Well dd, unfortunately we all are not as priveleged as you     Some of us don't have an indoor arena, much less a heated arena , for year round lessons

Come spring I'll gladly share my lessons (highs & lows) with you - just be sure to keep this thread going until then (maybe Phyxius is caught in the throes of winter too & will join us in the spring)

 Really - do keep up this thread (even if it does seem like a personal blog) - I love reading about your lessons & how excited you get over your accomplishments - I truly am riding vicariously through you & Hank..

I love love love Halt/Canter transitions  I don't know if it's because Bailey is a QH but that is probably his most awesome move 

Well if this is going to be my lesson blog I guess I have to include the bad with the good.  Tonight was pretty much a mess.  All that lovely centered positiong I have been talking about in the last few posts was not there tonight so we really were not communicating well at all.  I did find the correct position for a little while and we had some lovely canter to the left but it was not very long lived.  I think maybe I was just tired and distracted.  My day was not great and traffic was horrible getting to the barn.  Then we used a different girth and it was thicker than I am used to feeling under my feet and we put a different bit on Hank tonight.  I tried very hard to relax and go with it all but I kept thinking that maybe I was not being sensitive enough with the new bit.  Now that I look back at all of this I really was focusing on the wrong things and probably tensed up during the lesson.  Oh yeah, the horse eating frost spot was back on the arena wall again tonight as well.  We made several unplanned departures from the track while I was trying to get him to trot past that spot.  I did finally get him to go past it but it was not exactly with the most subtle of cue/aids.  On the bright side my next lesson can onlly look up.  LOL!!

I'll add one since I actually got a lesson this week -- Sunday we had our first jumper lesson.  Hard hard hard!!!  I'm so used to long slow hunter lines and sweepy turns and about 10 years between each jump.  So my eye is slow slow slow.  Trainer would explain to me what I was going to do and it all sounded easy enough:  keep your hand up, leg on, chest up, eye locked on landing and next jump.  Horse up and forward and compact underneath you.  Ok, no big deal, I can do that.

Pffffft!!  IT SUCKS BEING REALLY TALL!  It is so hard to hold your upper body up and keep from dropping your hands for counter balance!  So because I have ginormous tall torso, I'm in the habit of dropping my hands onto Solo's neck for support so I don't catch his mouth over a jump.  Unfortunately, this throws him on his forehand after the jump.  He, being the wonderhorse he is, saved my butt every time and only pulled one rail I totally screwed him up on.  But me........my lower leg was loose and my stupid eyes were still slowwwwwwwwwwww!!!  And for some reason, whenever I start a jump course, my brain totally turns to mush and I seem to only be capable of thinking of getting to the next jump alive.

Positive:  I now have several things to target and work on that are easy to practice and a much better understanding of how make our stadium rounds efficient and accurate!    

dressagedude:

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.

    

So funny that I replied after the first post and went back to read more and found this!

I am so proud of you and so happy for you!! 

Peanut and I had an okay time of it until January...then the weather got crappy and we've had to try to work around it a bit. (Not everyone has a heated indoor ) I did get to ride in my friend's indoor the other day after a two week break because of a couple weeks of constant below freezing temps, you can't ride when the ground is uneven and rock solid. 

We were almost done with our 2 hour lesson by this point, so Peanut was tired and only put in the minimum effort for a 2'3" wall.

 We've did a couple walk/canter transitions in our last lesson and it's amazing how when you aren't praciticing them how much harder they get.  Our changes are terrific though and Peanut is getting better about counter canter too.  Like Hank, if I shift the tiniest bit he'll execute a gorgeous flying change, so I have to ride very correctly.

Phyxius/Christina!!!!!!!!!   So great to hear from you.  Glad to hear things are going well with Peanut.  Even the heated indoor was having a challenge keeping up with the below zero weather we have been having here lately.  I have another lesson scheduled for Sunday night.  My plan is to be able to come on here and boast about a vast improvement from that las fiasco last night.  Keep checking in Phyxius!!!  We miss you around here.

Since there seems to be some grumbling about me not posting about my lessons here is another installment.  There is really nothing exciting to report.  Right now I think we are at a plateau and I need to work thru it before we/I can move on as a rider.  I have been able to ride two horses for the last couple of weeks.  Hank, whom I have mentioned often, and Jewel who is a friesian/oldenburg cross my trainer has in full time training.  It is great because they are two very different horse.  Right now I am working on keeping contact consistent and steady.  My trainer does not accept mediocre anymore, which is good, but makes my lessons a real challenge.  I am getting much better at knowing when I am crooked now I just have to fix it more quickly.  Jewel and I have had some really amazing straight canter work lately.  Her canter is huge but when I get her straight it feels like we are just floating around the ring.  Jewel and I have also done some really fun lateral work i.e. leg yield and shoulder in when I get her straight.  Hank and I also did some lovely counter canter yesterday.  Made it all the way around the arena and across a long diagonal at counter canter.  The loop around the arena felt light and easy and then I got crooked on the diagonal and it started to feel like work again.  Hank and I also did some lovely floaty leg yields from 1/4 line to the wall yesterday.  I love it when I totally feel his hind leg cross undereneath my seat bones.  Now anyone else can feel free to jump in here and tell me about their lessons.  Phyxius, where are you?

Here's another video...Leg yeilds at the canter...totally did NOT work going to the right th first couple times.  Whew wee!  http://www.phyxius.smugmug.com/gallery/4484421_sQ5UV#264454880_2KrKX-A-LB

Then, I've ridden with Ray twice since then.  We did counter canter last week and this past Monday we worked on refining that counter canter by riding in a 20x40, riding a 10m half circle at C or A, hitting the quarterline at about F or H and then continuing in countercanter similar to a move in the prelim eventing dressage test.  We kept getting lead changes at the tight turn at F, assuming our turn at C was to wide we attempted cantering the full length of the arena, but half the width, so in a 10mx40m area.  Tracking left this was surprisingly easy.  The right lead was more difficult with Peanut getting stiffer as he got more tired.  We added 10m trot circles ridden in shoulderfore to help and called it a day.

*Oh to the view the above video you do need quicktime, which if you don't have is available as a free download from apple.com  This site is available even to military people, unlike youtube.

Phyxius, so exciting to hear from you again.  Unfortunately the video did not down load to my computer and I have not downloaded quicktime  yet so I haven't seen it.  It's great to hear about how you and Peanut are progressing.   Tonight we started out very slow working on getting bend to Hank's left side which is his stiff side.  We did a lot of walking circles with me only using contact on the inside rein and inside leg to get him to respond to my left leg.  It worked.  We got some very nice left lead canter later on and I was able to maintain it.  The really exciting part came when we changed directions to the right and worked up to the canter tonight.  I was able to get Hank so round and carrying so through on his hind end that I felt him literally come up in the wither and his whole body expanded.  He completely filled in every square millimeter between my legs and I had the most amazing light contact with him.  Then I went to do a downward trot transition and although I did not get it instantly I got the most amazing collected canter I have ever had on him.  I swear if his front end had gotten any lighter we would have been doing airs above the ground.  Then we moved effortlessly down in to the trot and floated around the arena for a full round.  At that point my trainer said "walk and give him all the rein.  It isn't going to get any better than that so let's stop."  I was floating for a while after that.  Maybe it isn't always effortless and fun but moments like that right lead canter make me realize that it is possible and that all of this hard and sometimes frustrating work really do pay off.

Hey DD, so I have finally caught bu with your lesson news - sounds good, well done and dont worry about the wheels falling off - happens to us ALL the time.

So we are coming up to our first comp of the year on Sunday, we have had a good prep although its been raining for the past couple of days have still managed to get some work in - have a lesson booked for the morning but dont know if we will make that if its raining and may have to just work at home - you know the lesson at 7am hahahah!

There will be piccies so keep an eye out in the RR thread later on Sunday - until then keep the 'blog' going with your lessons.

 AMM

Hey DD, I'll upload the video to YouTube... I kept meaning to and just haven't gotten around to it (I need to save it smaller to meet YouTube specifications.)  I wish I had taped my ride last night Peanut was VERY light.  We've been working no counter canter and 10m circles.

So, we would pick up the canter on a 20m circle, counter flex and spiral the circle down, true flexion and sprial back out and then ride the long side of the arena in shoulder-fore with slight outside flexion, basically a renvers in canter.  It was amazing how much more balanced this made him...and how much it also showed that Peanut is not a fan of moving laterally off of my leg at the canter.  Yay, more work!  But, boy oh boy do I love my pony.  I ride with Vanessa again April 17 and will try to get video. 

 I'm so happy you had a great lesson with Hank.  You need to get some photos and videos so we can live vicariously through you.  Take care kiddo I hope for another lesson/blog installment soon!

I finally got the video uploaded to YouTube...I had to trim it more.  They say you have a 10min limit, but mine was under and it still said rejected because of video length.  Pffft.  Now it's uploaded.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ecBoJeeFgMc

phyxius, once again thanx for sharing your lesson with us.  I learn so much watching other peoples lessons as well.  "outside shoulder back."  Seems like maybe I have heard that somewhere before.  LOL.  Peanut didn't seem as energetic in this vidoe as he he has in some of the others you have posted.  Maybe he was having the winter blahs much like I have been lately.  I need to watch again though to remember more specific moments.  I am kind of a magpie.  After I watched your video I was drawn to other clips and watched too many to be specific about moves in your clip.  I'll try to be more focused tomorrow.

So, I've not got much time to write about these videos but here they are.

 Well, last Sunday I had my first hunter schooling show of the year and I hadn't jumped since December.  I figured it'd be a good idea to practice a wee bit, huh?  So, dispite the mud we jumped!  (First time through the grid watch Peanut jump a mud puddle!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNbhJn9YZrk

 We went to the show and did the 2'3" Schooling Hunter and 2'6" Low Working Hunter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivQgfDq5UGI

And, finally the REAL reason for this post...videos from my dressage lesson on Thursday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVcFq3PbVaQ

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfFmUuxpTwI

Thanx for the videos!   I have only watched the two dressage ones but I wanted to comment while they were fresh in my mind.  Once again it's so funny to listen to "my lesson"  but see you riding Peanut:  "Don't let him run away with you like that.  Half halt!"  I hear that often.  And "He's getting flat, tap him up!!!",  I hear thatoften too.  The trot at the end of the second video was looking very nice and relaxed.  Love that feeling.  Watching your videos really makes me want to go get a digital video recorder for my lessons, when I have on again that is (different story).  It must be very nice to go back and see how you looked in a lesson.  Now I'm going to go watch the other two videos.  Great to hear from you again.  Are you taking pics at any shows in the near future?