March Week 3 Review and Week 4 Outline

Monday 3/16
I had a history final from 6-8. No riding for me!

Tuesday 3/17
Had a great ride. Schooled flatwork and really worked on moving off the leg, and bending. We did some bow-tie figures which went pretty well. I practiced a little bit of spiraling circles with her - I can tell those will be fantastic schooling figures, because they were super hard for her! It's hard for her to hold a smaller circle, but she spirals nicely out when I ask her to.
We got some pretty good canter work, although she was a little sticky in her transitions.
I am working on asking her to carry herself up, then stretch down to follow the bit. This is a hole in our dressage. She will lower her head to stretch out if you give her a loose rein at the walk, but that's not following the contact down, and at the trot she either won't do it at all or she speeds up a lot. I practiced a little at the trot, and seemed to make some progress, so I will make sure to work on this more in the future.
Still not flexing to the left. I believe she is locked up somewhere in her upper neck/poll/jaw - she won't turn her face, she just tilts her head and shoulder, whereas to the right she rotates that face easily. Chiro coming out on Thursday should fix that!
Mom hopped on to cool her out. This is part of our plan to get her used to other riders, since she tends to get anxious. I will probably also have Christy (lady who gives the Friday lessons) school her once or twice, since she is a very very good and soft rider who I bet will help Pandora's confidence in strangers.

Wednesday 3/18
Jumping lesson at Robin's. Pandora did great, was way calmer than last time we were over there! It definitely helped that we rode in a lesson with McKinna and her rider too. She was just lovely, alert and sometimes looking at stuff outside the arena but very responsive and mellow. We got some very nice jumping in, and I am working on all the things I need to remember over the fence - sit up, stretch up tall, wait for the fence, but release! I got it together a few times.
We jumped over a few spooky fences - even got a refusal, but it was downhill to a scary box fence off a tight diagonal turn, so I don't blame her at all. She jumped it fine the second time, and we schooled it about four times until I could get her to relax enough to take off from a reasonable distance instead of super far away. Not that I don't appreciate the athleticism inherent in taking the long spot!
Anyway - a very successful lesson!

Thursday 3/19
Kind-of day off - longed her, then she got worked on by the chiro. I was definitely right about the left flexion. On the left side, she needed adjustments high in the neck, low in the neck, a little in the shoulder, and a lot in the elbow. Some slightly lesser stuff down the right side. Quite a bit of pelvic rotation, and quite a bit of stickiness in the stifles. He also worked her tail a little bit because I mentioned that it's still asymetrically muscled underneath the dock, and afterwards she was so relaxed back there! I've never been able to touch the point of her butt without her tensing up, but now it's nice and soft. I was glad he came out.

Friday 3/20
Lesson at Poseidon. A bit of a frustrating one! For the flatwork, Pandora was extremely inconsistent. Perfectly understandable - she was trying to figure out how to move after being adjusted yesterday - but still very frustrating, when I'm used to such a steady horse. I didn't discipline her for it, since I knew what was going on. The canter was a little better. Also, hallelujah, we have developed a tiny bit of a half-halt at the canter! If I close my outside hand and add a little lower leg, I can actually feel a response. Not very much of one, and not too consistent, and sometimes I don't use enough leg so she breaks to the trot, but it's THERE and we've never had it before. It's very exciting. A huge step in the right direction.
Jumping was also a bit frustrating. Once again we did nothing but tiny fences for the majority of the ride. I only got to do some set at around 2'3 on my very last few rounds. I understand the necessity to do well over smaller fences, I really do. But when my horse is getting lazy and sloppy and isn't really learning anything over the small fences, I think it's time to move on.
THEN, she started charging down this one six-stride line. Really taking off. Don't get me wrong, I love that she builds energy when she locks onto a fence. But this was totally ignoring my half-halts. So, after checking with the instructor, I got the go-ahead to do a little teeth-flossing with the bit down the line to get my message across. I hate doing it, but it worked. I got hard in her face, she was totally surprised and backed off for the last few strides, then halted reasonably nicely. The next time we went through, she started to launch, but backed off at a strong half-halt. Since she clearly understood the point, we called it good.
An educational but frustrating ride, I suppose. I understand why it went the way it did, though, and it wasn't Pandora's fault. I am looking forward to doing some schooling on my own for awhile with the tools I have picked up recently.

Saturday 3/21
Day off. Free-longed the girls.

Sunday 3/22
Day off again.


Week 4 Outline

Monday 3/23
Solid dressage workout. Get some good forward canter work, practice adjustability at all three gaits. Practice canter cavaletti.

Tuesday 3/24
Rally prep lesson at Poseidon. I am sure we will school lots of fences, practice jog-outs (which I've already practiced!), and the like.

Wednesday 3/25
Get in another good flatwork school, this time in the jumping saddle. Practice lots of canter cavaletti.

Thursday 3/26
The tack-cleaning day...oi. But, I should still ride. Maybe a light jumping school, easy and relaxed.

Friday 3/27
Day off and free-longe. Today is the day we'll wash McKinna to prepare for Rally, and trust me, you don't want to plan anything else on the same day! It's an exhausting enterprise.

Saturday 3/28
Longe the girls, load everything up into the trailer, and head off to Ridgefield, WA for the rally!

Sunday 3/29
Compete in the rally. 3 rounds, with 20 minutes of warmup each - not bad. Hopefully we will come home feeling happy and successful!