I am currently feeling as though I am on a steep learning curve going nowhere fast. Even though I am progressing and getting better with every ride I find that I sometimes get frustrated by my seeming lack of advancement.

I guess realistically I am doing well for where I am and where I started. I started riding three years ago as an older teen. Had sub-par training for the first year and a half of my riding. Have recently been with a good dressage trainer riding her horse.

I am really learning to ride on this horse, not just be a passenger. He's really helping me with my aids and timing and feel. My walk and rising trot are pretty good, canter is fine, sitting trot is coming one stride at a time, but is not there yet. I find myself after every ride wanting more . . . and more and more.

Ideally I could pause the rest of my life and spend a year riding, find a working student position and throw myself into the deep end of the pool and really learn. But I don't think I could do that at this point.

I guess what I really want to know is, am I being too hard on myself. How fast can one expect to progress with once/twice a week riding. I don't even know where I want to be . . .

I'm confused.

Mr. Studly McSexyGelderson

So one of the mares on the property is in season, and is really in season. Today was the second ride alone without the instructor. Had planned to go with the flow and see what happened. Goals were to stay connected and soft and rythmic the whole time. Well plans changed.

We walked out the barn towards the outdoor arena and flirty mare starts making flirty little mare noises. Well my normally well mannered cool, calm and collected 100% gelding turns into Mr. Studly McSexyGelderson. Little whickery noises and arched neck and some jogging around. Fantastic. We walk aroud the outdoor arena inhand and he comes back to earth we are cool and calm. Head to the mounting block, have some moving around and fussing. I get on and the mare decides that she needs "T" now, cue screaming and cantering up and down the paddock which is right beside the outdoor arena of course. He picks up on this and heads her way, don't think so mister how about we head down to the far end of the arena instead. Well he didn't think that my idea was as much fun as I thought, canter pirouette followed by some crow hopping. I've had enough of the nonsense. We get down to "work".

Didn't really get too much accomplished, he was really distracted the whole ride. Disconnected front and back.

Riding again tomorrow. Will ride inside in the dressage saddle with a quick lunge before to get him moving, then an easy relaxed mosy around the outdoor arena in the AP saddle to get used to it.

One of those rides when you fall in love again . . .

Just got back from the best ride I think I have ever had in my life.

Instructor is away for 2 weeks so I get to have a few rides to play around.

Warm up, walk trot both ways we do some circles, serpentines, spirals. Started to do some leg yield was fine on left rein, switched to right he was really leading with the shoulder and drifting, did a few staircase ones then tried to do one off the rail because that usally fixes the shoulder. No leg yeild but what do we get . .. counter canter. Ok fine, I wasn't planning on cantering but ok so few nice strides and come back to trot. I'm getting kinda tired so go onto a circle to do sone stretching horse sees a cat or something in the field starts to get a little looky, so I ask him to bring his brain back to the task at hand, do some bending and then asked him to really trot on. Got a lovely not pissy canter, did 3 circles. Break through.

I think that I am afraid of it looking/getting ugly so I don't ride as agressively in lessons as I should.

It was interesting having to analyze the ride myself instead of having eyes on the ground telling me what is wrong I had to feel it for myself.

Wow. Learned alot.

So I was finally able to rope my sister into coming to take some pictures and videos of me riding. She walked right into it too, had the day off school and was complaining that she was bored. I wanted some pictures so I could see what I looked like, actually seeing really helps me to understand what I'm doing wrong. So before the lesson I give my sister the run down on what I want and how to use my camera, including "side on shots would be great, and some pictures of walk, trot and canter" "here's the zoom" and "make sure it is on the action setting".

She got a few other videos that show faces too much so I won't post it, that have really helped me see what I am doing. I really need to work on my cantering, I really pump with my upper body.So here's the best of the lot.

Anyway was a good ride, didn't ride T, rode S. HUGE MARE. Her canter felt really small though. Would love to be able to ride her more.

Never mind, can't get the pictures to work. Was a good ride anyway.

And Today We Jumped??

Oh my, it had been quite a while since I jumped, November maybe, and the last time I jumped I fell off. Plus the fact that I was told that T gets a little YAHOO sometimes while jumping I was a little put off when instructor said lets do a little cross rail. Ummmm ok. So I pop my stirrups up two holes from my normal length, I am riding on the knee blocks, but am able to get off T's back if needed. Off we go, me feeling a least a lot perched up on top. Trot around the ring a few times, approach jump, instructor says grab mane just in case, I am thinking to my self "Oh Shit". And over we go simple as that. Again and Again, the only hitch happened when horse decided that the 12 inch cross rail wasn't big enough to require any effort and he knocked the thing down and scared himself. Jumping was awesome, finished off with some not so awesome leg yields. I must figure out the correct combination to prevent over flexing inwards and shoulder drifting. Got some nive lengthenings though.

Next week I am riding S instead of T. . It'll be interesting, large warmblood mare versus thorouighbred gelding.

Awesome lesson last night.

I have a to do list:

-Must get ass in gear, stop "not riding"
-Get someone out to take pictures, need to analyze position
-Everytime "T" asks if he can slow down/stop say no

What's Going Wrong

My lesson last night left me pondering the role that conformation of horse and rider play in the way that the rider rides. I know what the position I strive for should look like, I’ve seen it and read about it in countless books. “Classical”, ear, shoulder, hip and heel line, balanced, secure etc.

I think that my conformation in combination with his plays a part in some of my positional issues. I am a dancer in addition to being a rider. My legs have a seemingly natural tendency to turn out from the hips and this is a constant battle in my riding. I am taller with long legs so when mounted my lower leg is not in contact with his sides, he has a very large trot. So all of the above combined result in my toes being turned out a little more that is “correct” especially in trot.

I am also quite naturally balanced left to right (or so I’m told) but since I have been riding this horse I have become a little frustrated with myself over slipping to the outside in left canter. I hadn’t ever had this problem before this horse so was getting a little bit annoyed with myself over it. A few lessons ago after a left canter I tried to explain to my instructor how/what I was feeling to see it she saw it as well. Turns out the horse is noticeably slab sided on his left side so this may be playing a part in my slipping.

I have also noticed adaptations in my rising trot when riding this guy compared to other smaller moving equines. I noticed that my upper body tends to stay less upright when rising to his trot and I feel that this may be in part because of the large oomph that pushes me out of the saddle with each stride.

I think that my brain just needed to “see” things out on paper so I could clarify things for myself, I think I needed to write it out so I could see that it’s ok. I am not a bad rider I am just an imperfect person working with an imperfect horse striving towards the perfect, seems kinda silly to me. I need to learn to accept things as they are. I need to start noticing the good things and taking the bad things as things to work on. Sure my leg yields last night weren’t perfect, mostly because of my allowing the horse to lead with his shoulder but we got one or two good ones and had a good trot tempo with energy throughout the lesson. So today I’ll think about the good and leave the “needing to be worked on” for another day.

Now that I've got this sorted out, I need to tackle my issues with contact.

First Post . . . Intro

I decided to start a blog to record my experiences learning to ride. Really learning to ride, not just standing and sitting in time to the trot, or using the right rein to turn right, but really ride. I am taking dressage lessons with an awesome trainer and riding her awesome horse. I am learning to be a rider instead of a passenger.

I am a full time univeristy student, at the moment I am only able to ride once a week due to finances and time. I feel that this is a mixed blessing, on one hand I am unable to get as fit as I would like sometimes I feel as though I am not really progressing, but on the other hand I get a week in between rides to mull over what went wrong and fill my head with theory. I have been riding for . . . it'll be three years in June. Started riding at a not so great riding school, focus was really on jumping, by a year of riding I was jumping jusps that were 2'6" and cantering smaller courses. After a particularily bad lesson, riding a green mare involving 2 whips and the instructor chasing me to get over jumps I left the "bad" barn. I started lessons at my current barn with the H/J coach riding their H/J school horses, I rode with her for 6 months, then this injured myself so had to stop riding for a while, just before my injury I had paid for a package of lessons, during my break the H/J trainer moved away, so I came back and took the rest of the lessons with the dressage trainer. Have been riding with her since the fall. Was riding the H/J schoolies but am now riding my instructors thoroughbred gelding.

"T" is a 13 year old chestnut thoroughbred, he's schooling second level dressage with some higher level movements. My instructor bought him as a 5 year old as a PSG prospect. She things that he had an undetected injury at some point so he had some pain issues in his right front coffin bone. So canter on the right lead is a bit funny for him. He isn't an easy ride, he's quite demanding of his rider and I'm not always up to the job especially in canter, he's actually my dressage trainers horse and has been for a few years, he wants me to ride like my trainer but I can't always go that.

He's teaching me to "ride every stride".

I'm doing my best.