Take two

Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride,Friendship without envy, Or beauty without vanity? Here, where grace is served with muscleAnd strength by gentleness confined. He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity.There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent.There is nothing so quick, nothing more patient.~Ronald Duncan, "The Horse," 1954 (So inspirational!!!)

Friday was my second lesson with Jenn. And it seems I need more practice between lessons...I only say this because I was still a little rough around the edges during my lesson. Arranging time to practice isn't the hard part....REMEMBERING what to practice is! haha. The horse she teaches me on is already completely trained up to level II. So, I just have to put the peices together and basically start from scratch on the horse I practice on. haha Jenn says it's like a cookie, her horse Odessa (the one I'm learning on) is a "good cookie". And riding any other horse is like putting all the ingredients together correctly...which will take a TON of practice and hard work. I was thinking that it might be easier to remember what I learn if I videotape a lesson every once in a while. That way I could see the things that I need to work on.

During our time on Friday, Jenn pointed out many things that I need to work on. One being my seat, it's not completely formed yet, and only practice will help with that. Another is remembering when to use the correct aid...that's a tough one, especially when I'm already concentrating on many other things. It's just like a balancing act, the foundation must be secure before you can add things on top; creating a masterpiece. I also got to practice a beginner level test, one that includes walk, trot, 20m circles at the trot, and going in and out of the arena. It seems pretty simple...but it was a little difficult at first :P Just gotta practice, practice, practice!!!!!! hahahahaha

Sorry I don't have much of an outline of what I learned, I will try to put one together for my next post :)

And School Begins...well, school-ing

SO, I had my first dressage lesson EVER on Friday!!! It wasn't quite as difficult as I thought it would be. My imagination was going wild with the possiblities of what I thought was going to happen...
Jenn: Keep your heels down!!! chin up! look forward...make that horse march! you have SO many bad habbits I don't even know where to start! FOCUS!!!!!!
Me: (sheepishly) ok

hahahhahaha.....that is far from what actually happened, thankfully.

As it turned out Jennifer, my Dressage trainer, is so sweet, kind, and understanding! For all the knowledge she holds, she sure is humble about things. She and I had a bunch of good laughs that day...especially when I made mistakes.

A brief overview of what I learned:

Since it was my first time riding in a dressage arena the lettering was a bit confusing haha. I'll put up a picture to illustrate some of the things I'll be listing.

• Gait: any of the manners in which a horse moves, as a walk, trot, canter, gallop
• Tempo: The rate of speed at which a given gait is riden. Collected=faster tempo, Extended=slower tempo
• Walk - Medium, Collected, Free (extended)
• Trot - Working, Collected, Extended
• Transitions: Changing from one gait to the next.
• Posting on the diagonal: Rising from the saddle along with the brief extension of the outside leg of the horse. (not to be confused with the diagonals across the arena!)

Here's a diagram of a typical 20X40 meter dressage arena:

Ok, so do you see the giant X created by the two lines crossing at the little x? Those are the diagonals. The arena is split into three 20m circles.

• Change of rein: Crossing the arena on a diagonal to change the direction of motion.

tips:

• Looking ahead: this helps in bending through corners and making transitions. ex. bending through a corner opens your shoulders and hips which alows the horse more freedom of movement.
  

Needless to say, I learned a lot. I was so glad to hear that I hadn't picked up too many bad habbits in my riding over the last 6 years!! Looking forward to this sunny week and a chance to keep on practicing :)