At the new barn i take weekly lesson with one of the girl who is an experienced eventer, she is great she pushes me to try new things to not be a chicken and to just "get over it" and make my horse do it. She has been showing for a lot longer than me and i learn a ton from her every week but when i found out that my barn was going to bring in a dressage coash 1x a month i jumped on that as quickly as i could because i knew that she wasnt going to be taking on to many students and man am i glad that i did!! The best part is that today went so well that she is going to come in every second sunday!
I had my first lesson with this Dressage coach today and i was nervous because she is a judge and used to compete up to pretty high levels, not only that but the girl that was going to ride with me originally is much more advanced in her riding so i was worried that i would be holding her back or i would not be able to do what was being asked.... luckily the lessons were move around and the girl i train with on Thursdays was moved into my lesson with me... AND she called in sick so i got a private lesson for the cost of a semi private.
The lesson started out with the typical questions about where we are at what have we accomplished that type of thing. I brought out my dressage saddle so we have to lengthen my stirrups. G was still having a hard time with the far side of the arena and i dont blame him since the snow is melting right now and sliding off so we kept the lesson at the one end of the arena for the first half.
First thing the new coach pointed out to me is that i am putting weight on the inside of my foot while posting which is twisting my foot out, she wanted me to focus on putting the weight on my baby toe which will point my feet straight ahead as well a help me sink further into my heels and lower leg as well as keep my posting rhythmic and make my rise not as high. As soon as i started to focus on this our tempo was much better we kept a pace instead of him getting quick and my posting getting faster to match.
She also mentioned my head position, i guess i have a weird head tilt... which i wasnt aware of so trying to correct that is a little harder than correcting things you know you have been doing wrong. I also have a habit of looking at my horse and not straight ahead which is something i did now and am getting much better with.
I have also been having a hard time with G buging out and cutting corners as well as cutting accross the circle, the coaches biggest suggestion was to keep me hands closer together thumbs on top but ony about an inch of space in between my hands it was amazing how quickly this fixed my bulging problem.
Other than being lazy G was great we did lots of work on the circle making the circle bigger and smaller, we did some work riding from one corner to X then back to the same wall on both sides of the arena (ill look up the letters and fix this post later). We also practiced some turn on the forehand.
Did i mention that the entire lesson was at a trot.... a sitting trot because she liked my sitting trot better than my rising trot... every now and then she would throw in a rising trot but that was few and far between... G did amazing as always i am so proud of him and how much progress we have made.
He has earned his next couple days off, and i need to nurse my sore abs and legs before thursdays lesson. Sorry for the double post but i wanted to get this caught up before going to bed.
Mon-Wed- Days off
Thursday- Lesson W/ tr 1
I had my first lesson with this Dressage coach today and i was nervous because she is a judge and used to compete up to pretty high levels, not only that but the girl that was going to ride with me originally is much more advanced in her riding so i was worried that i would be holding her back or i would not be able to do what was being asked.... luckily the lessons were move around and the girl i train with on Thursdays was moved into my lesson with me... AND she called in sick so i got a private lesson for the cost of a semi private.
The lesson started out with the typical questions about where we are at what have we accomplished that type of thing. I brought out my dressage saddle so we have to lengthen my stirrups. G was still having a hard time with the far side of the arena and i dont blame him since the snow is melting right now and sliding off so we kept the lesson at the one end of the arena for the first half.
First thing the new coach pointed out to me is that i am putting weight on the inside of my foot while posting which is twisting my foot out, she wanted me to focus on putting the weight on my baby toe which will point my feet straight ahead as well a help me sink further into my heels and lower leg as well as keep my posting rhythmic and make my rise not as high. As soon as i started to focus on this our tempo was much better we kept a pace instead of him getting quick and my posting getting faster to match.
She also mentioned my head position, i guess i have a weird head tilt... which i wasnt aware of so trying to correct that is a little harder than correcting things you know you have been doing wrong. I also have a habit of looking at my horse and not straight ahead which is something i did now and am getting much better with.
I have also been having a hard time with G buging out and cutting corners as well as cutting accross the circle, the coaches biggest suggestion was to keep me hands closer together thumbs on top but ony about an inch of space in between my hands it was amazing how quickly this fixed my bulging problem.
Other than being lazy G was great we did lots of work on the circle making the circle bigger and smaller, we did some work riding from one corner to X then back to the same wall on both sides of the arena (ill look up the letters and fix this post later). We also practiced some turn on the forehand.
Did i mention that the entire lesson was at a trot.... a sitting trot because she liked my sitting trot better than my rising trot... every now and then she would throw in a rising trot but that was few and far between... G did amazing as always i am so proud of him and how much progress we have made.
He has earned his next couple days off, and i need to nurse my sore abs and legs before thursdays lesson. Sorry for the double post but i wanted to get this caught up before going to bed.
Mon-Wed- Days off
Thursday- Lesson W/ tr 1
Yeah for a dressage trainer and lessons! Sounds like some good pointers. A girl in our barn has a head tilt - me, I lean to the left...just something you gotta constantly think about (as if you don't have enough to think about when riding!).
ReplyDeleteI know right, its so hard to think about everything and keep everything organised. Its a lot of work but i am looking forward to more lessons though i learn so much with her.
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