You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2009.
Designed by yours truly.
May 9-10, 2009
Marshfield Fairgrounds
140 Main Street, Rt 3A
Marshfield, MA
This is USEF and USDF recognized. There are 200 riders entered for this two day event.
Spectators are welcome!
Shameless self-promotion As a volunteer I did the page layout and design of their show program.
That’s right, 20-meter circles rock! Gasp! Excuse me, but did you just hear that? Did I just say 20-meter circles rock??? Has someone been playing mind altering tapes while I’m asleep? No seriously it’s true. As of today’s lesson they rock. Next week they’ll probably return to their rightful place as my arch nemesis.
It was a great lesson. I rode the sweet Quarter horse and we had the ring mostly to ourselves. We warmed up traveling the full ring then started 20-meter trot circles. I didn’t even flinch when my instructor said, “Pick up a 20-meter circle at A.” What’s up with that? I didn’t once hear “Get to your touching points!” (OK, maybe once…or twice).
Starting at A we picked up the circle, then took the track when we returned to A. Bending through the corner we proceeded to B. Rinse and repeat at B, C and E. I should’ve been dizzy and a stressed out mess but instead I found myself saying “Circles ROCK!”
I found that I wasn’t looking at her head/neck at all. I was truly looking around at the line of travel. My mind was quiet. I was quiet. Wow! Maybe I have it all wrong and being alone in the ring is what rocks!
We changed things up with change of rein across the diagonal. At the end I also had to switch to a few 10-meter circles because she was starting to hang on my left rein unresponsive to my half halts. At this point we also did almost stops from trot to walk to get her to wait for me.
I then moved on to the canter. On the 20-meter circle of course! My canter work has been sadly neglected. My instructor says it’s like I’m two different riders. My trot work is quite good (her words) and at a higher level and my canter is…well…lacking. We get so focused on the trot work that there are times when I never canter. Other times it’s tossed at the end when students are switching around for the next lesson and I’m an exhausted puddle. (You would be too at the age of cough, cough forty-two after an intense one hour lesson.)
It was good actually. I didn’t tense up when she said “Do a 20-meter circle and canter at E.” Canter? Gulp. OK, maintain a good trot. If I don’t have a good trot I can’t have a good canter. Keep a relaxed thigh in order to maintain a nice long leg. Keep the bend of the inside rein, half-halt with my outside, allow the head to nod. Good, good. Oh, my God! Her back is coming up and she’s in a rounded frame! Circles rock!
We ended it there. My instructor said it’s the best canter work I’ve done. Yah!
I just came across a Sport Psychologist’s website for dressage riders and thought I’d share.
“Sport Psychologists consider the equestrian sports to be one of the most psychologically demanding of all of the sports. This is because half of the competitive team is a very large animal that can be very unpredictable. We all admire the mental toughness of athletes such as golfer Tiger Woods. Yet how mentally tough would Tiger be if he was never sure, on any given day, whether his golf club might want to spook at the ball! Retaining strong mental and emotional resilience despite this unpredictability is a tremendous goal. Yet our mental performance is something we do not have a great deal of control over in this unpredictable sport.”
“There are many ways in which Sport Psychology can help the rider’s performance.
The Over Analyzer You think too much. You need to ride in a state of focus with only a few thoughts. Balance these thoughts with a lot of images and a trust in your feel. Too much thinking on the left side of the brain can block the right brain’s body intelligence from full expression. The Over Analyzer needs to learn to condense their analysis into a few key words, and then allow their body’s innate intelligence to express itself. (That’s me!)
The Distracted A rider who is extremely distracted. She’s aware of everything going on around her. She sees children playing on a nearby lawn, the grounds keeper emptying garbage cans and a horse in the warm-up misbehaving. This lack of focus means incorrect geometry and the lack of quality in the horse’s work. The horse will also be distracted. Leading to a vicious circle. The rider looks for possible distractions that might upset her horse, which meant she was not attending to her horse’s connection, which meant her horse was more easily distracted! (My best friend!)
The Under Thinker relies too much on natural ability and feel, and does not fully utilize their ability to plan and strategize. It is wonderful to have a natural ability but there is more you can do to prepare for a competitive performance.
The Blank Slate has all the best intentions to prepare for competition. Unfortunately all their training goes out the window once the bell rings. There are few dressage experiences more horrifying than realizing you have no idea where you are or what you are supposed to be doing. This person often experiences performance anxiety. When the brain feels this anxiety, it immediately reverts to a primitive state. All intelligent thought shuts down as the brain withdraws to its more primitive brain centers. Your body prepares for fight or flight and immediately forgets the dressage test you have so diligently studied.
Focus Fatigue Even the best riders in the world struggle to maintain their focus. The brain is like a muscle. It must be trained to retain focus for long periods of time, despite the stress and pressure of competition.”
I have issues. Believe me, I have issues. Riding issues. After my lessons I replay everything in my head. Again and again. Analyzing each move I made or didn’t make. What I lack is on the horse experimenting or playing time. So, I approached my husband and told him that I need more riding time. I sweetened the pot by saying that I’d pay for my extra riding time with my freelance money. Extra income not household income. He agreed and I’ll be riding an extra day each week for three months.
A dark cloud. Tonight was my first practice ride. At the stroke of five I dashed to the ladies room to change clothes and hustled to my Jeep. A dark cloud was following me though. Literally. It was spitting all day. Not a problem though. I can ride in the indoor if it’s bad. I cut across town and jump on the highway. Merging into rush hour traffic. Did I say rush hour? I mean S-L-O-W hour. I spent about ten minutes or so creeping along in the fast lane. Watching the wipers sweep my windshield when time froze. No more wipers. Frozen in mid-swipe. Still raining. I exited the highway, called the barn and then a friend. She was meeting me there. She has issues too. Good friend that she is she offered to come and get me so that we could still ride. About a half hour later I was on my way again.
Nice and quiet. The barn was nice and quiet. Only one instructor and student were in the ring. A boarder was putting her things away. Nice. We tacked up and entered the ring. I worked on broken lines, quarterlines, serpentines, transitions, a few 20 meter circles but she wasn’t quite bending correctly. I switched to a 10 meter circle then decided to do a 10 meter figure eight. She was so much better at this point. That is until I reached the other half of the figure eight and the wash stall snagged her attention. She practically stopped and stood there but I pushed her on and circled back to reassure her that everything was okay.
We got off to a rough start but everything’s okay.
Riding a dressage school master is like flying first class. Once you have a taste you’ll never want to return to coach. Of course I don’t even own a horse so, dressage diva in the making that I am, I’ll take anything I can get.
The warm up rider. Never underestimate the value of a warm up rider. I lucked out that the school master was already out for a lesson just prior to mine. All the other schoolies were being prepped for a show so I got to ride him. This was both good and bad. Good because he’s awesome to ride and warmed up. Bad because it’s been two weeks since I last rode. Can you say rusty? I’m going to ache later.
The gist of things. Away we went to warm up in walk and trot. We then started to trot down the centerline and leg yield out to the rail. I was having trouble containing his left shoulder and I was waiting too long to start the leg yield so our angle was too steep. Funny thing is that my instructor didn’t really mention any of this. I was telling her and the student watching what I was doing wrong.
To change things up we picked up the 20-meter circle at C. Amazing how I didn’t dread them this time. Do you think it has something to do with riding a horse that knows how to bend? I was looking a bit too far around the circle for this particular horse so I wasn’t hitting the touching points. I needed to bring my eyes back to about a quarter of the distance. The schoolie I normally ride needs a half circle.
The finale. As we trotted the circle the school master started to mess with me. All the sudden the tempo changed and although I was still trotting it was much slower and BIG. I sat the HUGE wave up and down with a puzzled expression on my face. Then I broke into giggles, almost fell off, and said “What was that?” My instructor and the other student grinned back and said “Passage!” I’m hooked! I did a little more passage and the horse seemed to enjoy it as much as I did.
Watch out Dancing with the Stars! I can dance with horses. Sorta.
Do you think a school horse can remember a student it sees once a week?
My sub-instructor recommended that I do carrot stretches with the school horse I’ve been riding. “It’s very important for the rider and horse to warm up and stretch.” I happen to have some horse cookies that a friend gave me for Christmas. (The perfect gift actually. Something I’d never buy. Like scratch tickets. Don’t laugh…it’s true. I never buy them.) So, why not try it? Bribery can’t hurt and maybe I’ll conquer those circles yet.
So for the past month I’ve done the carrot stretch…er, Buttons has. She’s a wonderful, sweet and willing Quarter horse. Actually, she’s everything I’ve never wanted in a horse. Mare, gray,…did I say mare? I’ve discovered that she’s very smart though. Last Saturday I greeted her at the stall door then rummaged through my Ariat grooming bag for a cookie that I placed in my pocket. I then grabbed a curry and brush and entered her stall. To my amazement she glanced at me then stretched to the left!
I guess that answers my question. Buttons does remember me, the carrot stretches and the cookies! Life is good.
Sally Swift died April 2 at the age of 95. Born on April 20, 1913, as Sarah Rodman Swift. At the age of 62, Sally was the Founder of Centered Riding, Inc., a non-profit organization that oversees the worldwide membership of instructors and horse riders. In 2006 she was inducted into the United States Dressage Federation’s Hall of Fame. She also authored two books Centered Riding and Centered Riding II – Further Explorations.
Plans for a memorial service in honor of Swift are underway and will be announced at centeredriding.org.
In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to Centered Riding, Inc. P.O. Box 157, Perkiomenville, PA 28074; Windham County Humane Society, 916 W. River Road, Brattleboro, VT 05301; The Heifer International Foundation, 1015 Louisiana St., P.O. Box 727, Little Rock, AR 72203; or Amnesty International, 16th Floor, 5 Penn Plaza, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10001.
Sometimes I find myself twisted up like a pretzel while riding. You’ve been there remember? No? Well let me jump start your memory. You’re trying to make yet another dreaded perfect 20-meter circle. On the open side instead of looping around your horse strolls on down the rail. Your perfect circle has just become a fish hook. OK possibly a keyhole if you were able to pull off a last minute save.
The twist In essence my rib cage has collapsed to the inside, my weight has shifted to the outside stirrup, the outside rein may’ve crossed the withers, my inside leg has turned out and drifting toward the horse’s shoulder and my eyes are looking maybe steps ahead of me.
In response the horse has bulged out or fallen in. When I collapse on the inside, my weight is in the outside stirrup causing the horse to step in that direction to balance himself (think of a leg yield). My outside rein crosses the withers and no longer contains his outside shoulder and my outside leg isn’t there either. My inside leg has turned out and rotated my hip. I just opened the door and the horse strolled through it. Oh, yeah and my eyes pointed him there.
Now it’s time to shout. To fix my collapsed rib cage I need to remember to step into my inside stirrup. Not a lot. Just a little. Enough to elongate that side (and keep my bra strap up). Keep my weight centered over the saddle. Forget about the curve and ride straight. Then remember to keep my elbows near my hips. Think glued there. No better yet rubber cement. Then I’ll remember to keep them elastic not stiff. My inside leg should turn in to indicate the bend. Keep my eyes looking a half circle ahead of us. The horse will follow my eyes.
Eureka! I had a great lesson applying these techniques. I found that I had to think of leg yielding or maintaining straightness on the quarterline instead of thinking about circles. The more I think about circles the more stressed out I get. The more I over think them and become a contortion artist. I had great changes of bend on a figure eight too. My instructor didn’t really harp on touching points so something must’ve been right. Oh, and I had the ring to myself.
Lendon Gray penned a monthly series of training articles in Practical Horseman and is the author of the book Lessons with Lendon.
Calling all Dressage Divas! I just received an email from Dressage Today announcing a essay contest (200 words or less) to win a week of lessons with Lendon Gray and a Bates Innova Dressage Saddle! Woo hoo!
“This is your chance to make that dream a reality! Write a short essay telling us why you’d like to spend a week with dressage Olympian Lendon Gray. The writer of the winning essay will win a week with Gray and a Bates Innova Dressage Saddle.”
Enter before August 1, 2009. Click here for details.
I wonder if you need to be a horse owner? After all I pretend to own. Pretty smart in today’s economy, huh? Do you think I could bring my favorite schoolie?
Good luck to everyone and keep me posted if you end up as the winner.
