Brave pants on, off we went to our next test riding clinic with Ali
The last time we saw Ali at the end of Feb for a test ride day it was a fairly significant disaster, we got as far as the canter work running through our FSM and then decided to retire from the test. We did carry on with the session with some softening exercises but left the session rather deflated
This time I had no intentions of trying to get the music to play with the howling gales and to be honest after our horrendous failing efforts last time I wasn't convinced we would get to run through the test at all today.
A quick catch up chat whilst Alfie warmed up about how the last couple of shows have felt and a quick recap of the previous training weekend. In hindsight we both agreed that we had probably pushed Alfie a little too hard on the Saturday and he was telling us he couldn't cope on that Sunday. A good learning curve but a day I really do want to forget
We were in need of a confidence boost and we got it.
Alfie started off soft to the contact, a little heavy, but he we had stretching to seek into the rein which was a fabulous positive start
Alfie started off today a little wooden through his body but Ali's experienced eye knew what was needed so we spent most of the session working on his suppleness and my contact
Having sorted out my sloppy right rein contact in previous training sessions I am now blocking with my left arm. One day my limbs will work with me!
To soften my left rein contact today an elbow lift was needed. Sometimes I just have to go with the flow of what is needed for me to get the feeling and then progress from there. It will certainly look a bit odd in a test but hopefully I can just think it, visualise it and just give with my fingers and soften my elbow without lifting it.
Today Alfie responded really well to the softening of the rein, it took time for him to soften and relax through the transitions but it felt so much easier to ride. For a quarter of a right rein trot circle he actually held himself in self carriage.
I felt a lot straighter today a few moments on the left rein where I felt I had dropped out of line and my right thigh started to hurt a little but much less cramping generally in my right side. And the bonus was I actually felt myself go off line this time.
The hardest thing for my brain today was to keep two hands/two legs on the right rein.
We isolate my aids on the left rein as I give too much with the outside (right) rein and hold too much with the inside (left) rein and Alfie likes to take his shoulder off the line and out.
On the right rein I need to keep everything all together which I find hard to do.
Directives
In January Ali asked me to sit down with the test and map out my directives for each movement, watching the video with pen in hand it soon became two A4 pages of deconstruction. But it's an action plan so that's positive.
My directives today when we did run through the test were relax and release the moment Alfie tried to tighten. I hope you can see from the video sometimes it worked.
There are moments in this test when I react rather than proactively ride a movement, still lots to work on
Alfie tried in his medium trot, got a little tight in his medium canter going a bit snakey on me on the right rein, overall not a bad run through
Writing the directives is definitely a good exercise. Canter is not resembling a giraffe after the Medium work. Looking forward to a more active less messy medium trot and a super test to have some fun with
Bits
We are still trying to find that BD legal bit we are happy with
I have felt much happier with the overall contact using the copper roller bit with the D rings in our training sessions.
I have two versions of the copper roller bit and today I tried the one with full cheeks to see if that helped. I thought I had a better turning aids and straightness today but then again it could just be wishful thinking from me
I had always thought Alfie was better in a lozenge but the copper rollers have a single link so I am still no further forward to finding the right bit for competitions
Online Dressage
We didn't get our online test recorded but we our one beat further forward to taking our music back into the competition arena and I have started looking at diary dates again
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