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Speedy and I are still slogging away at Third Level. Everything is improving, and we're even schooling movements from Fourth Level, but it's still a struggle. Even so, once we get to show again, I am feeling pretty confident that we'll get the last score we need for the Bronze Medal. Until then, we just keep working away at helping Speedy be more supple so that the half passes get more fluid. I had a lesson last week with Chemaine Hurtado, owner and trainer at Symphony Dressage Stables, where we worked on just that.  After activating the inside hind leg. I've said this about a billion times: Speedy loves to go forward. He really gets into it, lifting his back and pushing off. His extended trot just gets better and better. It's the lateral work that he's not so fond of. And at Third Level, that means half pass. Every time Chemaine comes, it's the same sob story, help me fix the half pass.  Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. We've been working hard at getting Speedy to engage his hind end so that he can sit and carry more weight. He's still not actively using his hind all of the time, so Chemaine did some tapping with the whip while I kept him at a walk. We're looking for a feeling of piaffe, and he's definitely getting it. I can really feel it in the walk pirouette.  Finally agreeing to tuck his pelvis a bit. Once his hind end was really engaged, we moved on to the shoulder in. Everything we're working on right now is to increase his overall suppleness. As I ride, I over-flex him laterally and tell him we're doing it just because he can. I don't hold him in the flexion, I just over-flex, and let go. Every time I do, it shows him that he can hold the bend himself without being so heavy in my hand. It's definitely a work in progress.  Over-flexing in the shoulder in. We're really tackling two big issues, keeping his hind end active and engaged while also being able to bend and stay light in my hand. When we get those moments, they make all of the slogging worth it.  Hind end engaged and maintaining a bend. He sure is lovely! During this lesson, Chemaine had me work on two exercises: using a leg yield or shoulder in the trot half pass, and using walk pirouettes in the canter half pass. Neither one was easy, but they both helped me see why we struggle in the half pass. The main issue we're having is that Speedy wants to lean and fall in on the inside shoulder, particularly the right shoulder.  Not just leaning, but falling onto the inside right shoulder. It's really hard to wrap my head around how switching to a leg yield or a shoulder in during the half pass will help fix it, but it did. Chemaine had me do a half pass right, and the instant I felt like he was heavy on my inside rein, she had me switch to a leg yield left with an emphasis on pushing his inside hind over. With his hind end over, it repositioned his front end for a straighter half pass. Another thing that helped was as we came through the corner, she had me open my outside rein to draw his shoulders to the rail so that he could pick up his inside shoulder rather than pivoting on it which is why he falls in on that shoulder in the half pass. Here's a quick video of her explaining. The last exercise we did was using the walk pirouette to help Speedy maintain the bend in the canter half pass. We started with walk pirouette circles. Once he was on my outside rein, I asked for the canter. Anywhere in the half pass that I felt like I was losing the bend, I brought him to a walk and immediately did a walk pirouette. That exercise really helped Speedy understand where his haunches need to be in the canter half pass. Back when I was just starting out at Intro A, I just knew that once we got to Training Level, everything would fall into place, and things would get easy from there on out. I felt the same way as I was staring down First Level, and then Second Level. The reality is, for me anyway, we're never going to just get it and grab our Gold Medal as we piaffe our way down centerline. No level is going to come easy for us.  While it's highly unlikely that we'll ever earn a USDF Gold Medal, and we might not even get that Bronze Medal, I can say that we're enjoying the journey. While Speedy has never said so himself, I feel safe speaking for him.  Every once in a while I stop and look at all the miles we've traveled. I would have never guessed that here is where that road would lead. I guess my point is this: keep on keeping on as long as you're enjoying what you do, and take time to appreciate your accomplishments.  And if you can find someone with whom to laugh along the way, all the better.
This should really be just a lesson recap, but at the end of Sunday's lesson it was decided that I should do an upcoming February show instead of the later March show. All of a sudden I am in show prep mode. A few days ago, I was tagged by a Facebook friend when she shared a video of an amazing horse. If you can, watch it really quick; it's worth it. If you can't see it, it's a two minute video of a stallion riding shoulder in to half pass and then extended trot. Not just riding it, but killing it. Oh, to ride that just once. After watching that video, I swear I rode better. And if I didn't actually ride better, I at least rode with a better idea of what I was trying to achieve. During my lesson a few weeks ago, Chemaine Hurtado, owner and trainer at Symphony Dressage Stables told me to start the half pass with a shoulder in. She's been saying that for the better part of a year, but I finally stopped Speedy in his tracks and asked, "You mean a literal shoulder in? Not think shoulder in?"  An unrelated moment from the lesson. It shows Speedy LAUNCHING himself out of the corner and me getting left behind because I wasn't expecting such an effort. I could feel her eyes rolling in her head. "YES!" she maybe, sort of shouted. From that moment on, our half pass has done nothing but improve. For so long I've been trying to ride a shoulder in while still in the corner rather than as we come out of the corner. By maintaining the bend through the corner and then riding a shoulder in just past K or F before beginning the half pass, I've been able to position Speedy's body in such a way that I have better control over his haunches. Sometimes I am amazed at how stupid I am.  A stride or two later. He's not round nor is he lifting his back, but I was so unprepared for the power that it was my fault. I ended up bringing him back to a walk and starting over where we got a FABULOUS extended trot. So on Sunday, when Chemaine watched our half passes, I could hear her shouting gleefully, "Now THAT's what I am talking about! You have a half pass!" She said that would happen. She swore that eventually it would click for Speedy, and obviously for me too and then suddenly, he'd start working like a Third Level horse. We're finally at that point. To build on the concept of riding the half pass from a shoulder in, Chemaine had me ride a shoulder in to a half pass, and the second he leaned on my inside leg, immediately back to a shoulder in. Part of the problem has been that I am swapping the shoulders in for the haunches in which is most definitely not how a half pass should be ridden. I need his shoulders and his haunches to stay bent around my inside leg.  That's more like it! Our medium trot may well be our best movement. We have a week until our next show. There's not much I can dramatically improve on between now and then, but you can bet I am going to be riding that shoulder in to half pass like crazy.
Tomorrow, a flying change exercise that might give you a headache, but boy was it ever effective! For the first time in at least a year, I asked Chemaine Hurtado, owner and trainer at Symphony Dressage Stables, to hop up on Speedy. Not that she doesn't want to ride him, but for the most part, I am doing all the training rides with her coaching and teaching me.  Chemaine aboard. I made sure that Speedy was warmed up before she pulled in for our lesson because while she didn't know it, my plan for the lesson was to finally have her ride his canter half pass to see where we're stuck. Basically, I wanted to know if it was me, the mostly likely explanation, or him. As it turns out, it was mostly him. His canter half passes are weak right now because he just hasn't quite developed the reach and strength for the WOW type of canter half pass that I am expecting.  Crisp, clean flying change at M just because she could. It only took Chemaine a few minutes to figure out his issue. The main reason his half pass is a bit sticky, particularly to the right, is because I've let him lean on that right rein since the beginning of time. I am working on it, but it's proving much harder to fix than it would have been way back at Training Level. For now, Chemaine's advice is to get what bend I can and not be too hard on him. It'll come.  And back to me trying to wort it out. Chemaine did show me one exercise to help develop his reach and strength though. Just because it's hard for him doesn't mean I'm not going to work on it. Working on it is how it will get less hard. Essentially, the exercise involved half passing to the quarterline, moving his shoulders back toward the rail, and then riding forward in a haunches in. When the bend has been reestablished, move laterally into the half pass again.  He was not a fan, but it worked. The first time I tried it to the right, Speedy ran headlong into to my right rein. We had a little discussion about it, and then we tried it again. The feeling is of moving the shoulders out of the way toward the rail to allow the haunches to swing in. It's very difficult to do when you're falling in on your inside shoulder. Once we tried it a few times, he got much more supple, and the half pass did improve.  That hind leg! Now we need to get the right stepping as deeply. We now have several new exercises that we can do to free up his shoulders - counter canter 20-meter circles with 10-meter true canter circles at each "corner," pivoting out of the corner, and now this half pass to haunches in exercise.  I like that his croup is dropping a little bit here. We're Not-So-Speedy-Dressage for a reason.
Actually, the exercise does a lot more than collect the horse. It also teaches him to want to move forward and to like it. But first ...  Earlier this week I had a lesson with Chemaine Hurtado owner and trainer at Symphony Dressage Stables. I imagine that if it were feasible for me to be in full training, which it's not, Chemaine would probably have a more structured system for my lessons. As it is, she sort of leaves it up to me to let her know how this or that exercise went, what we're suddenly doing well, and where we're stuck. And when I say we, I mean Speedy because he's the other half of this team.  Oh, this? This is now part of our warm up. Before we started THE EXERCISE, we did have to sharpen Speedy up to my leg and get him supple. There was a lot of half halt and a SURPRISE! tap with the whip. It didn't take him long to realize that a half halt was going to be followed with a suggestion that he engage his badonkadonk. You can see the result in the medium trot above.  Blurry shoulder in Since Speedy will always take the path of least resistance, we had to do the same sharpening up on the shoulder in. When he got lazy, I surprised him with a sudden tap with the whip to remind him that he is now required to have energy all. the. time.  Shoulder in to haunches in. A favorite suppling exercise of Chemaine's is the shoulder in to haunches in. She loves this for warming the horse up for the half pass. Speedy is not the biggest fan of the work because it's work, but it definitely gets him more supple. It goes like this: through the corner get a deep bend. Ride out of the corner in shoulder in. When you like the quality of the shoulder in - ours always needs more work, but whatever; reverse it to a haunches in. Again, when you like the quality of that, move back into the shoulder in. Ideally you should be able to get several of each down a single long side.  Haunches in all the way down the long side. By this point in the lesson, we needed something else to keep Speedy thinking forward and being supple. He can give me one or the other, but he hates doing both at the same time. Chemaine called the exercise passad. I googled the heck out of the term, but I couldn't find any reference to it. If I'm spelling it incorrectly, let me know.  One stride of canter pirouette. Here's how the exercise goes: pick up a collected canter. On the short side get the horse's stride as short as you can. As you come through the corner get maximum bend, and half halt with an open and back outside rein to really get the haunches under your horse. Then almost pivot through the corner. The point is to get the horse thinking about deep collection like in a canter pirouette. Come out of the corner with the horse deeply bent around your leg and looking at H.  Maximum bend with the haunches in. Now you can begin the half pass to centerline. Since the horse has been collected as short as he can, now is the opportunity to open up that canter for a more forward stride in the half pass, something Speedy hates to do. After a few of those super collected canter corners, he started to think that canter half pass was looking a lot easier. After you half pass to center line, stay on the same lead shortening the stride on a 10-meter half circle back into the opposite corner. Repeat. Here's video of Chemaine explaining the exercise and then coaching me through it several times. After going through it both directions, we repeated the exercise at the trot. Speedy's trot half passes suddenly developed a bit more impulsion. Funny how something you thought was hard isn't so hard when you replace it with something that is definitely hard! And then, just to shake off all that "hard," we finished up with some medium trot. Looking pretty good, Speedy G!  Our next show, USDF-rated, is in late October. We were so close to getting that 60% in mid-summer. I think we're definitely better than we were even a month ago. I think we really can do it this next time around.
But if not, there's always a next show! I am writing this on Saturday afternoon. By the time that you read it, Sunday's show will be over, and only then will I know how much of my Friday night cram session made it to the test. Chemaine Hurtado, owner and trainer at Symphony Dressage Stables, came down to help me do some last minute "studying" for Sunday's second attempt at Third Level.  I am not sure who looks more determined: him or me! Just like studying for a real pencil and paper test, we did the lesson in a sort of flashcard style. On the first card, I wrote Turn on the Haunches on the front, and then flipped it over for the bullet points.
 Hind legs are stepping, shoulders are turning. On the next card, I wrote Renvers (I hate you!), and flipped it over.
 Outside shoulder BACK! The Half Pass (trot or canter) card could really be Renvers part II; they're really similar.
 You,. Will. Not. Take. The. Rein. The Flying Changes card is so filled with scribbled notes that some of them may have crept over onto the front of the card.
 Just making sure that I know he doesn't have to if he doesn't want to! Jerk. Did all of this work? I'll let you know tomorrow!
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About the Writer and RiderI am a lifelong rider.
I began endurance riding in 1996 where I ultimately completed five, one-day 100 mile races, the 200-mile Death Valley Encounter, and numerous other 50, 65, and 75 mile races. I began showing dressage in 2010. Welcome to my dressage journey. 
Photo by Lori Ovanessian
About Speedy GSpeedy went from endurance horse to dressage horse. After helping me earn a USDF Bronze medal in the summer of 2020, he is now semi-retired. Speedy is a 2004, 15'1 hand, purebred Arabian gelding. His Arabian Horse Registry name is G Ima Starr FA.
July 2020 (PC AJSK Photography)
About IzzyIzzy was started as a four-year old and then spent the next 18 months in pasture growing up. I bought him as a six-year old, and together, we are showing at the lower levels. He is a 2008, 16'3 hand warmblood gelding. His Rheinland Pfalz-saar International (RPSI) name is Imperioso.
March 2021 (PC Tess Michelle Photography)
Bakersfield Dressage approved!
My favorite breeches!
FOR THE SMALLER EQUINE ATHLETE
I love her stuff!
Watercolor Artist and Friend
National Rider Awards
USDF Bronze Medal - 2020
USDF Second Level Rider Performance Award - 2018
USDF First Level Rider Performance Award - 2015
USDF Training Level Rider Performance Award - 2013
State Rider Awards
CDS Ruby Rider Award - 2018
State Horse Awards
Speedy G - 3rd Level Horse Performance Award - 2020
Speedy G - 2nd Level Horse Performance Award - 2018
Working Towards:
CDS Sapphire Rider Award Third Level: 63.514% Third Level: 62.105% Fourth Level: Fourth Level: 2023 Show Season
Show Rating (***) CDS/USDF/USEF (*) CDS (s) Schooling (c) Clinic (r) Ride-a-Test Clinic 2023 Show Schedule
TBD 2023 Completed … Pending 2023 Qualifying Scores
Regional Adult Amateur Competition (RAAC) Qualifying Training Level 3 Scores/2 Judges/60%: Score 1: Score 2: Score 3: Archives
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