Bailey and the Indoor 2016

I realized while riding yesterday that while our flatwork training may not look all that different to folks on the ground, Bailey has made huge strides in the last year. Maybe it was the barn change, and maybe it was finally getting old enough to brain, but BB is really riding like a grown up horse.

This time last year, we were struggling with major "the number you have dialed is not in service" problems with contact. Bailey would tune me out, grab the bit, get looky and braced and then explode the minute something sensory set her off. She was super distractable, and I was so focused on keeping her packaged that I did a lot of riding around with what I now realize is false contact and getting overly fixated on keeping her head down.

As much as I love these pictures, she's still behind the vertical, albeit the test in the lower photo had plenty of non-behind-the-vertical moments, as well, and that ride was the product of several weeks of dressage boot camp, and after that... we kind of lost our mojo. I don't have any images from last winter, or from this year at all, but I can tell you... it hasn't looked like this:

Proof we weren't totally behind the bit all of the time. 

 It took riding in the Micklem the other week to really make me realize that, but even when she takes a good contact, it's not a confident contact. She gets flustered when asked to weight the bit, and a lot of the time, her tongue comes out as a result - almost like she goes "with all of this contact and bit and stuff, there's no room for my tongue". We've been working on it since then, and the picture is slowly coming together (though it's been hard to tell, since the mirrors are fogged over from cold).

Last night Bailey did a number of surprising things; she didn't jump sideways, throw her head up or even pop her shoulder when the BO came through a door with some horses. This is a huge improvement, even from a few weeks ago. When she did find something worthy of looking at (in this case, some very scary frost on the wall), she turned her head, and then I was able to close my leg, and the bend reasserted itself and we moved on. Transitions were calmer, and more through, instead of the back-jarring house of cards collapsing that they had been. Transitions were also prompt, and while she still used my hands as an e-bake sometimes, I'll take hanging on me over sucking back, at this point.

I received my 14mm bridoon in the mail the other day, and I'm looking forward to getting it on a bridle to test out my tongue theory. I need to get into the habit of videoing my rides, too, since I'm still waiting to not feel super poor so I can take some more lessons. Now that I've got my dressage saddle back, I think we can get into our flatwork that much more and come out next spring that much stronger and more correct. It's so strange to still be working on something so basic, while also knowing that my horse has a pretty much confirmed and lovely leg yield, shoulder in and that we're productively schooling haunches in, walk-to-canter transitions and even a little walking half pass.

Why are the basics so hard? Do they ever stop being hard?

Through

I rode last night and it was actually a pretty awesome thing. I arrived just in time for the lesson kids to be wrapping up, and my horse was hardly muddy and actually seemed to be interested in me. I rode Monday, but with the deathcold, I rode for about 20 minutes and most of it I struggled to think and breathe at the same time. Last night I was feeling much more like myself - and I was ready to take on the inconsistency that I had felt in the bridle the last two rides I've had with BB. 

We started with a lot of walking warm up, and then trot and canter. I really focused on my own position issues (leaning forward, not keeping my heel down, leg under me and thigh applied. hands going everywhere, shoulders caved in...) and tried to use my whole leg to push the red mare up to and through the bridle, while also keeping my reins short and thumbs up. She's always been light, and unlike Foxie, has never really been the time to "hold" the bit and the contact like a handshake. I noticed two very positive things from these changes I made last night.

The first was that I was able to push her through a lot of lookiness and spookiness. I would prefer to not have to "muscle" her through turns or times when her attention wanders, but at the same time, we didn't lose nearly so much work, even though the doors were open and she was very interested in what was going on outside. 

The second was that I felt that I was actually able to push her into the bridle - meaning that she wasn't behind the vertical avoiding a more firm contact, and even when her head came up, I still had her face and was able to push her forward, and bam, the poll would relax and she'd go back to work. From this work, I was able to do a lot last night - it wasn't nearly so hard as I was expecting to get her into this much more malleable and workable frame and attitude. 

We schooled a rather poor dressage test (I mean, spooking in the two door corners, but it was generally obedient) and I actually got some collected canter to extended on one lead - the whole cadence changed, which was awesome to feel and hear as she's struggled with the canter since we started trying it. She also gave me some lovely lateral work at the walk and trot, and even did some somewhat-not-awful shoulder in, and really showed off with some stretchy trot at the end that was actually in the contact. 

Moral of the story: maybe I should ride more correctly before I see the problem as 100% caused by my horse. She's a weirdie, but a goodie. She also will probably end up clipped because I'm OVER her taking her approximately 18 years to dry.