On Sunday I went with Jac to audit a dressage clinic that her trainer was organizing up in Coopersburg. The clinician was Ulf Wadeborn, a Swedish Grand Prix rider who operates out in California. It was definitely interesting to watch and a lot of what he said confirmed what I have been working on with Fred. I didn’t get to see that many riders but what I really liked was that he emphasized the training scale. He focused a lot on getting the horse ‘aligned’, meaning even on both reins. I find that when I get Fred truly aligned that everything gets really easy. I have an easier time maintaining my position and am able to ride smoother more efficient transitions.

I was feeling inspired so I decided to give Freddy a good flat school on Monday. It went really really well! I ran through pretty much all of the training level movements and he was great. I think that I sometimes cheat a little bit and use too much hand and sort of curl him up at the beginning of my ride, and then later have to really kick him up to get him to take a real contact. This time I started out trotting on a long rein and focused on keeping my hand absolutely stock still and just riding forward and rebalancing with my seat and leg when necessary. Well wouldn’t ya know he stretched right down and started looking for my hand almost right away. I trotted him around long and low for a few minutes then did a quick canter in both directions before really putting him to work. Once I shortened up my reins and got him to where I felt like he was aligned and taking an even contact on both reins I did some transitions just to work on getting him to really push from behind. He’s getting to the point where he really jumps into the trot (or canter) when I ask, which is great. Because he was being so good with the transitions, I decided to work a little bit on getting his poll up and getting him into a bit more of an uphill balance. It’s going to be a long process before he’s strong enough to really maintain that sort of carriage but he tried for me and was able to hold it for a couple strides at a time. He feels the most uphill right after we do a transition up to the canter so I try to memorize that feeling and duplicate it elsewhere in my ride. Really the hardest thing for me is to not allow him to pull on me. When he gets tired or lazy he will try and just lay on the bit and have me carry him. Sometimes he will even dive down and really grab onto the bit and yank, which is really quite naughty. Every time he does it I know I need to boot him forward with my leg but I also have to remember to soften my hand and not give him anything to grab onto. This is especially hard when he gets crooked and starts to fall in on a circle and hang on my inside hand. I want to give with my inside rein, but if I do he just swings his head to the outside and falls in more. He does this to the left a lot which is weird because he was always weaker to the right so I focused a lot on working him in that direction and now he is being more difficult to the left.

I also practiced the stretchy circle with him in both directions and that was excellent. As long as he’s relaxed he stretches really well, but it’s when he gets distracted or tense that we can’t get it done. The other thing that I worked on a little bit was the trot lengthening. I haven’t really worked much on that with him but I think it was pretty good. I have to be careful not to let him just get quick but as long as I really pay attention to my rhythm he’s fine. He doesn’t have a very big trot so there’s only so much we can lengthen but I think it’s good enough for training level.

Yesterday when I rode I jumped him a little bit finally. I really haven’t been jumping him because his canter needed so much work, but now that the canter is better I figured his jumping would be better as well. Show jumping is really our weakest phase. Partly because the turning was difficult for him sometimes and partly because I tend to anticipate the fences a little bit and cause him to rush the last few strides and take off long. Because he’s so good, I sometimes forget that he’s only 5 and he’s green and needs me to help him sometimes. I just set up 3 fences in the ring, but I did it in such a way that I had a lot of options. I set 2 fences 3 strides apart on the far long side and then I set another fence on the diagonal on the opposite side of the ring coming off of a somewhat short turn. I started out just trotting back and forth over a little vertical just trying to do it quietly and land trotting and halt on a straight line. He was a little excited at first and didn’t want to wait. I eventually put the fence up a little bit to about 2’9” and did the same thing and he actually crashed through it one time because he tried to take off long and I wouldn’t let him. He paid much better attention after that and decided maybe I knew what I was talking about. I made up a couple of little courses and cantered him around and he was pretty good, but still wanting to rush the last 2 or 3 strides. I started counting out loud to remember my rhythm and that made all the difference. We’re only jumping novice height so really all I have to do is get a good canter and keep the rhythm the same and even if we don’t get the exact distance we want it’ll be OK because the fences are low.

I feel good about this weekend at Radnor. I was going to go to the barn early today before work and jump him around again but it was cold and rainy and windy when I woke up so I decided against it. I’ll see if I can make it out tomorrow before it gets dark and then I will flat him again on Friday and run through my test a couple of times. I am actually a little bit nervous about this weekend because I haven’t done a recognized event in so many years. I’ve already started packing my stuff because I don’t want to forget anything. Mainly I just want it to be a good confidence building experience for him so that is my only goal for the weekend. A nice quiet dressage test and clean jumping, and if we place that’s just icing on the cake.