Quite frankly, the last two days have been rubbish. Olivia's become really bolshy and disrespectful. She doesn't look very happy and I'm definately not. I'm so glad that tomorrow I've got a 1h30 lesson with Terri Martinus, maybe she can help me deal with Olivia when she's in that mood. Or maybe its me! Its been horribly rainy weather, I have a horrible burst blister on my foot that rubs against my boot, and I've just got an injection which has made my arm achey and weak. I'm supposed to be enjoying a week free from school, but I have to spend every minute I'm at home revising for the exams I've got next week. It sucks.
Anyway, I've been watching a lot more of the new levels, and to be honest I find that they have so little structure or instruction. When I'm reading back over the old level 3 booklets, they have so much infomation and detail that's easier to learn from. So I'm going to ignore the new levels for now and work my way through the stages. Stage 1 seems so simple - I've been absent-mindedly playing with the concepts for a while, and I have Olivia trotting sideways and backing up (slightly)quicker. I thought I had canter on 22 ft line down to pat, but now when I ask for it Olivia can barely do one circle at the canter. Freestyle is a different picture. Although our isolations are nothing to be proud of, the simple lead changes are just beautiful, and flying lead changes are really coming on. Yay!
I never explained my title, I was sitting at home feeling sorry for myself and heard the lyric from Rufus Wainwrights (however its spelt) song, hallelujah, And it got me thinking that no journey is full of highs. Recently, the highs have seemed too good to be true. I don't think the last few sessions have been rubbish; they've just not been the standard of our previous sessions.
I like to think I'm emotionally fit, and when I'm happy I am VERY emotionally fit. But, just like my horse, I'm a super emotional person and if one thing goes wrong I can see the wrong in everything. Something for me to work on. It's my attitude thats bought on this dip in our progress.
Savvy wishes !!
Wednesday 17 February 2010
Saturday 30 January 2010
Long time, no see!
It's been a while since I posted because I've been so busy, good or bad, I don't know. (Actually, more likely bad because I'm not so much busy because of Olivia, more because the scary A-levels are looming!!).
Anyway, major breakthroughs recently. Since I've been driving and able to get down everyday, I've been able to spend a lot more undemanding time. The weather easing also helped with that. Our liberty went from being non existent to just beautiful! The smallest area I can work in is the 60x20m school. If I wasn't so lazy, I could fence off a section with some jumps but unfortunately I'm not very strong, and would be puffed out after such strenuous work :P Anyway, all of a sudden everythings come together and Olivia's been doing circles around me, like SMALL circles! As I watch her I can see her consider pissing off, but I've had to exert MASSIVE control, and 'trust her to respond, but be ready to correct'. I think getting handy with the 45ft line has helped a lot in that respect, because now I can coil and through pretty quickly, Olivia is thinking 'daaym. Now she can get me from 45ft away? RESPECT!!' So thats my theory on why its come together anyway.
I also had fun running around with her cantering after me, doing sudden stops and changes of direction, and started a bit of the cutting. The expression on her face is just like, 'wow, who knew Jo could be so much fun!?'. It's awesome.
My fore-mentioned laziness also means that taking Olivia (and her field mate - we aren't allowed to leave a horse in a field on its own) up to the yard, saddling her up, taking her back down to the school, doing my thing, taking her back up to the yard to unsaddle and bring her horsemate back down to the field is just too much! Instead, I've used it as an opportunity to improve my bareback riding, and there have been massive changes. From being bounced all over the place, I can now sit to her canter (woopee!!!). It's not as great as my seat in the saddle (I don't want to brag, but my independant seat in the saddle is pretty solid) but it's getting there. I find that so many things are revealed when I ride bareback, such as my right leg tends to tense up and shorten a lot. I think this is why people always talk about my stirrups being so uneven. A couple of years ago I was hit by a car on my right side, and I never went through the physio to get the muscle working again, so that leg just got weaker and weaker while my left leg got stronger. Unfortunately, this isn't helped by Olivia also having uneven muscle; with her left side being much stronger. So we really have to work together to bring our right sides up to the same level as our left sides.
Loong post today, sorry about that! There's just so much to say!! Anyway, tomorrow I have a lesson with a classical dressage trainer as part of a clinic my yard is organising. I am so excited - I've designated my mum as photo taker and video maker. So hopefully loads of pictures to come. Until then - here's a couple recent ones of Olivia.
Anyway, major breakthroughs recently. Since I've been driving and able to get down everyday, I've been able to spend a lot more undemanding time. The weather easing also helped with that. Our liberty went from being non existent to just beautiful! The smallest area I can work in is the 60x20m school. If I wasn't so lazy, I could fence off a section with some jumps but unfortunately I'm not very strong, and would be puffed out after such strenuous work :P Anyway, all of a sudden everythings come together and Olivia's been doing circles around me, like SMALL circles! As I watch her I can see her consider pissing off, but I've had to exert MASSIVE control, and 'trust her to respond, but be ready to correct'. I think getting handy with the 45ft line has helped a lot in that respect, because now I can coil and through pretty quickly, Olivia is thinking 'daaym. Now she can get me from 45ft away? RESPECT!!' So thats my theory on why its come together anyway.
I also had fun running around with her cantering after me, doing sudden stops and changes of direction, and started a bit of the cutting. The expression on her face is just like, 'wow, who knew Jo could be so much fun!?'. It's awesome.
My fore-mentioned laziness also means that taking Olivia (and her field mate - we aren't allowed to leave a horse in a field on its own) up to the yard, saddling her up, taking her back down to the school, doing my thing, taking her back up to the yard to unsaddle and bring her horsemate back down to the field is just too much! Instead, I've used it as an opportunity to improve my bareback riding, and there have been massive changes. From being bounced all over the place, I can now sit to her canter (woopee!!!). It's not as great as my seat in the saddle (I don't want to brag, but my independant seat in the saddle is pretty solid) but it's getting there. I find that so many things are revealed when I ride bareback, such as my right leg tends to tense up and shorten a lot. I think this is why people always talk about my stirrups being so uneven. A couple of years ago I was hit by a car on my right side, and I never went through the physio to get the muscle working again, so that leg just got weaker and weaker while my left leg got stronger. Unfortunately, this isn't helped by Olivia also having uneven muscle; with her left side being much stronger. So we really have to work together to bring our right sides up to the same level as our left sides.
Loong post today, sorry about that! There's just so much to say!! Anyway, tomorrow I have a lesson with a classical dressage trainer as part of a clinic my yard is organising. I am so excited - I've designated my mum as photo taker and video maker. So hopefully loads of pictures to come. Until then - here's a couple recent ones of Olivia.
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| From Jo and Olivia |
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| From Jo and Olivia |
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