SEL
Well-Known Member
EEEEK I have just booked on! With Amber!! Very excited. Really hope it's as good as it sounds.
Whole clinic or specific day? Just down the road from me so might spectate....
EEEEK I have just booked on! With Amber!! Very excited. Really hope it's as good as it sounds.
you know you'll have to take detailed notes for your mammoth report afterwards
I suppose it makes sense. You have to ride the horse you have under you. I know mine can be very soft and supple one day and then not so much a couple of days later. I'm glad you're happy with the instructor, she sounds good.Ok more dressage thoughts.... At Brand Hall we scored 35% which is still not very good but is 7% better than at Somerford! And I have been averaging 38 dressage all last season so this is a step in the right direction. I have been schooling Amber strong leg into firm hand since my last lesson.
Then yesterday I had second lesson with my new instructor. She didn't remember me from last time (she teaches about 10 people a day when she runs clinic days!) and was saying from the beginning SOFTER HANDS, SOFTER HANDS, GIVE FORWARD. And also SLOW HER DOWN.... Which was great but pretty much the opposite of what she said last time which was ride much more forward into a firm contact. I stopped and asked her why the advice was so different and she then remembered me and said 'because your horse is different today!" Last time Amber was strung out and lazy behind and braced against the hand. This time she was active behind, moving freely and accepting the hand. So everything was lighter and softer. So the lesson felt 100% better and Amber gave me the nicest work I've ever had from her. But left me realising again that I can't feel what is going on so can't adapt to what she needs on different days. So I am happy but also frustrated! I feel like I will never learn feel since I've been riding 30 years and don't have it yet! But I am happy with my new instructor and feel like we could work well together, Especially if she remembers who I am next time!
It would be fun to meet HHOers. I wont know anybody there but assume I will make friends. Other people will be on their own I guess
But left me realising again that I can't feel what is going on so can't adapt to what she needs on different days. So I am happy but also frustrated! I feel like I will never learn feel since I've been riding 30 years and don't have it yet! But I am happy with my new instructor and feel like we could work well together, Especially if she remembers who I am next time!
I'd guess you were so preoccupied about doing what you had been asked to do last time you rode with this instructor and reproducing that it's not that you didn't feel Amber was different it's that you weren't engaging with her - your head was full of strong hand strong leg
On those occasions she's probably on the forehand but light because she's not going forward and actually imo that's not a bad way to work in - a little long a little low and loose. Then though do you keep the lightness if pick her up a bit and ask her to vary the stride etcsometimes I think it feels lovely because she is light in the hand but actually her legs are trailing out behind her. I need to get better at feeling what her hind legs are doing.
if you've been riding her a bit more ... "positively" since last time then maybe she's already adapted to that and is more active etc as a result, and therefore you need to adapt your riding to take into account the effect of that bit of training you've already done.
try and get some vids of schooling at home - usually when it looks nice it feels nice too and you can compare what you were feeling to how she was going.