Horse Blogging
Show season is about to start. (It's amazing how fast winter flies by every year.) So Monaco and I are gearing up and working hard on turning him into a solid FEI-level horse. This means working on making his gaits more brilliant and his collection and connection more consistent. He doesn't naturally have the best gaits in the world, but when we work really hard at it, he can be awesome. Last year, our first year showing at Prix St George, was a bit of a mixed bag. He'd have moments of brilliance followed by stiffening and loss of contact and general ugliness. This year needs to be better.
We've been working recently on Intermediare I movements, which is the next level after Prix St Georges. A good rule of thumb is to show one level below what you're schooling, so I'm hoping this is a good sign. The trickiest movement is the canter half pass. You go up the centerline at the canter, half pass right to the quarterline, change the bend, switch leads, and immediately half pass left to the other quarterline (crossing over the centerline at X, in the middle of the arena), change bend, switch leads, and half right again to the centerline, change bend, switch leads, and turn left at the end of the arena. I'd say that the real trick is to keep up the energy and the rhythm while doing all of this, except that the actual half passes, the changes of bend, and the switching leads are tricky in and of themselves. The whole movemenet is basically one big pain in the ass.
I've been really lax this winter at practicing moving from one halfpass to the other, so when Teri had me work on the zig zag last week, the results are pretty diasterous. So on Monday when I came out for my non-lesson ride, I dug in my heels and worked on it. Rhythm. Canter-canter-canter. Half-pass, half-pass, half-pass. Change lead, keeping the rhythm. Half-pass, half-pass, half-pass. Change lead, keeping the rhythm. Again. The advice of my favorite clinician, Mike Etherly, kept whispering in my ear: when you change leads, the shoulders needs to go from leading in one direction to leading in the other direction. This means the haunches need to pushed all the way over as you change leads, like skidding out when you make a tight turn. Keep contact with the outside rein, always. Keep his head up. Make sure he's really flexed in the new direction, bent like a croissant. My work was rewarded on Wednesday during my lesson. I told Teri that we had worked on it. She nodded, "Mmm. Hmmm." Not very impressed. But when we did one during the lesson, she changed her mind, "Wow. You have been working on the zig zag. That last one was the best one I've seen you do. Give him a break and tell him he's a good boy." I did, and it was a good moment. I am so very lucky to have such a marvelous horse to ride.