A lightbulb!

It's getting pretty late at night here and I was about to head off to bed and was thinking over some things and suddenly had this lightbulb moment that I felt the need to share, it's not to do totally with riding but with learning in general.  Teaching is something that I think about constantly as it is such a skill and one that has to be constantly developed, I don't believe that just because someone can ride that they can teach I think teaching is a skill that you develop over lots of time by working your way up through the ranks and studying under people who are not only excellent riders but also excellent teachers, I studied lots of psychology in school to help with my teaching background as well as learning styles in addition to my coaching education through the horsey industry and am continually striving to improve myself as a coach, I consider how my students ride as a direct reflexion not necessarily on my riding but on my skills of communicating what goes on in the saddle and the most difficult thing in the world to teach without a doubt is feel-no amount of barking out instructions or directions will ever teach someone correct feel, this can only be achieved by teaching as though you are in the moment yourself.  I was wondering about why some things (such as feel) are harder for us to grasp and understand than others and somehow went back to my highschool years, in highschool math was always a subject that I struggled with more than any of the others, my main problem was never getting the right answer, I could usually come up with the correct answer but where I would lose all of my marks was usually in the work, I never was in to learning the correct formulas and figured that so long as I came to the correct answer at the end what did it matter how I got there, most of the teachers just got annoyed with me doing things my own way and barked at me to learn the formulas and do it their way which I could never understand, why not do it my way if it worked??  Then I had one really outstanding math teacher a little later on who actually was able to make me understand not the numbers but the concept and he achieved that by explaining to me that the formulas we learn build upon one another so it's important to learn them each individually as they are steps that link together to build a staircase, finally a teacher had given me a REASON why I needed to learn things a certain way rather than just telling me to do it that way because that is how it's done.  I finally realized that all of the 'directions' I had been given actually eventually led to a longterm 'destination'-and voila a moment of clarity, directions with no clear course of a destination become useless orders and we lose the bigger picture and what we are trying to achieve.  Anyways I had this revelation tonight that this applies very much to many many learning circumstances in life and riding is no different, there are many ways to ride a horse and train a horse however to achieve a certain result over time the correct path must be taken, you can skip steps or take alternate routes but at the end of the day the end product will suffer if each step on the staircase has not been taken.  I think this applies to lessons in life as well, I've never professed to be a perfect person and have made many mistakes, in riding and in life in general, however I have always tried to take every 'mistake' I've made (in riding and life) and tried to learn from those mistakes and do better in the future-obviously I can't change the past (though I really really wish I could!;) and I haven't always been successful in my attempts and sometimes the mistakes I've made have haunted me, whether it be horse or human, but the past can never be changed so I've always tried to look to the future and 'do better', I think this is a key not necessarily for 'success' but for clarity and direction in riding and in life in general and perhaps this is personal success in and of itself, to learn from mistakes of the past and not try in vain to repent for those mistakes as it's usually just not possible but to learn from the past and look to the future and say "this is how I will handle it next time", anyways that's my deep philosophy for the day, as I've mentioned before I really enjoy writing these posts as they really help me better understand some of the things that I sometimes lose in day to day life, hopefully they also make a little bit of sense!:)

Training, training and more training

So I've neglected the blog a little bit this week I admit but hey better late than never right??!!  Nico and I have a couple weeks break before our next show which is actually nice as we get some training time to really focus on the basics, this is the part of training that I find is a true love/hate relationship, I'm really a person who gets very hooked on those little details of the training process and I enjoy fine tuning the basics and can work away at them endlessly-sometimes so much so that I have to make sure I don't become totally obsessed with them and forget about the bigger picture as well, that being said this is the part of training that can also be so elusive as when there is one little piece missing you often feel like it's right there just beyond your grasp and yet you can't quite get it and that feeling can really make you insane at times too.  Nico has been going really really well this week and we've had a couple definite breakthroughs and he is feeling so much looser in his back and really stepping from behind into my right rein (getting him to step through and connect forward into the right rein without getting tight has always been our biggest challenge in training and it's also the big piece that when it's right everything else comes together which is very exciting!), so the training is on a definitely upswing right now and I'm very pleased with the results we are having, now if Nico can take his big boy bravery into the show ring we will really be talking!:)  We've also had some nice relaxing times in the evening, I like to watch the other rides in the day (try and get as much learning in as I can from the entire experience as there is something to be learned from watching every horse and rider) and then I've taken him out for a couple bareback hacks around the property later in the evening, it's always good to have those times occasionally to just chill out with your horse so that it's not all hard work all the time, I think that's important in keeping the horses healthy and happy and wanting to work:)

Show #3

So this weekend we were back to the Jim Brandon center for our next show (this is the show park that Nico had a particular dislike for at the first outing so I knew I'd have to look at it as a schooling weekend competition or not).  I schooled him on Thurs afternoon before the jog in the scary outdoor in the pouring rain and wind with tents flapping away, he wasn't eager to get near those tents again at all but we braved it and schooled despite the fact that we were absolutely soaking wet (I don't recall ever being that wet at a show before, on the plus side at least it wasn't too cold-the water was dripping off me so much I could taste my hairspray and had to wring out my sweater and breeches after-I challenge anyone to say that I'm not 110% dedicated to what I do:), after the jog I took him back out and hand walked around the arena and took the time to show him all of the tents and let him relax in there.  Day one of the show it rained almost nonstop, I took Nico out and warmed him up for about a half hour then took him back to the barn and gave him a little break and got on my jacket and hat, then we went back out and did another 15 mins of warmup and then rode our test, it was pouring so much that there was no wind so the tents stayed quiet but the test wasn't a good one unfortunately, the trot tour was actually descent enough but then when we got to the canter the wheels came off a bit and the mistakes just seemed to pile up, starting with our second change in the half passes it was like things weren't clicking, I can't put my finger on why because he seemed focused so whether it was the slippery footing with all of the rain or just that things weren't jiving that day I'm not sure but we had mistakes in our pirouettes and both lines of tempis which is just odd (the one movement that is usually our safest is the tempis so that's unusual but I guess we could chalk it up to an off day) so all in all just too many mistakes going on, it's like we haven't been able to find our groove down here yet but on the plus side he was much more focused than the last time we were there.  So day #2 today was almost like a combination of the last show and yesterday, it was sunny and windy once again and the tents were back flapping away in the breeze, for the first time at the shows down here I was actually satisfied with my warm up by the end of it, it started out a bit rough but by the end he actually felt normal like he does at home, the test was a challenge because of the crazy flapping tents (and I have to hand it to him they are indeed scary because not only do the tents flap but you can hear the poles creaking away too-they sound like they are about to blow away and then the tents will settle and then all of a sudden flap in the horse's face so I can kind of understand where he's coming from but unfortunately he has to learn to be brave;) and we had mistakes again in the changes, this time due to distraction and a pretty big spook in the zig zag and in the change after one of the pirouettes but on the plus side the good movements today did feel much more normal so I'm feeling more confident that we just have to iron out a couple of things before we will be back to our normal routine at the shows (we've had this at the first couple shows of the season in the past when I think about it so I think we will be back on track soon-sometimes I forget these things then when I think back I remember oh yeah we did have a couple of rough first outings last season too).  On the plus side the judges are all complementary and like us as a pair, we get nice comments and most of them are understanding of the tension or mistakes so that's positive, I'd feel much worse if we were having good rounds and getting low scores without knowing why, at least I know that the judges like us and want to give the scores but of course with this level of judging and competition they just can't be forgiving of mistakes (for example I was watching one of the grand prix rides today and the horse was going beautifully with the score board running between 69% and 70% then she got to her first piaffe and he stopped and reared then continued on task and the score immediately dropped to 59%-there is no room for error at these shows that's for sure), fair enough, we will pull our socks up over the next couple of weeks and see what we can do-no tension and clean rides that's the goal!  Sounds simple but I have to say it's much easier to achieve in the comfort of our Canadian backyard than it is down here!  I'm still very much enjoying the experience and exposure that Nico and I are getting here, naturally I wish that the shows were going better but I'm also patient enough to realize that this is all new for him and being a sensitive horse he needs some time to adapt to all of the changes in his life right now and in the grand scheme of things this is all good for him and I to mature as a partnership as we are out of our normal comfort zone of the shows back home, so I am refusing to see any part of this journey as negative, we have come too far for that and have much growth still to come so I am feeling positive and confident that things can only improve:)

Next Show This Weekend:)

Had a pretty good school today with Nico, he is definitely feeling looser and more even in the contact yesterday and today which is very positive as those are always the key issues.  I've been really enjoying not only having my own lessons but also watching all of the other horses and riders in the barn work, it's great really because I feel like I'm not only getting education while in the saddle but also am able to further develop my eye and add more tools to the toolbox by watching the others go as well.  It's really interesting because all of the horses in the barn are definitely quality animals (obviously some more so than others but all very nice in their own regard) and to watch them go and see their strengths and weaknesses is very interesting, it just goes to show that regardless of natural athleticism (and there is plenty of it in the barn!) there is always much homework to be done and it's very interesting to be able to watch a wide variety of advanced horses and riders go and to see them all work through their own little problem areas, anyways that's obviously not something that we all don't know already but it's always educational to observe.  We haul out on Thurs morning for our next show, another CDI at the Jim Brandon in Wellington, jog is on Thurs with the PSG on Friday and I1 on Saturday.  We ride both the PSG and the I1 in the same ring where Nico had his big melt down at the first show, I'm actually looking at this as being a very positive thing (despite the fact that I'm well aware I will have to be on my very best game to keep him focused on me out there) as it gives us not only one chance but two to go back in that ring and hopefully conquer the demons from the last show (the last time we were there we only had one chance to ride in that ring so in the bigger picture of things I think it's really good that we will get to go in there a few more times, though I'm certainly not naive enough to think it's going to be an easy ride!:).  Once again the field of competitors here is large with approx 45-50 riders in the PSG and I1 classes, with 18 Canadians competing and riders from USA, Canada, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Columbia, Denmark, The Netherlands and Venezuela on the start list, should be an excellent class!

Working our way back up that hill!:D

It's getting pretty late here so am going to keep this post somewhat on the short side, but thought it was important to follow up on yesterday's post, after I'd had some time to digest everything, wrap my head around the info and work out a few kinks in warmup today things were much much more fluid, so there you have it, sometimes you have to take one step backward in order to take two steps forward!  It's always a much nicer feeling of course when things are going smoothly, but that being said if things go smoothly all of the time then they probably aren't going anywhere, someone once told me that in life you have to stay moving, at times this means moving forward and other times it means taking a step back but whatever you do you don't want to stand still, I think that philosophy definitely applies to dressage!  So the moral of the story is that all we need is a little patience and perseverance when things get tricky, the feeling you get when you achieve those little milestones along the journey far outweighs those moments of frustration, time to get some sleep now and we will see what tomorrow will bring:)

Frustrated:(

So as is the unfortunate nature of the perfectionist I am having a frustrating day, nothing serious, Nico and I will most definitely survive but we are working on changing a couple of things and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it, consequently when I can't wrap my head around things I often feel very disconnected from my horse, like I'm going through the motions but don't feel totally present in my ride as my brain is working double time trying to gather and sort the new information while focusing on the ride at the same time (it's a weird feeling for me when this happens and definitely psychological as I literally get off and my brain is full of information and yet I feel like I haven't ridden my horse at all-it's almost like a bizarre out of body experience).  I've never been inside anyone else's brain before obviously so I'm not entirely sure how most people learn or absorb information but for myself I basically try and take in every bit of information and then sort through it all and try to make sense of it, this way of learning has its plus sides and its negatives, on the plus side in the long run once I've got it all clear I have a very good memory for the things I've learned, I rarely miss anything and generally speaking am very clear about what is to be achieved and how to get there and how to use it in the future effectively, the major negative to this is that in the moments where I am in-taking new information and trying to sort it into my 'brain files' (as I like to call them;) I often find that I get overloaded mentally with information and feel like my brain is about to explode at which point sometimes I have so much going on in my head that I stop riding in the moment and then I get very frustrated with myself for not being able to keep my brain on task and then I get so paranoid about not making a mistake that I usually end up making mistakes I wouldn't normally make and that frustrates me even more, haha hopefully what I've said there makes sense and maybe some other perfectionists out there know what I'm talking about??  So I chose to ease some of my frustrations this afternoon in a productive way and gave Nico a stellar full body grooming and then clipped him out again (he had some leftover cat hairs from back home that he wasn't quite ready to part with so I had to break out the clippers and get him looking a little less scruffy-though I left his mane a little long, I have to admit there's a part of my that loves his afro mane-it so suits his rockstar attitude;).  Anyways, tomorrow is another day, Nico has been quite good as of late and is trying hard and I hope that tomorrow I am able to get my brain channeled the right way and working for me, often times the most difficult part of this sport isn't the physical part but the psychological part as what we are dealing ourselves affects our horse.  For myself I actually find the psychology of things at home much harder than when showing, at shows I feel quite comfortable and relaxed as once you're at a show you have what you have and all you can do is go with it and do your best, on the other hand the psychology of the day to day training is much more difficult as that's where you have the biggest ups and downs, the ups are great-when you have those lightbulb moments and things click it's unreal but the downs (and I don't mean 'down' in a negative way but in the manner that when you go in to work on something it changes the timing and aiding between you and the horse and often results in a 'lull' in the training where things aren't going as fluidly) are never easy to go through, I wanted to write about this here as I've watched many students of mine go through these ups and downs over the course of the years and often times they get very stressed about those downs, with experience you know that the 'downs' are merely breaks before the next peak so you forge on and find your way back up the hill but it's never easy no matter what your level and there's always the fear of losing something that you've worked so hard to achieve but we have to stay brave in the approach and try new things otherwise we would never learn anything and never go anywhere.  So as I've said, tomorrow is another day and I know things will get back on track so in the meantime I will keep riding the training wave and get my head wrapped around it, and to anyone back home going through any training lulls now or in the future just keep working your way through it, there is light at the end of that tunnel somewhere I promise!:) (and I apologize for the wordy post and hope that it makes sense as I think there is value to be learned from it, plus the very act of writing about it is also educational for myself:)

Robert Dover Clinic Day #2

So today we hauled out to Wellington again for day two of the training clinic with Robert Dover, today was a test practice day so we went out and had about a half hour warmup session in the indoor ring with Robert and then went straight over to the outdoor where a dressage ring was set up and schooled through our choice of test (I rode the I1), after we schooled through a couple of the trouble spots in the test, it was really great that this scenario really simulated a show (minus the spectators, tents and vendors but as close as you can get to simulating a show without being ridiculous plus the fact that we hauled in added to the effect of being at a new venue under show pressure so it was great to be able to school and correct some things under show ring circumstances-so often in the show ring you get what you get and you're being judged so you can't go back and school something that didn't work so it was great to have the opportunity to not only practice the test but then go back and work on some of the things that didn't go so well).  So the warm up went quite well today, we starter with the canter work just getting him forward into the canter into the outside rein until he started to relax and breathe and then we worked through a couple of the serpentines from yesterday to get him more balanced and supple and then started working through the movements that would be in the test piece by piece, it was interesting because we changed some things in the canter yesterday and suddenly my tempis weren't working so well anymore (it's always interesting to me how that happens when you change something and lose something else-I'm not concerned about it as the tempis have always been one of Nico's easiest movements and have had this hiccup happen before when we've worked on the throughness in the canter before so I know in a day or so they'll be back to normal but I always find it interesting how that happens it's like the timing changes a fraction so the aids don't go through quite the same anymore), the pirouettes felt better in the schooling today, after we were satisfied with the canter work we did a few minutes of trot touching on the shoulder in, half passes and extensions and then headed right over to the ring (same conditions as a show we trotted directly over to the outdoor-Nico was very brave trotting by the giant sand pile, rocks and over the little bridge with flowers by it across the field to the ring, dropped our whip at the gate and rode the test), Robert stood at C and we had our rides videoed so that we could hear his feedback and see what it looked like ourselves which was great, our trot work went about really quite decently, a couple of the transitions from the extended trot to collection felt a bit sticky to me but when I watched it it actually didn't look as sticky as it felt, the walk tour was quite decent and the canter work was where we had some struggles, Nico's been a bit fresh and strong in the show ring down here which is different than he has been in the past and it works nicely for some extra expression in the trot but in the canter sometimes it means blasting through the half-halt, consequently my extended canter was one of the best I've felt on him and the threes were okay, the first pirouette he felt good in to my outside rein but when I rode out he escaped the half halt a bit and consequently I didn't have him enough in my outside rein in the right pirouette which resulted in him spinning a bit and losing his legs behind, the twos were okay up until the last one where he went through my half halt at the end which was unfortunate, the final trot extension, transitions and center line felt quite decent.  So after we went back and worked through the canter tour in pieces to improve it, we worked on the zig zag mainly because I didn't ride a good line in the first go around (I've always been careful not to ride the half passes in the zig zag too steep and consequently I got a bit paranoid at the last couple of shows that I wasn't riding them steep enough and ended up overcorrecting them and going too much sideways, oops!;) so we cleaned that up and got the accuracy back on track!) then we schooled through the pirouettes again making them a bit bigger and with more jump behind to avoid the falling through the inside leg (moving it in and out of a working pirouettes to keep the control) and then we worked some on the tempis just trying to keep him more over the back and in the half halt in them (he had a good little exercise at the end as Nico tends to rush out at the end of the tempis sometimes so we added a quarter pirouette at the end of the diagonal onto the short side to get him back on the half halt before the turn which was pleasantly effective!  So all in all the clinic was quite successful and Robert had lots of positive things to say and some good constructive criticism of what needs to be cleaned up and some good exercises to go about it and it was another chance to get Nico out and about in a new venue (Stillpoint Farms is a lovely facility as well!) so all in all a positive clinic!:D