We will have had lessons Tuesday through Saturday this week. It has been very exciting to build the passage and piaffe each day with Oslo. I feel I am finally getting the timing of when to "help with the leg", meaning to squeeze and ask Oslo to be more in front, and when to "trust him and relax and have a long leg". The latter is the harder thing to do actually! I used to come into the passage with the expectation Oslo was going to quit and fall behind the leg. Therefore, I would come into the shorter work with a lot of leg on already and have nothing left to get him in front once we were actually in the passage. Instead we are trying to get Oslo to maintain the passage with a longer, more relaxed leg of mine, and then when he starts to slow or loose the rhythm, I can put a bit of leg on for a couple of strides and build the passage again. It has been terrific as the passage is getting more consistent and we are even working on building the cadence in it now. The piaffe we are also starting to get more rhythmical and consistent. It is similar to the passage but the aids are even less and I have to focus more on keeping Oslo in front and his poll up. Otherwise, when the poll collapses, the front legs start to be more earth bound and he doesn't have the freedom in front to step up and quick. So the rhythm is thrown off and his hind legs are going perfectly, but the front are shorter and closer to the ground, throwing the energy and balance off. But trust me, it is a lot harder to keep the poll up and Oslo over his back at the same time then it sounds!
The canter with Oslo is also coming along and I am getting more solid and confident with the counting in the half-pass zig-zag. I swear that is one of the hardest movements in the Grand Prix, especially when you have a problem counting to 6! The counting is not the difficult part, it is the counting while changing bends and then asking for a change and repeating without panicking! The key is not to panic because it only takes a second to lose the count and/or straightness and then everything is thrown off from there. We are at the point now though where we are working on the quality of the half-passes in between, so we are getting there! It actually started to throw me off because Oslo was bending so much more in the half-passes, that it made it more difficult to straighten and I needed more time before the change. So there went the count again!!! haha, but with Lientje's advice and calming outlook, I quickly got it back :)
Cashew seems more relaxed again in the work and she has been so much rounder and over her back. She is starting to get a bigger trot and more expressive. Likely this is all because she is giving more in her back now and her suppleness has increased significantly. She definitely still has her tricks to try and do things her own way, but we are trying to work out an agreement!
Tomorrow is lessons and then Sunday will be a day of rest before our push in the last week.
Cheers from cloudy San Diego,
Lindsay + Cashew + Oslo
No comments:
Post a Comment