Post by fleabitten on Mar 4, 2014 19:13:54 GMT
Have been taking part in a dressage and showjumping league at my old riding school and last saturday was the second dressage competition (its dressage one week, jumping the next). After the first competition i got a 3rd and a 1st and some great comments. However, there was a few things to work on (lack of energy in paces and stiffness) although i was riding very accurate tests. I was quite encouraged by getting good marks and started getting excited about possibly aiming for the ni riding club dressage championships in june! would be a great achievement
So i organised a private lesson last monday and it turned all i thought on its head. I had thought that you needed the horse to go forwards first and i have been practicing transitions etc and using a schooling whip as he doesnt care about a normal whip but after explaining what comments i had been getting, Y said i needed to work on making him rounder in his shape and getting a connection as hes just hollowing all the time and then once he softens teach him to move forwards then. she says you cant really have one without the other. M is an old pro at dressage like everything else as he did a lot of dressage with his previous owners but he hasnt been doing stuff like this since last summer at least. but he caught on very quickly what i wanted but it was a job to maintain! legs very sore lol! and it was so good to have Y there to go through everything step by step - i would have been worrying about making him march on and round at the same time but Y said it doesnt matter if he goes slow when youre trying to get him to soften, you just ask him to go forward when he does.
so i didnt really get a chance to practice the rest of the week but i tried it when i was warming up for my dressage test on saturday and in the test as well and despite forgetting my test twice in prelim 12 (think i was thinking too much about how he was going rather than where i was going!) i managed to improve my score in both tests so i was really pleased! competition was a bit tougher and i got a 3rd and a 4th which i was really pleased with too!
so now to practice it for the next competition!
So i organised a private lesson last monday and it turned all i thought on its head. I had thought that you needed the horse to go forwards first and i have been practicing transitions etc and using a schooling whip as he doesnt care about a normal whip but after explaining what comments i had been getting, Y said i needed to work on making him rounder in his shape and getting a connection as hes just hollowing all the time and then once he softens teach him to move forwards then. she says you cant really have one without the other. M is an old pro at dressage like everything else as he did a lot of dressage with his previous owners but he hasnt been doing stuff like this since last summer at least. but he caught on very quickly what i wanted but it was a job to maintain! legs very sore lol! and it was so good to have Y there to go through everything step by step - i would have been worrying about making him march on and round at the same time but Y said it doesnt matter if he goes slow when youre trying to get him to soften, you just ask him to go forward when he does.
so i didnt really get a chance to practice the rest of the week but i tried it when i was warming up for my dressage test on saturday and in the test as well and despite forgetting my test twice in prelim 12 (think i was thinking too much about how he was going rather than where i was going!) i managed to improve my score in both tests so i was really pleased! competition was a bit tougher and i got a 3rd and a 4th which i was really pleased with too!
so now to practice it for the next competition!
