was driving all the time (primarily at the canter) and wondering why horses were getting heavy i...

Dresseur

Miro had his spring shots, and while he wasn't 100% as of last video sent to my vet, my vet wants me to start hand walking him. He feels that controlled exercise (walking) will help. Especially with Miro's weight problem. At this point, I can't feed him any less. It's worrisome and discouraging. Als...

Dresseur

We practice parts of the test leading up to the show day, and then do 1, maybe two full run-throughs just so that you have a sense of where things are. One thing we do to avoid anticipation is to put transitions past the letter - so the halt at X, we halt past that so that the horse isn't quitting 6...

Dresseur

That's awesome Flight! He seems like a natural! I know that Andrea teaches the first couplet on a circle - true to counter lead to back again. The hardest phase seems to be doing 3 1s because of having to go back to the counter lead. Once the horse gets that, you can start adding and it's a matter o...

Dresseur

Oh boy. I'm also a very, very nervous show rider. To the point that I'm usually dry heaving in the trailer as I'm getting dressed. 1. I have a support system, at this point, I don't show all by myself. I need people there to talk me off the ledge. 2. I try to think about the worst that can happen an...

Dresseur

I know it's boring work for the rider, but simple is best when it comes to greenies. You do have to keep building on the work you're doing, because the real meat and potatoes of suppleness comes from the lateral work. So I would start thinking of doing mini-lengthenings, do lots of serpentines, and ...

Dresseur

Was it when it became a ring sport or when a select few started making all the rules so that people would buy their fancy imported horses ;) :lol: :lol: I personally don't blame the ring, I blame the methodology and $$$$$. That being said, you have a 100% valid point and I think a lot of people woul...

Dresseur

Chisamba, I don't disagree that you need to leave the wall often to make sure that the horse is not reliant on it. I fully agree that open spaces are good for the horse, and I like to ride outside as often as I can. But, I also feel that the wall/rail is an excellent tool. To my point, the beauty of...

Dresseur

I was taught to use the rail a lot - basically it works as outside aids so that you don't have to give stronger aids if the horse wants to swing or drift, and it helps the horse to learn new movements. So, leg yields are taught by using the wall as a magnet (eventually the horse progresses to doing ...

Dresseur

I try not to change my rein length. But, on some horses that want to suck back in a particular gait or carry themselves differently, I change my rein length to find them and then keep trying to lengthen the neck so that the rein length stays consistent between gaits.

Dresseur

Piedmont, thank you for posting. As you can tell from my input, I tend to struggle in the canter. There's a difference between riding every stride and driving every stride and I'm trying to figure out what that means for me and my body

Dresseur

Chisamba, I was definitely thinking of you when I wrote that :lol: I went from having to output a great deal of effort with not much response to only having to give a small effort with a lot of response and I didn’t catch that my effectiveness had changed. Being able to ride a huge variety of horses...

Dresseur

We are finally frozen, and expecting snow later today. I'm not sure what's worse, the mud or the frozen, pitted ground. Miro just finished his second course of Equioxx. I need to wait a few days and take new video to send to my vet. Last I checked him (about 2 weeks ago) he was almost 100% - but tha...

Dresseur

Yea, I'll keep up the conversations with her to see if there is a better way to word it. I just hate seeing her so worried about this.

Edited to add, she is looking for a stall cleaner.

Dresseur

Thank you piedmont. And yes, I've spoken to her about the difficulty there... It's a 16 stall barn. Stalls get cleaned in the am, and then picked around 3pm. Grooming for riding/lessons in between. And training/lessons is included - if you are a good rider, you can ride more, but she's not looking f...

Dresseur

So, mods, I'm not sure where to put this, as this is more of a PSA for someone to come take my dream job - so delete or move as necessary! Long story short, Andrea's long, long time barn manager/groom is moving closer to her family. A has been looking for a while and nothing has shaken loose and she...

Dresseur

Happy New Year all! 8-) 8-) What are your short and long term goals? My Jan/Feb goals are: get Miro healthy and back under saddle again. Start really nailing down the 1 tempis - not sure if it's doable, some days it feels like more of a possibility than others. My long term 2019 goals are: get Miro ...

Dresseur

Lol! Willie did that for a bit- we had to put a stop to it immediately or he would have been the poster child for late changes. For this, we did a figure 8 and only did a change when he was facing a wall. I’ve seen that method used for quite a few leapers with success because the wall backs them off...

Dresseur

I just wasn’t sure how far along Norsey was with his changes- and yea, based on your description it sounds like you need to hold the shoulder back- basically don’t allow the front to change. So, he may need to sit in the collection and wait- don’t throw him away up front as you execute the change. Y...

Dresseur

Are the singles clean or are they going too? And unfortunately, it's really hard to help diagnose unless you have video or see it in person. My snap judgement would be to think that the canter quality got too big or strung out somehow, but to be safe, I'd wait for eyes on since late changes are such...

Dresseur

It's interesting that several weeks ago, all of the wheels to the bus fell off and I was starting to miss single changes again and yesterday and the day before, I was schooling 1's again successfully. Now, mind you, I don't have control over them, BUT, I'm able to ask for them, and she's locking int...

Dresseur

Tuddy, excellent thread! This year for me has been wonderful, even though Miro decided to end the year with a literal bang to his hip. :cry: :x I learned so much by having the opportunity to ride for Andrea. I shored up basics, found holes in my understanding or execution, and started down the path ...

Dresseur

Lots of good updates here! Miro is still on stall rest - but much improvement. I'm hoping that this is resolved soon, I really don't want to miss the upcoming show season. For the first time ever, I'm excited to show :( MC, that's a tough one. Don't give up, keep trying things. In terms of all issue...

Dresseur

Another little onion layer peeled off. I had a great ride yesterday. I did all my changes into the mirrors, so I was riding some interesting patterns to make the most use of them. (Only one long side has mirrors.) One of the things that I had noticed on another horse was that I tend to leave my left...

Dresseur

Thank you Piedmont and Flight! This last lesson went well - I'm practicing collections on quarterline into the mirrors so that I can see if I get her crooked in the set up, and then we went into changes. She was quite crooked yesterday as she had taught what amounted to an up/down lesson earlier in ...

Dresseur

Well, I'm starting to be a lot straighter, I knocked off some beautiful 3's and then ramped her up way too much for the two's. My baseline canter is much better, so Andrea told me that I was doing way, way too much. Back to riding on 1/4 line and making sure that Gala is ship straight and that I am ...

Dresseur

I also bought the app, and got the bundled FEI and 1st-4th level tests. I personally don't think that the interface is any where near as nice as the Equi-tests, but if you've never used that app, you probably won't mind it. What I loved about Equi-test was that they had the directions on the right, ...

Dresseur

MC, that's a fantastic photo! I'm laughing that you also call that a postage stamp saddle - after a few years of straight dressage - I sat in one and couldn't believe I had ever been comfortable

Dresseur

KootKat, for me at this point, it's a guts issue... I used to do some dumb, dumb things - got close to 5' with horses that shouldn't have done it. But also got tossed enough times by some bad actors that I started to develop fear and defensive riding habits to fences. At this point, I haven't jumped...

Dresseur

Bridging the reins and holding onto the front of the saddle definitely helped me keep my hands under control I think that this is going to take a long while for me to learn how to ask for the 1's - especially since I can only practice once a week. :/

Dresseur

Familiar in what way, Chisamba? Because you've experienced that or because I've complained about it before :lol: :lol: I had my lesson today - she was my 5th horse of the day, so I had 4 to practice the idea of pushing my knee forward. I have to say, I instantly liked the more subtle movement of my ...

Dresseur

Well, tomorrow I have a lesson, but I was able to take a half day of work and ride 2 horses today. One of those horses was Gala. I bridged my reins and it was informative. I'm not pulling on the rein to create the change, the pull happens after - and it's most pronounced on the left to right change....

Dresseur

Ponichiwa, yes, I'm going to do that - I think I had mentioned it in one of my first posts - and I'll certainly report back!

Search found 867 matches