Walk to Canter to Walk

Even though it was Christmas weekend, Chemaine once again made the trek from Moorpark to Bakersfield to give a few of us some lessons. I know I say this all the time, but she really is an excellent trainer. If you're in the Los Angeles/Simi Valley area, you really should look her up.

Chemaine's logo

All of Chemaine's students sport embroidered gear that features her logo. I've been hankering for something that proclaims I am part of the crowd, and now I have it. Chemaine brought me a "Team Symphony" decal for my truck. Here's a close up:

Equally as exciting was the "brag banner" that she made for me. Chemaine took apart some of my show ribbons and created a banner that I can hang in front of my stall at shows, or I can keep it in my office. It's so pretty that I hate to actually take it to shows because I know how dusty it will get. I'll probably keep it at home until we go to our next big show.

Pretty cool, huh?!

While that's all fabulous and much appreciated, the real point of her presence was to cram as much information into me as possible. While I've been taking occasional lessons from Chemaine for several years, it was only since this summer that she became my regular trainer. Now that I am riding with her once a month, the tenor of the lessons is changing, and things are starting to fall into place.

While I don't feel like I am in a program per se, I can feel the benefits of regularly scheduled dressage lessons. Chemaine teaches me something one month, I work the heck out of it, and she checks my progress the next month. Now that lessons aren't about trying to fix one little thing the day before a show, Chemaine can create more of a plan of attack for me. In the past six months, we've improved Speedy's canter tremendously, installed a leg yield, created the beginning of a trot lengthening, and created some actual impulsion.

So much to like here: poll is the highest point, he's slightly in front of the vertical (not behind!), and he's reaching really nicely.

For this lesson, I wanted to work on the walk to canter to walk transitions in preparation for showing the three loop serpentine at Second Level. Before we worked on that, I showed Chemaine our leg yields, transitions within the gait (specifically at the trot), and our ten-meter trot circles. Everything met her expectations. We still have work to do, but it's stuff that I can continue on my own.

Once we made it though all of that, we finally tackled the walk to canter to walk transition. I've been schooling it on my own, and the walk to canter has been going well. The canter to walk was where we were having tons of trouble. No problem is too big for Chemaine however, and this one is actually quite common. Right away Chemaine had an exercise designed to teach Speedy what I was asking for.

Walk to canter to walk exercise

 Essentially, the exercise goes like this:

1. Canter a 20-meter circle. Tracking left is easier for us because the 10-meter canter circle is easier tracking right.
2. Walk at centerline.
3. Change leads and canter a 10-meter circle.
4. Walk at centerline.
5. Change leads and canter a 20-meter half circle, or the whole thing if you need time to rebalance.
6. Walk at centerline
7. Change leads and canter a 10-meter circle.
8. After a few repetitions, change direction so that your 10-meter circles are tracking the opposite direction.

Of course, this all sounds simple, and once a horse can easily do a walk to canter to walk transition, it is. If your horse is still learning the canter to walk transition like Speedy is, here are a few tips to help him understand what you want.

• As you approach the center line, do a haunches in. This means send his haunches into the circle; left lead, haunches to the left. Conversely, right lead, haunches to the right.
• Keep your elbows locked to your sides and SIT. Ask for the walk as hard as necessary to get the walk. Tighten everything up to get it. Do not allow any trot strides. Speedy figured out pretty quickly that centerline meant a downward transition, but to make it easier on himself, he started trotting almost before I asked for it. This mean I had to keep the canter going with a lot of leg and a big half halt. Do not let your body trot, keep your butt deep in the saddle.
• Take as many walk strides as necessary to get organized before asking for the new canter lead. Since you did a haunches in, the horse's haunches are already where they need to be. Make sure you have a good bend for the 10-meter circle, even over-bend if necessary.
• Ask for the new lead. Don't forget to compress (using the outside rein) and ask for softness with the inside rein. 10-meters is a small circle, but if you've over-bent the horse, you will now be able to release the inside rein.
• Since the 10-meter circle requires the horse to be very bent from nose to tail, you should already be close to a haunches in. This is important as you again SIT and ask for the walk.

After a few repetitions, Speedy understood the downward walk transition much better. I feel confident that when we see Chemaine next month, our walk to canter to walk should be in good enough shape to start refining it.

​Chemaine also showed me a variation of this exercise that looks like this: 

3-loop Serpentine with 10-meter circles

This exercise will prepare your horse for the three loop serpentine in Test 1 at Second Level. It goes like this:

1. Pick up a canter lead on the long side. In this case, the left lead. Begin the first loop.
2. Cross the centerline, but spiral down into a ten-meter circle.
3. At the centerline, walk (see notes above about getting the walk).
4. Take as many walk steps as necessary to rebalance, but then pick up the right lead and do a 10-meter circle.
5. At centerline, spiral out and begin the second loop.
6. At the centerline, spiral in to another 10-meter circle.
7. Walk at the centerline and again prepare for a change of lead.
8. Canter a 10-meter circle on the left lead.
9. Begin the third loop.
10. When you get back to centerline (at A or C) continue down the long side in a medium canter and either begin the exercise again or cross the diagonal with a change of lead through trot and do it going the opposite direction.

On that note, I had a mini-consult with Chemaine about my showing plans. One of the things that makes Chemaine such an outstanding trainer is that she's very committed to helping her students achieve their competition goals, whatever they are.

I asked her if I am moving too slowly and trying for scores that aren't realistic. Through Introductory and Training Level, I didn't feel ready to move up a level until I was scoring in the very high 60s and low 70s. That has been my goal for First Level as well. At our last show, we scored as high as 66%. Chemaine reminded me that as we move through the levels, scores in the mid-60s would be a good indicator that we're ready to move up. 

I have a lot of work to do in January and February. I still want to show at First Level because I want to qualify for the CDS Regional Adult Amateur Competition and both GMOs' Championship shows, but I also want to start showing at Second Level. It's looking like that goal might be a possibility.

​More tomorrow, including video!