January Clinic with Elaine Part II

Continuation of this post.

Saturday's lesson was great and gave me a couple simple things that I was very much capable of working on by myself so we covered some new ground on Sunday. I love when this happens in clinics because it gives me lots of homework for next time.

On Sunday Elaine asked me about lateral work. I told her that I had been working a little on shoulder-in on the long side so we worked on that. I know that it is important for lateral work to stay forward moving and with consistent rhythm so I had been working on that and accepting not enough angle or coming off the wall a little. Instead, Elaine had me work on more correct mechanics but slower, and told me to add back in the forward as our shoulder-in gets stronger and easier. She had me think of the shoulder-in as three stages in repeat: 1. move shoulder over off the wall, 2. think backwards feel to keep the haunches on the track, 3. push over with inside leg. I had been doing 1 and 3 but not 2. The backwards feel sounded counterintuitive but when I tried it I could feel that it helped rock Kachina back on her haunches and slow her through the movement so it was more of a thinking exercise and not so rushy. Elaine emphasized that we aren't actually going back, just think back. I still think it is black magic all the things in dressage that you should think about but not actually do, but I can't argue with results.

Next we worked on doing some serpentines lengthwise in the arena to practice tight half circle turns. Elaine wanted me to slow the front end but keep activity behind in the turns. To accomplish this she had me slowing the front legs with my reins and then push the hind legs out around the turn with my inside leg while imagining a fishtailing car. This was another thing where the feel I was going for (fishtailing back end) seemed opposite from what I was trying to accomplish (front and back legs following same track), but again through the dressage black magic it did succeed in giving me more controlled and balanced tight turns.

Here is some video from the lesson:

During a walk break I chatted to Elaine about the size of the trot. Kachina has the capacity for a giant trot, especially for her size, and I have thought for some time that I should be working to make her trot under saddle bigger now that we have improved the balance and suppleness in the smaller trot. Elaine told me that my current trot should be my show ring trot but she gave me a specific reason why: in Kachina's current trot, she has time to bend each joint in her legs during the stride, from her pastern, hock, stifle and hip. The movement of those joints is what makes her trot look springy and gives her Cadence (USDF definition below). While Kachina can trot bigger, if I ask for too much she will end up in a more stiff-legged trot and we will lose that cadence. For this reason the proper rhythm and size of the trot is very specific to the individual horse and you can't reasonably compare suitable gaits between horses. I haven't ever heard it put in those terms before but I really appreciated her explanation and we will keep on keeping on in our current trot.

I wanted Elaine to see our canter at least briefly so we squeezed that into the end of the lesson. I wanted to show how far our canter had come but of course that meant Kachina picked that day to be rushy, hollow and counter-bent in the canter. Especially to the right I do sometimes struggle to keep Kachina bent the right direction in the canter and my inside leg seems not very effective. Elaine had me use more inside rein suppling paired with steady outside rein (same as we had done the day before in trot) and that did seem to be more effective than my inside leg though it is still a work in progress.

Overall I was really pleased with the clinic and have lots of good homework.