Training JJ, Step By Step

Sitting the Canter

2011-02-18T21:37:00.000-08:00

If you google "sitting the canter" a lot of sites come up-I guess I'm not the only one who has trouble with that particular concept! But I find, for me, it is much easier to keep my bum in the saddle when JJ is moving more forward, not running, but a nice active canter seems to be the easiest to ride. After loosening up to the point that I was literally flopping around in my upper body, it helped me to get the point and relax my hips too. So now I can work on keeping my upper body more still, while staying loose in my hips...sounds easy right? Maybe after a few years practice...

Great New Start

2011-02-07T21:04:00.000-08:00

With some help from my friend Laura this weekend, I had two amazing rides on JJ...I learned that I can get him on a contact fairly easily with the right cues, and our trot work was really improved. We also worked on the canter, which I had been struggling with, as I was not "allowed" to ride JJ at the canter by my previous trainer. However, I've been working on it on my own, and Laura helped me by being my eye on the ground, telling me to just relax my body to go with the movement of the canter-and what do you know it worked! I was able to get a nice forward canter and maintain it longer than ever before, and JJ seemed very happy to put up with me flopping around as I learn to loosen up. I've also taken my stirrups down a few holes to get my legs more under me, which has GREATLY improved my balance and ability to give clear leg aids. As you can see in the pictures, I still need to get them down even more, as I am 5 feet 10 inches and have LONG legs, but I have to do it gradually as I'm used to riding with too short stirrups.

I'm really having a great time riding, and am making some pretty big changes, but all for the better...

Out with the old, in with the new

2010-12-24T00:27:00.000-08:00

So to cap off the fantastic year of 2010 my mentor, trainer, and friend (I thought) decided that I was somehow taking advantage of her. Because she offered her help to me and my horse because of our friendship I thought she liked helping me. I never wanted her to do anything that she didn't want to. But apparantly she decided she was doing too much for me and instead of talking to me as a friend, she started making a big show of avoiding me and complaining about people getting "free lessons". Blowing me off when she said "let's do the horses". Never having time except for short hurried lesssons, even though I was still paying for 2 lessons a month. None of that an issue if she had just TALKED to me. Said, hey I don't have time, or I feel like I'm doing too much. Anything. Instead she treated me like someone who was trying to take advantage, which couldn't be farther from the truth. But I guess that's just the way she is, seeing the worst and believing things others close to her tell her. I wonder who's next on the list of people to get rid of?

Kentucky 2010

2010-11-30T19:10:00.001-08:00

WEG Photos

2010-11-29T20:24:00.001-08:00

WEG

2010-11-29T20:18:00.001-08:00

More WEG photos

2010-11-29T20:03:00.001-08:00

www.runhennyrun.com

Henny!

WEG Photos

2010-11-29T19:53:00.001-08:00

Gettting It?

2010-03-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

So after my last post about the search for Contact, I decided I needed to practice. I took a spare set of reins home with me and made my husband hold the bit ends while I practiced holding the contact-he's so tolerant!
I had read in a book that some people find it easier to hold the reins with more tension between their forefinger and thumb, and use their other fingers to take up more rein if needed, but to concentrate on most of the contact being on the forefinger and thumb. So I experimented with that, and found that for me, it does indeed help me keep my contact much more consistent. Also, I noticed that if I concentrate on turning my wrists slightly out, it helps me remember to NOT cross my reins, for my habit is to have my hands too close together and want to cross them over JJ's withers. But if I keep my wrists turned out a little, my thumbs stay on top, my hands stay the proper width apart, and I am less inclined to move my hands in too much. It also helps me remember to keep my elbows in close to my body, for if my wrists are slightly out then my elbows naturally fall in.
Now I'm not saying to ride around with your wrists cocked out, but for me it really helped me get the right feel in my mind so that I can! For the first time I was able to get him to worke! Hey, any progress is progress.

2010-02-26T22:23:00.001-08:00

Still a ways to go before we nail Contact! Feb 2010.

The Big C

2010-02-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

That's C as in "Contact", as in the hardest, beat yourself up, cry-like-a-baby because it's IMPOSSIBLE Contact.

Contact is the third step in the Training Scale, and, so far, the most difficult. My trainer says it's one of the most difficult things to teach.

I know that JJ is capable of taking the contact, because he does it when my trainer rides him, but he doesn't WANT to take it when I ride. He seems to know that I don't know how to do it, so he doesn't give it. I could force him into it, by using draw reins or a strong bit, or throwing him in a double bridle like I've heard some dressage riders say they do with horses who won't take the contact, but that would be opposite of what I'm about. We are about teaching the horse to be the best he can be, and last the longest, and that means no shortcuts. Shortcuts don't work, for JJ wouldn't truly be accepting contact, he would be forced into it. Just like Rollkur is not true dressage, but forcng the horse to do flashy looking "dressage-type movements".
Here's a picture of JJ not-so-subtly resisiting my contact. Because I am not an experienced enough rider, like Jane, he doesn't accept my rein aids yet. But we are working on it. Normally, people probably wouldn't post a picture like this, but my blog is about training, and learning, and this is the reality of having a 15 year old horse with an unknown history and an inexperienced rider.
I get frustrated with myself for not being able to do things, like get JJ on contact, or stay on when he bucks. But then I look at where we started, and I feel a little better. My trainer points out that in these most recent pictures, like the one above, taken a week ago, JJ is really stepping under with his hind legs, and his back is up, he's really working pretty damned well. It's just me. I hope that someday I will be able to catch up with JJ, and I'm sure that with some help, I will.

2010-02-10T21:39:00.000-08:00

JJ and I learning Relaxation and Rhythm in September 09.

The Training Scale

2010-02-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

From my very first lesson with my new trainer, she made it very clear how important the Training Scale is. So what is the Training Scale? Here's the elements of the scale: Relaxation, Rhythm, Contact, Straightness, Impulsion, and Collection.

There is a wonderful book that explains the steps in great detail, Six Steps To A Schooled Horse, by Susan McBane.

So, the Training Scale applies to every type of training, with every horse. Even though I wanted to learn dressage, the scale stays the same. Because JJ was out of shape and had been out of training for who knows how long, we had to evaluate him and see where to start. At our first lesson, JJ and I could barely make a turn or transition. We had never cantered, and I had no idea how to ride with any sort of contact. Neither one of us were relaxed, and there was no rhythm to speak of. So guess where we started?

For the first few months, we would start every lesson by lungeing JJ, to relax him and also to improve his rhythm. She was not trying to "get the bucks out" or tire him out, but actually schooled him on the lunge. This meant lots of walk-trot transitions to get him to use his body and find his rhythm. I also learned how to lunge, and would do that 3 or 4 times a week on my own.

Then my trainer would ride him, since I am not experienced enough to work on myself and my horse at the same time! She did simple exercises: change of rein at the trot, serpentines, circles, all at the rising trot, all trying to get JJ working in a relaxed, even rhythm.

Then I would ride, and try to get myself sorted out so that I didn't interfere with JJ's new relaxed rhythm! After a few months, we were doing SO much better, and all from just trotting and doing nothing more than "simple" movements. Magic!

2010-02-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

JJ in December 09 after 6 months of training according to the Training Scale.

2010-02-03T13:10:00.000-08:00

JJ and my friend's daughter at the rescue. This is what he looked like when I brought him home in April 09.

The Beginning

2010-02-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my blog about training my horse! Let me tell you a little about myself and my horse, JJ.
I have always loved horses, but grew up without them. Denied the opportunity to have a horse, ride a horse, or even be around horses, my teenaged self decided it would be less painful to just repress that overwhelming love for the equine species. So I went on with my life, but whenever I saw a horse, I would sigh and secretly pine away. Or not so secretly, for as my thirtieth birthday drew near, my darling husband decided I needed to have a horse.
So off to an equine rescue we went. There I met JJ, a 17.1 hand Thoroughbred gelding. It was not love at first sight-I was overwhelmed by the 30-odd horses running around, and he was less than thrilled to be taken away from his herd buddies.
But, many months and several thousand dollars later (a long story) JJ was mine. When I finally moved him into his new home, a barn less than 10 minutes from my house, he was underweight with no strength or condition to speak of. I wasn't much better off, having spent months learning absolutely nothing worth knowing from the woman that ran the rescue. We were a mess, but I was determined that I would do the right thing by this horse.
The first thing on my to-do list was to find a GOOD trainer. As anyone who has ever had that particularly unappealing task knows, it is easier said than done. Especially when you are coming off a bad relationship-just like dating! You are wary of anyone, and completely untrusting.
But, as these things sometimes do, fate intervened in the form of a soft-spoken Scottish lady. She just happened to be giving a clinic on lungeing at our barn, and I volunteered JJ to be a demo horse, and well, everything just fell into place. She moved her horse to our barn and we started taking lessons, me and JJ, in June 2009.

Alyssa