Field Schooling

Thurs they both had the night off as I went swimming.

Last night, took S for a tootle with his spotty friend. Inhand round the roads. Was out, I think 8 mins, but it's a start on his return to work. Going to take it Oh So Very Slowly with him!

Need to take him out again today I think although may have to go on his own as spotty is doing school work but S doesn't much like going on his own. He will but he grumbles about it.

Rode a friend's ClydeX in the field last night to see if she played up with me. She didn't but not for want of trying. She's a lovely mare and it really did me good to ride her because T has stopped questioning me so much nowadays but G last night really did test me. "Are you SURE you've got your outside rein? Ha ... no! You've given it a milimetre, I'm off" and the like. Really had to sit on my arse and Ride her rather than just sit there and look good. If she knew I'd got her between hand and leg, she was golden, the minute I let something slip, she would be "ha... got ya". What N had said in my lesson about riding inside leg to outside rein stuck in my head and REALLY worked with her.

After just 40 mins, I got off with wobbly arms (I forget how light T-Jay is in my hand) and absolutely knackered. G on the other hand, had only just broken a sweat under her girth!

Onto T then. Riding in the school was aborted due to being dive bombed by pigeon trapped in there. Left the roller shutter doors open (which are big enough for HUGE tractors etc to get through) but nope, stupid pigeon was still dive bombing me.

So took him in the field too and am actually really pleased I did. The only flat-ish bit of land we have is that field and it is far from flat. It slopes every which way and the "camber" changes in corners so it's quite tricky to ride in there.

In 5 years I've never managed to canter a whole circle in there due to the above. Once warmed up, set off in trot and immediately could feel myself perched, weight in the stirrups and just awful. Was trying to get T to soften so I could ride better but then realised it was my riding stopping him from softening. Made a conscious decision to "kneel" and to take the weight out of my stirrups and et voila softer pony. Realised my shoulders were rounding again, thought "shoulders back" but that sent me out of kilter and sent me shooting my legs forward and weight into the stirrups again so remembered what Becky had told someone else about closing the back of the armpits. This had the effect of squaring my shoulders but also of widening my hands which again allowed T the room to drop his head and soften.

My thighs were absolutely screaming so I must have been doing something right! Also dabbled a little bit with leg yield but I'm not entirely sure I'm doing it right and whether my flexion has been overcooked into bend so hmmmmmmmmmm. Important thing I guess at this stage is that he went sideways and I could feel back legs REALLY crossing.

Onto canter and he gave me some fab transitions. Because the field is so big I took advantage of it to pick up canter, canter across a diagonal and then along the fence (or parallel to the fence the other edge of the "schooling area") and continue into counter canter and it gave me the opportunity to let the counter canter "settle" for want of a better word and there was enough space for me to think about what I was doing etc. It was so nice we almost got round the corner of the "area" in counter canter before I realised what was happening and asked for trot. Perhaps I should have let him do the corner in counter canter but didn't want to risk upsetting the counter canter and as you turn the corner (had been going slightly uphill) the camber changes to slightly downhill and slightly off to the left so wouldn't have been nice for him.

Tried to remember what N had said in my lesson about letting him go in canter and not restricting his head/neck and to let him find his own balance round corners so thought "hmmm I wonder" and off we set to do a circle. Almost almost almost got it which surprised me. I think the only reason we didn't get the circle that time was because he must have thought "shit, where's mum? why isn't she trying to balance me?". Second time it was just fab, absolutely no bother to canter a circle - about a 20m circle - with the slope constantly changing. In fact, it was so nice we actually did TWO CIRCLES lol. AND no falling out through the shoulder. By jove, I think I've got the outside rein!!!

Same on the other rein - whooooo. I suspect too that cracking the canter thing will also help my jumping confidence because I hate jumping inside as feel that the surface will give way under him, he'll slip/skid round corners. In fact, it's the same outside. I prefer to jump in the middle of a field with no fenced off area because he can just go straight after the jumps whereas if it's fenced off, at some point we have to turn. So hopefully some more work in the field in canter and I'll see the benefits in more than just his dressage tests!

Called it a day then to be honest, I was so pleased with him.

Off down to ride in a mo. Not sure what to do. I had planned on going for a hack but I think I'm doing a fun ride tomorrow so think that that may be sufficient a break from schooling for him. Meaning I can school again today.

I'm turning into the sort of person I've always rolled my eyes at - schooling lots and analysing everything. Need to remember I've ALWAYS analysed things, I've just always usually talked it through with mum but now I do it by typing. Not much different I guess.

Think it's paying off though. J said last night how fab T was looking. I should think so too with the work he's getting! and N said in my lesson he was lookign really well and that I was riding better than I ever have. She also said we need to crack on this year as T is capable, apparently, of so much more. Quite excited by that because for perhaps the first time, it's real to me and I'm trying, really am trying, to improve myself so that I don't hold him back anymore.

Think I'm going to school in the school today, fun ride tomorrow, tootle up the sheep fields to walk off the fun ride on Monday and then he can have Tues off while I swim then back into school/field on Wed :)