My second lesson after my five month hiatus from riding was pretty wonderful!  It's nice to know that I still have my seat after all that time off.  Today Hank and I connected really well on several occasions and had some of the best left lead canter that I have ever had on him.  There were also some beautiful moments when he really loaded his hind end and we were floating around the ring at a magical trot.  The whole ride was not amazing but the moments that were more than make up for all the "OK" moments.  I LOVE riding dressage!!!!

Thats great I'm glad you had a good lesson.

Yay!!!!

Great hearing about your ride dd !!

The 'beautiful moments' really are something to be treasured - so glad that you are back in the saddle again - keep up the lesson reports - love to hear how you are doing even though I'm still green with envy about your heated arena  

Lucky you! I miss my lessons and wish I could get back into some, but so far that doesn't look like it's going to happen anytime soon.

I am hoping to attend a clinic at the farm sometimes in February, and another one off the farm in April!

Way to go DD - for sure the great moments make you forget the ordinary bits!

AND a heated indoor you are spoilt!

So who is HANK??

 DD, just loved reading this...like I was there riding with you!

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I definitely live for those rides! ^_^ They just seem to completely make up for the 20 past bad rides you've had, haha.

Don't you love those moments!  Solo and I had one last night too -- a lovely ride where he came down onto the bit and was using his back and giving me a lovely trot.  Wish I was doing lessons.......but maybe soon!

Solaris, while you were posting this message I was actually cooling Hank down from an even better lesson that the one I had when I started this thread.  Thursday night about 20 minutes in to the lesson I connected my seat bones with Hank's back in a way that I don't think I have in over 2 years of riding.  It was one of those light bulb moments where suddenly we were communicating on a whole new level.  We did a shoulder in down the long side that made me grin like a kid in a canding store.  It was the ride where I felt the most like part of a team working together.  The best part was that there were times after I found that wonderful center where I would "bobble" and lose it again but then I could come back to it because I knew what it felt like.  We even got the left lead canter on the first try which is the biggest challeng Hank and I have.  I never get him bent around my leg  correctly for the left lead but we did it smoothly and gracefully Thursday night.  I am now beginning to understand what it means "to ask with your seat".  We had some really fun and effective lengthenings across the diagonal.  I guess it must have looked good (or else really bad, but I don't think so) because I noticed a couple of people stood and watched for about 10 minutes at the end of the arena.  I wish one of them had been using a video camera.  I did get to see us a few times clearly in the mirror and I actually looked like a real rider.  TOOOOOOOOO much fun.

AMM, Hank is a 16.3HH sorrel and white paint whom I ride in my lessons.  He is my trainers schooling horse and is trained WAY beyond what I am capable of riding right now.  He probably was not as excited during the lesson as I was since he knows he is capable of all of these moves he is just waiting for me to ask correctly.  I think the excitiement and the frustratiton of dressage all at once is that it will never all be perfect and that there is always something more to strive for in a ride.

Just writing about all of this makes me so excited about my lesson tomorrow night.  Hopefully I will be able to find that seat again and we can move on from there.  Hard to beieve this post comes from a 40 year old man and not some excited 11 year old.  LOL!!!!  Riding dressage is my therapy I think.

 DD, I just love your posts -- soon you will be rivalling AMM with lesson details

Speaking of details can you try to explain to us what actually happened to get that connection?  I know that several of us are riding vicariously through AMM's & your lessons, so 'fess up DD, communicate with us so that next time we do ride (most of us are not fortunate enough to have a heated arena ) we'll then be able to try to communicate with our horse too.

Well, this is called Bragging Rights so I am just going to continue this thread.  Fortunately, since my hiatus from riding I just seem to keep building on what I did in the last lesson.  All right, my lesson on Wednesday night was a bit of a back slide but not far.  Tonight however we matched the great moments from last week and surpassed them.

       Tonight I was able to communicate with Hank and get the best canter work both directions that he and I have ever consistently had.  We have had brief moments of it before but I was never able to maintain it.  Tonight I felt what it feels like to have gentle contact with your hands but still really have contact.  It's like when Sally Swift says you hold the reins like you are holding two little birds.  I felt that.  I am also really beginning to feel how to use my seat effectively.  We cantered a broken line both directions tonight.  That is a first for us.  Usually I get Hank, or any other horse, to canter the first leg of a broken line and then we either continue across the diagonal or break in to a trot.  We did have some moments in canter tonight where Hank broke but unlike before I was able to quickly pick up the canter, even the left lead, and have him on the aids the whole time.  OK, maybe not always the whole time but more than he wasn't on the aids.  We also had some really fun canters down the long side where I was able to control his speed with my seat.  It's sooooo exciting to finally after 2 and 1/2 years to begin to feel like I am really riding and not just getting random happy moments from the horse.  The really great canter moments were when it felt like we were just floating.

      OH!!!  We also did some wonderful flying changes tonight.  I was asking for them I just didn't realize I was asking for them.  Two of them were when my trainer was trying to get us to canter a serpentine all on the right lead.  Well both time we crossed the center line Hank did a wonderful flying change.  My trainer laughed and said that at least they both were clean.  Then we tried it again and I got the first half right but the second time we crossed CL Hank did another flying change.  That time I knew it was going to happen because I felt my seat bones shift right before he did it.  My trainer loved that one and said it was beautifully up hill and clean.  After my lesson tonight my trainer said if we continue like this we could show 3rd level this summer.  I DON'T think so!!!!  I have never shown.  I am certainly not going to enter the show ring at 3rd level.  My trainer did point out though that with Hank I won't be able to show training level.  He is far too collected.  Guess my first foray in to the show ring will have to be at 1st level if I am going to show on Hank.  Too funny.

I would love it if someone else would jump in here and share how their lessons are going as well.  Right now I feel like I am creating a blog and I would much rather be part of a discussion.  Phyxius, where are you?  Come back and tell me how you and Peanut are doing.

     Tonight,  I had another great lesson on  Hank.  The hard part is that now that my trainer knows that I can get Hank to truly carry and be through in his back it is expected to be a big part of our lesson.  Tonight we worked very hard on me feeling what it is like to have Hank on the aids, forward, and round.  The hardest part is keeping him that way through transitions.    We did get a couple of lovely canter to trot transitions and even one very uphill trot to canter transition.  I also heard a lot of "HALT!!!!  OK, now canter.  I didn't say trot!!!  HALT!!!!  Canter!"  We did it correctly a couple of times and boy is that a fun feeling.  Just the forward power of going from a halt straight in to a canter is pretty amazing.  I am still figuring out true contact and how to maintain it.  I hope I feel confident in it before I die.  I am also really beginning to get a feel of control with the seat bone.  Boy is that an amazing thing.  Talk about getting the horse underneath you.  I think my lessons are going to be harder now because my trainer is really pushing me.  The great part is that I am having more and more light bulb moments in each lesson because all of those things he has been telling me and things I have been reading are beginning to come together while I am on the horse.  I was stupid happy after my lesson tonight.

I am stupid jealous that you are taking dressage lessons, LOL   I'm glad to see you're still out there, DD, and taking lessons again (didn't you stop for awhile?).  I can understand the "stupid happy" comment, but regarding training my filly and we have a breakthrough moment.  Just makes you giddy when things click, doesn't it? Actually I'd love to take some dressage lessons, or English lessons at the least. Maybe this spring I'll have some wiggle room in my budget to fit in some lessons somewhere - right now with the price of hay I just have no extra $$ for such "friviolity", hahaha. 

Yay, exciting!  I was all set to start dressage lessons again too, before my silly horse decided he wanted a new saddle instead.    Back to being patient...