Face, meet Wall. Wall, meet Face.
.......
But i did have a great lesson with Dorothy :)
I asked her about showing first level test 1 and 2 (about time i go to first level)
She asked about lengthenings, to which i replied "well......ummmm........did you bring a magnifying glass?"
She told me that lengthenings are the reason that most people don't move on to first level (guilty!!) and that its just one movement, you just have to make up for it elsewhere. She also said that at first level judges aren't really looking for a true legit one, what they want to see is the mechanics of the movement. What she said to do was to do baby steps (prolonged half-halt) then do big steps where the lengthening would be, when you get to the other side do baby steps again. Apparently most horses that don't have a natural lengthening *cough india cough* don't show a very big lengthening until about second level, which made me feel a lot better.
For the show in March i'm gonna do First level!!
Alright so the lesson, we worked on getting indie more responsive to my "WHOA DAMMIT!!" aids. We accomplished this amazing feat by doing transitions.......for two hours. I'm tellin ya when you pay Dorothy 90 bucks you get your moneys worth. Towards the end all i was thinking was "please Indie please stop!!! my half-halt aids are broken!!! and your not responding to telepathy!!!"
But by the middle of the lesson indie was stoppin like a champ!!
Dorothy sentenced us to four days of this "walk, halt, trot, halt, walk, trot, trot bigger, halt, baby trot, walk, halt, rein-back, trot, big trot.......well you get it" and no canter until i think slow down and she is slamming on the brakes. Dorothy said this exercise was the very beginning of collected work, and damn i can see why. Without absolute control of the horses speed collection ain't happin.
Dorothy also said that second level should be no problem for indie because she is built for the more collected movements, its those pesky extended ones we'll have trouble with. But again those are only one movement and we will make it up in the collected ones.
Now for one of the coolest parts of the lessons i was taking a much needed walk break and two girls that are notorious for having horses that won't stop for anything came over and said that they wanted to be able to stop their horses off of their seats like i was doing, and they thought i was useless because i don't jump high. ;)
5 comments:
Sounds like a great lesson. Two hours....yikes! I would have died. Oh to be young again:-)
you definatly get your moneys worth, if you can hold on that long, i almost didn't make it this time
Just think, if ever you do go on to jumping, you'll be able to get your horse round and pretty and under control! That's just as important as simply going over the jumps lol!
I love clinics, they're so much fun. So much learning :)
i've actually started teaching indie to jump, she jumps two feet now :) and we do dressage between jumps. i'm telling you when you leg yield to the next jump you get some strange looks
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