Well…I’ve not shared as much of Jax and my journey this year through this blog…so I thought I’d do a bit of a year end wrap up and projection into next year.
Dressage is a funny beast and every single situation, horse and partnership are so very different. As an AA that started late to the dressage game I’ve only had the privilege to work on “dressage” with three horses. And they’ve all been extremely different. It’s been a learning challenge with each and every one…for different reasons. It’s also a different ball game almost every day. My right hip doing what it wants. Unable to rotate left. Left arm locking up. Right arm locking up. Looking down. Looking too far to the inside. Not sitting to the inside enough. Sitting to the inside too much. Not to mention…does your horse really have to pee? Did he sleep last night? Is there a mountain lion around? If you’ve done this dressage thing for more than a few days…you’ll know my pain (which is all of our pains). It’s not a sport for the faint hearted…or the weak willed.
If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll remember that Jax is a funny one. VERY smart and clever. Quite a thinker…but also quite a stinker! He’s a bull…but he’s also sensitive. Enigma this one. He has an opinion and it’s his way or the highway (or you have to convince him perhaps your way isn’t such a stupid idea). When I first sat on him a few months after Spice’s passing…he wouldn’t canter. My trainer was surprised I said yes to him because he was such a different ride than Spice…but I could feel there was something special in there. There is…it is just taking some time. He went from Training to 1st to 2nd very quickly doing very well. Then things started to fall apart a bit. I started to learn with this one how to 1. Deal with a different kind of “tricky” horse. and 2. How to actually train a horse up the levels. The first thing isn’t so hard. The second…holy moly. Thank goodness I have all that confidence given to me by Spice. It’s been over two years since we started lead changes. We still don’t have them reliably. If you’d asked me before we started them how long I thought it would take to put the changes on Jax, I would have said 6 months. Lol. Lesson learned. Some horses don’t figure out lead changes in a day. It seems it either takes no time (my trainer tells me that Spice never needed to train them…he just…knew what to do in like one day)…or it takes a million years. You’ve got one horse…or the other. Jax is unfortunately the other.
2023 show season came and went Jax and I did not move up to 4th level (does it bother me a bit? Yeah. I want to get back to PSG to finish my Silver Medal…but…it will happen when it happens). We did two shows at 3rd with some decent scores up to 64% (which is great without having changes). After 3 good scores at 3rd Test 3 I decided we’d done enough. If I’d needed to earn my Bronze Medal, we would have done it. I figured there was no reason to keep showing 3rd all season if the changes weren’t “confirmed” as…we’d just be throwing ourselves against the same wall over and over. So what did my goal driven self decided to do next?
We bounced down to 1st level. First level? You sandbagged it?! Yup. We did. But I had good reason. I decided I wanted to put together my first Freestyle (which I blogged about here). It only made sense to drop down to the lowest level possible to do the Freestyle since I had NO idea what I was doing. Also so we could do it twice and get scores for the Freestyle Bar. The Freestyle scores were a 67.39% for the first show and a 73.33% for the second with a few tweeks. The 1st level Test 3s we did along with those as warm ups earned us a 70.97% and a 72.08%…and some high point prizes! So we learned that Jax is more than capable at 1st level (we honestly didn’t score that highly when we did it a few years ago as remember…he would barely canter). And he long ago proved he’s more than capable at 2nd level as well.
So I’ve ended the season with a horse that a decent rider could with some work get a Bronze Medal on. Super! That’s a LONG way from where we were 4 years ago.
For your viewing pleasure, our 72.08% at 1st level. Not too shabby
So I could tell you everything I’ve learned about the changes these last two years…but that would be a lot – how to teach them…how not to teach them…work in the snaffle…work in the double…what to do when they bolt through the change…buck through the change…flail legs every direction like a spider on roller skates through the change…hesitate bonus step through the change…changes on the wall, changes on the center line, changes over polls/jumps, changes on the short side…changes on the circle…changes on the diagonal…changes as a direction change (figure 8)…changes on the center line with immediate asking of voltes after the change. I think I’ve literally tried it all…and have felt every single possible reaction to asking for a change too. But it’s honestly exhausting. If you’ve been there…you know what I’m saying. If you haven’t…make sure your next horse already has changes in them. Ha! I mean…we’re still plugging away at it…I’m still trying. He’s still trying. At least he knows now in general what I’m asking for…and he doesn’t gallop off with me anymore (usually)…or buck anymore.
I want to bring up one big thing that happened this year that kinda slapped me in the face and made me go “what the hell?” That thing was at my last show of the year. It was in the judge’s commentary. I’ve spent years getting things like “above/below bit” “head tilt” “needs more bend…angle…impulsion…” “needs less bend…angle…” “more through” “tactfully ridden.” You know the comments. But THIS judge. This judge wrote this (and we’re talking a 1st level test here)… “rider blocks mechanic of canter and outer hind (tracking left).” And this “blocked in canter, blocked in oscellation (rider)” Just to remind you…it’s the right to left change that’s the problem. “rider blocks mechanic of canter and outer hind…” DING DING DING DING! Turns out this judge used to be pretty well known as a biomechanics master (I would like to have him come clinic at my barn please)!
First…color me shocked as I have never actually had a lot of helpful comments on a dressage test…just the same old basic stuff over and over depending on the ride, horse and day. I’ve shown in front of MANY judges. I’ve never had a judge straight up tell me WTF the problem was. He didn’t know that I was struggling with the right to left change. He just saw me doing something that was making Jax struggle on his left lead. Me. I’m the problem. It’s me!
I mean…obviously…duh Rachel. It’s always you that is the problem. BUT we know Jax has a weaker leg due to an old injury. A weaker lead (and not just with me). BUT, we also know I don’t ride symmetrically (because I’m not freaking perfect unfortunately). Brenda had been trying to work on that lead with me for YEARS working on my position to try to help Jax out. Trying to make sure my hips follow correctly and I’m weighted correctly. Well from this comment I’m like…”Brenda…maybe it’s my hand? Maybe all these years of trying to help him out and hold him up on this outside rein is the actual problem?” Sure enough…throw the rein away…and (though it took him a few tries) he was able to do the change much easier. Freaking hell. It was my outside hand/shoulder contact not allowing him to move through…
Now that hasn’t been the only problem. There’s also the issue of him waiting when I straighten him before the change (but only the bad direction). He’d gotten in a habit of throwing himself over into the new lead (more like stumbling) that direction…so a clinician asked to simply work on staying on the right lead…and asking him for left flexion…and then left bend…without letting him change (which of course we had done back in the beginning…but you know…sometimes you forget the tools in your toolbox). I will tell you I had a very angry/confused horse for that ride…but he quickly figured out what I was wanting and after a few sessions he could go around the whole arena counter flexed and not change. Now I have to remind him of this on occasion…but he’s waiting much better now.
I’d like to say since that day we haven’t had a bad change. That would be a lie. We’ve had bad changes…even the good direction. He’s one that does better when he knows what he’s working on…but he’s also not usually paying 100% attention to me (because he thinks he knows what we’re doing all the time even when he’s wrong)…so the first change of the day is usually bad (unless I set him up for it like it is in a test…or out of a half pass where he makes the right guess). We still have more bad changes than good ones from the right to the left leads…BUT before that day…I’d maybe gotten three clean changes that direction in 2 years… Seriously. Now I typically get one every ride. It’s only been a few months. My last two rides coming back from holiday travels…I asked for three lead changes. The first one was bad (both rides) and the next two were good. That’s a HUGE improvement. 2/3 is an excellent step forward. I hope in a few months more they’re solid enough to go out 4th. The change the other direction is almost always clean (unless I set him up badly), though it’s sometimes a little dramatic/crooked.
You may think I’m jumping the gun here after all that…but he can actually do multiples in a line on a count…but that one change just isn’t always clean. We’ve been working on that for a long time…me asking him for changes whenever…as close as 3 strides between. He seems to think that’s fun…and I think he’ll like it more once that one change is more cleaned up. I know that Jax is never going to be a flying change schoolmaster. He’s never going to do them with great ease. There’s always going to be a lot of management going on…but if we can consistently do them together…I have hope we can keep going up the levels as long as he and I both stay healthy (and his mom lets me ride him).
Here’s our 73% 1st Level Freestyle if you’re interested in watching!
It feels good right now. I think we’re right about where we should be. They always say you should show a level below what we’re schooling (Jax and I to this point have never done that other than our earlier this year ditch down to 1st level). With everything else but the changes we’re schooling for 4th and PSG. Super collected canter, pirouettes, half pass zig zags in both gaits…all of this is being schooled and going well. In fact all those things are going better than the changes, but I believe they will come. We’ve even been regularly working on half steps and some passagey trot. He finds that easier than the changes…
So going forward into 2024 show season is a little tricky…not because of the training…but because of the show schedule. We lost 11 show dates to our local calendar year over year. Yeah…11. More than half… I’ve lost ALL of my favorite shows. Bummer! Now we’ve had to reassess and think about going to shows that are a few hours away. I don’t like overnights…so there will be LONG days of trailering in/out of shows. We plan on one at the end of January and another beginning of February…however…we’re not doing 4th level. What? Weren’t you just talking about doing 4th level this year? Yup. Hold on. I now have extra goals for this year based on what I did last year. First two (or three) depending on scores will be going out 2nd Level Freestyle and 3rd Level to work towards my Freestyle Bronze Bar and finish up my Bronze Medal with Distinction. Once those scores are done, we’ll be switching to a 3rd level Freestyle (to finish that Bronze Bar) and 4th level Test 1 (hopefully building up to Test 3 by the end of the season). That means 2025 will be the year of PSG (and 4th level freestyle to get my Silver Freestyle Bar). Depending on how the shows go… I may go for All Breeds. I’ll be foregoing any attempt at Regional Championships this year as I’m not interested in traveling to Southern California for them. I’ll probably skip our local AA show as well unless it is a freakishly mild summer with no big fires. That being said…it’s still an ambitious plan for 2024…2 levels of Freestyles and jumping up to 4th! I’m excited though. Let’s see how it turns out!
