Lesson Re-cap

Let's just preface this with the biggest thing that I learned last night: Have more confidence in myself to communicate what my horse needs. The H/J gals at the barn had a big fancy H/J trainer down from Chicago. They have lessoned with her before and really enjoy her "attention to detail". They all had good things to say about her both before and after their lessons. So it's entirely probable that I had a bit of a dud lesson and it's not the trainer's normal. She was nice and did have correct things to say about a lot of things. I want to say that I'm sure she's extremely knowledgeable and clearly is good at her job according to a lot of people. It could have been a fluke or a difference in H/J versus dressage or something else entirely, but I definitely had a disappointing lesson last night. Mort and I did a couple laps of long rein walk, then we stopped to talk about where we were and what I was working on. I told her we were somewhere between first and second and we work on through-ness, and connection, and crookedness, and all of the regular things. She wanted to know if we had any lateral work (that was a red flag since you should definitely have at least some lateral work if you've already shown first as it's vital in training a horse to use its body). I told her we had leg yield and shoulder-in and that we had haunches-in and half-pass at the walk. She sent us back out to do our warm-up. This is where I should have warned her that we had a bit of a long warm-up. I almost did, but for some reason I stopped myself. I think I was worried about coming across bratty. I was paying for her expertise so she should see what we needed and perhaps have a few pointers on the warm-up itself. I'm really bad about doing what an instructor says during a lesson and not having a conversation about it because I don't want to come off as too big for my britches. Anyway, I didn't say anything and we went off to our warm-up. I did another couple laps of long rein walk with a couple halts from my seat. I started in on our long rein trot and big changes of direction. I did one trot/walk/trot transition. I barely started to gather him up for connection and she called us over and asked me to circle and we got to work. Mort was still behind my leg. He wasn't using his hind-end or reaching for contact yet. We hadn't cantered, which is vital in our warm-up because it helps get him going. Overall, I was about five minutes into what is regularly a fifteen minute warm-up. Again, I should have interjected here and asked for those additional 5-10 minutes. If Mort isn't in front of my leg we have nothing. We have the Mort I had this winter who is sticky and grumpy rather than the Mort that I like who is fun and game. Instead, I got on the circle with my barely training level horse who was pokey. I wasn't having to kick him to stay in the trot, but he was underpowered. She talked about my position and that I sat crookedly and tilted my head a bit to the right. Those things are true and things that I work on fixing. She was the first instructor who told me to look at the left shoulder instead of the right rather than just to look up. It did help, but I'm not sure looking down is the right answer. It may help me mentally to fix the right head tilt though, as it at least gets me thinking about it. I tried to throw in some figure eights like I would in our regular warm-up. I tried to do my systems check of yielding him off my legs. She had us stop and explained that his haunches were supposed to follow his front end rather than yield out. It was good that she didn't see me asking for exactly that and she wasn't wrong that we wouldn't want to do that on a regular circle. But again, not ideal that I didn't stand up for myself and tell her that I had asked for it. At this point, I figured out that she wasn't sure I knew a whole lot. This is fair, since I never told her my personal experience. I'm always scared to tell new instructors that I've ridden through fourth level in case I come off as "braggy" or it doesn't look like I ride like someone who has ridden at those levels. We then stuck to the circle which is something Mort isn't a fan of at the beginning of a lesson. He needs those long sides to rev his engine, mixed in with some smaller circles to challenge his balance. Needless to say, I never got the powerful Mort that I know is in there. She worked us bending inside and making sure his haunches didn't swing out. She asked for more connection and a higher connection with my inside rein and a lower and more allowing connection with my outside rein. These aren't bad tips as long as I don't get too uneven. But, I knew that so much of our struggle to even maintain a connection came from Mort just puttering along, so I was frustrated. We did this both directions. We did go over some cavaletti which was fun. Mort has gotten a lot better in the last three years of me not doing them which was a pleasant surprise. I'm guessing it stems from me making him more responsible for taking care of himself the last year. We took a walk break and then finally cantered. She wanted a more forward canter but we were still stuck on a large circle. I did get him a bit more forward in the canter than I could in the trot because he thinks it's more fun. At this point, I could tell that I wasn't riding up to my potential. My hips weren't as open as they should have been, nor were my shoulders back. Unfortunately, neither of those things were commented on. She just wanted me to work on my hands and connection. We went across the diagonal and did a couple of simple changes through trot in the corners. The long sides let me start to finally rev him up. She did call me on not riding the trot strides in the simple changes which was good. Right when we finally started to get a decent canter, she asked us to walk. She made a comment that he was sweaty and could hear him breathing in the canter, so she knew that this work was harder than his regular work. This frustrated me even more because it was so, so much lazier than our regular work. He is a naturally very sweaty horse and is always snorty in the canter. She didn't know either of those things, but bleh. At this point, I had gone on way too long in the lesson to correct her. We had been so lazy for so long that if I called it out I would have sounded like I was just making excuses. We ended the ride with some walk work on contact. She had made a comment earlier in the ride that I was riding against the walk which is something that no one had ever told me before as I usually am good about swinging my elbows with his mouth. So I asked for some clarification on that. We worked on it, and as soon as I stopped thinking about my hands and just focused on getting a good walk she said that I had it right. I'm guessing that we were a bit off because he had been so behind my leg earlier in the lesson and now that he was moving a bit better it worked itself out. So, Mort never really got in front of my leg or moving into contact until the last walk work. I was really frustrated because he hasn't felt like that for a whole ride since our dreaded lesson in March. We're capable of a whole lot more and I hated feeling like he was getting sticky again. There are a lot of emotions attached to that feeling for me. It was frustrating that she never called us out for not being forward. Not once did she say he needed to use his hind-end more. She talked about lowering it, but wanted me to do it via lifting my hands and having good connection. That's part of it, but definitely not the first step. This is where I think there is just a difference in H/J versus dressage. Every dressage instructor I've had gets on us right away for Mort being underpowered. It was embarrassing that I said we were trying to move up to second level and Mort never got past training level work. I don't care that we didn't work on specific lateral work or "tricks" but he never had the connection and thrust and carry that a second level horse should have. It made me look like I didn't know what I was talking about. I almost warned about a longer warm-up at the very beginning, but I didn't. I almost asked for a longer warm-up before getting on the circle, but I didn't. I almost asked to canter earlier while we were on the circle, but I didn't. I almost asked to do some long sides, but I didn't. A lot of this comes back on me. If I had set us up for success, I probably would have been able to get more out of the lesson. But unfortunately, I get to stew about Mort getting almost a whole ride being behind my leg and I get to stew about looking like an idiot who thinks her training level-looking horse is almost ready for second.