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Pressing Onward

             A couple of years ago I started assembling some thoughts for a blog, but, oops, it became DRESSAGE Unscrambled. Other than The Godfather, Part II, I can’t name very many sequels that measured up to the original. So, now it's back to Plan A. I ended D.U. for the same reason that you stop eating potato chips—at the time I was full and, presumably, so were you. But like an old dictator haranguing the crowd, I’ve got my second wind now. 

You probably join me in observing that many, many riders get in their own way—by over-analysis, by under-analysis, or sometimes because they just ought to be in analysis. Dressage is full of Truths. You are bombarded by them in books and articles, during lessons and lectures and even over a glass of chardonnay at your dressage club meeting. Unfortunately, those truths are not all equally applicable across the board in all circumstances. Some obfuscate; others downright confuse. Navigating the whole shell shocking world of dressage is as fraught with pitfalls and booby traps as the task of Buying Your First Horse is to an unwary and unaccompanied novice.

            I certainly don’t claim to have a monopoly on dressage wisdom, but the same rules that apply to the human condition are equally valid as applied to our sport—exercise some common sense and avoiding the mistakes that everyone before you has made. And, for heaven’s sake, don’t take it all so seriously. It won’t make you ride any better.      

As before, the tales which follow are not arranged chronologically but in studied disorder. Some are meant to illuminate. Others to distract. Some just can’t stand to hide in the dark any longer.

Light and Truth R Us.

And, oh, by the way, feedback is GOOD! I'm afraid that within me there's an element of Alexander Haig after the Reagan shooting or Riff in Rocky Horror--"I'VE GOT TO KEEP CONTROL!" Consequently, this isn't an open contribution blog. Tell me what you think. If it fits in, I'll post it. If not, at least I'll have learned something.

           NEWEST

Burning bright in the forests of the night

 (posted 2-8-12)

            Remember the woman I wrote about in Dressage Unscrambled whose husband owned the circus? And she was panicky because her dressage instructor wanted her to ride her horse long and low for a year, but her husband said if she didn’t get it in the ring to perform soon, he’d feed it to the big cats? And the punch line was that after Susan helped her horse learn some of the tricks and fulfill the husband’s demands, ironically later that year the big cats ate him?

            Well, recently that woman resurfaced in our lives. Twenty-some years later she had decided she wanted to become a competitive dressage rider and earn her USDF bronze medal. In the interim her skills and her confidence had eroded somewhat, but being realistic, she had purchased a schoolmaster with the requisite credentials to accomplish the goals she had set.

            She’d chosen a big warmblood mare who had behaved well when she’d test driven her but conspicuously less so after she got her new horse home. That’s when she called me. Like four times in a day and a half.

            So I adjusted my weekly rounds to include a stop at her farm. “She just feels like she wants to explode,” the woman explained. “I’m even afraid to canter her.”

            I observed briefly and then asked to ride the mare. Her owner was more than eager to dismount. The horse was as she had described—really tense and feeling like a tightly wound spring. I barely rested my legs on her sides and she tried to dash forward. I said “no,” and she began to canter. I said “no” again and she started pitching and trying to pull me over her neck. Once I semi-gingerly got her re-ordered, we began again. Same outcome (and she was wearing a double bridle—normally plenty of brakes).

            I proposed we might lunge her to take her edge off. In the pasture on the end of very long line, she bucked and squealed and swapped leads for a good ten minutes. Changing direction, she repeated this display for another ten. We returned to the arena, but after all that, her demeanor was virtually unchanged—still tight as a drum and not imbuing me with an expectation of a future of mutual wellbeing.

            I did survive the hour. The owner never remounted. I was able, not to produce real relaxation in the mare, but to get her to stabilize and begin to go with a longer neck and a better tempo. I didn’t consider cantering that day.

            Leading her back to the barn, we discussed plans of action. Perhaps there was a soreness in her back or hindquarters that needed to be found and dealt with.

            Grasping at straws, I asked, “Do you have any other animals here?”

            “Yes,” the woman replied casually, “six tigers and three elephants.”

            “WHAT ?!?!” I managed incredulously.

            “Oh, yes,” she continued, “but just during the winter.”

            “Where are they?” I demanded.

            “The elephants are behind that truck,” she pointed. “Right over there. The tigers are penned behind those trees.

            Not meaning to be rude, I suggested that we might try the mare again somewhere else—like far away somewhere else—in case she happened to be concerned that she was being sized up as dinner. At that, I climbed into my car and proceeded on my usually low key, humdrum Wednesday route.

            A week later she sent me another email. Yes, the mare was fine when she took her away, but the woman had decided to sell her and try another schoolmaster.

            “I guess she just isn’t suited to being a country horse,” she mused.

            To myself, I thought,  “and just what country was she referring to? Africa?”

           OLDER POSTS

Three Little Words

 (posted 2-3-12)

            No importa.

            Mittel nichts.

            It doesn’t matter.

            In every riding language these phrases remind the student of an essential fact of training. When something goes wrong, be careful your “cure” doesn’t make things worse than the original problem!

            This is the Law of Unintended Consequences as it applies to dressage. Example: I was helping a woman with her sensitive FEI horse as she tried to teach the mare her one tempis. She could do “over and back” pretty well, but when she wanted to add the third sequential change, the mare would make a mistake and then hollow and retract. It reminded me exactly of a horse that nips at you and then immediately flinches and draws back, knowing that a whack on the nose is about to follow. This horse knew that a mistake would be punished by a sharp check with the rider’s hands and often an abrupt halt. That expectation practically assured that the third or fourth change would fail.

            Yes, we all know there are behaviors that need to be punished. A “gangster” who is trying to take advantage or intimidate his rider needs to be reminded of just where he stands on the food chain—presumably somewhat below his trainer. But very often a mistake is simply a mistake. Gloss over it and repeat the request, and many times the horse is happy and relieved to get the answer right. The less fuss this rider made, the more she just continued to ride the canter rhythmically forward, the more the mare regained her confidence and was able to make the 3^rd, 4^th, and even 5^th and 6^th change in a row.

 

            One of my favorite images which I inflict without remorse upon my students is “make your horse like a vending machine.” Make him universally prepared to instantaneously dispense whatever movement or figure you wish to execute. If he’s on the aids in shoulder-in, you aren’t supposed to have to write him another whole treatise just to make a canter depart or a medium trot. Everything is supposed to be percolating right under the surface awaiting your permission to come out.

            On the subject of unintended consequences, note that your horse’s vending machine has one unusual feature. Ironically, when it comes to restocking it, you don’t have to reload the items that you have used. You need to replenish the one’s you haven’t used enough!

            This is particularly the case as you proceed into more advanced work. If you only practice the fancy stuff, the “tricks” may work, but their quality will inevitably diminish. I remember one PSG horse who would get late behind in his changes, especially in a line of four-tempis. Over-riding him in the change didn’t help, but if I’d go back and make sure his trot-to-canter transitions were prompt, clear, and through, the flying changes would immediately be better. The Law of Unintended Consequences lesson: what you don’t do can hurt you!

 

            In a related matter, I met another talented mare being prepared for the FEI Five Year Old Test. She had plenty of animation, suspension, and a high, round frame. But her rider explained that the mare ground her teeth, didn’t like the sitting trot, and had difficulty making fluid transitions. Here the issue was another rider too eager to practice the “finished product” without stepping back to solve the original causes of those behaviors. This was a hot horse who ran against the hand and internalized her tension. For ten or fifteen minutes I asked the rider to forget all about impulsion and the volume of trot. Keep the horse in front of the leg but slow her down enough to relax and learn to wait for the pushing aids. Be able to stabilize her in a trot without constant restraint, even with her frame open like a hunter’s.

            “No one is judging this part,” I kept reminding the owner. “Establish a different relationship now and it will be easy to put the extravagance back into her. Fail to do this, and the two of you will always be at odds.”

            Yes, it takes self discipline and some faith in the system to go back to basics, especially if your friends are watching and they expect to see you doing all the fun stuff. But I’ve discovered this Dressage Fact by watching TMZ . . . I now know that those celebrity babes from the magazines don’t look like movie stars when they’re at the Safeway or picking up their kids at daycare. On the wide screen or on the red carpet are the only places where “the look” matters. The rest of the time—did you know?—they’re at home practicing transitions like everyone else.          

 BLAGGO ARCHIVES  

"Meanwhile, what are my ethical responsibilities? . . . Should I be silent and risk one of the old folks pulling it out of his dinner, examining it between his forefingers, and then fainting dead away into the corn pudding and green bean casserole?"

Getting in Shape

As Tears Go By. . . . Estrogen Poisoning?

"To paraphrase Tom Hanks in “A League of Their Own,” there’s no crying in dressage. Except there is."

Eyes, Why Shut?

"NOBODY can keep track of that many things simultaneously! But . . . . if you can conjoin handfuls of them into a few larger feelings, it frees your mind to concentrate on other important elements that do require more constant monitoring."

All or Nothing at All

". . . although she thought she was using her legs “correctly,” her efforts were like squeezing an old gnarly tube of glue but seeing nothing come out the nipple at the end. Finally, you just have to put that tube on the garage floor and stomp it to get the bead of glue to appear!"

Tired of Dressage!

"Traveling up I-75 at two in the morning with a limp tire and no spare is, as they say, not just tempting fate but giving it a lap dance!"

 

There’s Always Room for Bending

“An ancillary benefit is the sensuous pleasure you will derive from doing this, to say nothing of its inhibition-lowering function. But the trick is to get a generous mouthful of red jello and to hold it in one cheek.”

Tempus Edax Rerum  (When you’re having a good time)

“. . . 'Ordinary trot'—the term the AHSA used before the more universal “Working Trot” was adopted. Uneducated riders saw the old term, figured “Well, my horse is certainly ordinary if nothing else” and wondered why the judge wasn’t as impressed as they were."

Trick or Tweet!  (And other Judge’s Comments)

“ When I climbed back into the booth, I sat for a moment wondering exactly what advice I could write below the Collective Marks that would do her the most good. Thinking over the Twitter kid-craze (of which I am not a part), I decided the best solution was to dive in head-first with my first informal tweet.”

 

DD TD

“When the show management, the competitors, and the volunteers are all making references to “the Gestapo” and dreading the T.D.'s approach, you know you’re in trouble."

The Weighting Is the Hardest Part

“. . . it will give judges the opportunity to weigh in on the “viscerally pleasing” versus “vaguely unsettling” taste some rides leave in your mouth—to weed out the rides that ‘win but win ugly.’”

Sometimes Size Does Matter!

 

Visual Aids

“ My plan was to acquire a mess of them, sequester them on ice in a big cooler in the back of my car, carry them around with me to my afternoon lessons, and bring them home to Ocala for the evening feast.”

“. . . he was speaking of schooling a hot horse that wanted to rush its fences, but his metaphor has many applications in dressage training as well. He likened the many circles away from the jump on the approach and halts on the line in front of the fence as like putting deposits in a savings account. Enough deposits made in advance and a withdrawal when you actually jump the fence won't ‘bankrupt’ you.”

Do Geese See God?

What's It All About, Eberhard?

Tammy, Tell Me “Through”

"The question I asked him was like when you poke a potato with a fork to see if it’s done yet…. Or like when you push a wooden toothpick into a cake layer in the oven to see if it comes out dry or sticky…. When you gently touch the surface of gelatin with a finger to see if it has set…. Or pull carefully on an old rubber band to see if still has some “give” and it won’t just snap."         

"Fortunately, I recalled a story in one of the dressage books on my shelf that could put all this in context: Douglas Adams's The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. In it, he posits three stages in the development of civilization, stages which have their parallel in the development of a rider's understanding of a horse being on the aids."

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