How the New Trainer is Working Out

The new trainer, let’s call her LM, is working out well so far.  I’ve had one lesson in-hand with her horse and two hauling Cruise in.  Both of the lessons with Cruise were in-hand, with the first mostly being about refining the flexions and in-hand work, and the second on lunging the Legerete way.  LM asked me at today’s lesson if Cruise and I would be willing to be her student exam ride for Phillippe Karl’s School of Legerete, which is kind of cool.  See an example HERE.

I’ve actually been using this student exam ride as a template for my work with Cruise, so I am mega excited to go through each phase, step by step, and add a lot of polish.  The plan is to haul in weekly, weather permitting, through the winter.  I really like LM’s philosophy of polishing up the flexions, in-hand work, and lunging before we move on to riding in a lesson.  I’m still riding him at home and he’s going really well, so no complaints here!

My homework right now is to get him responsive to my energy on line from a distance without stepping closer for reinforcement.  He likes to be on top of me for comfort, he likes to blow through my whoa a bit, and I like to use my body instead of my energy, so we are definitely challenged.  The flexions and in-hand are going well though and I love how he settles down within five minutes at LM’s place.  All that hauling out and riding with another horse this Fall definitely made a difference in his attitude when going someplace new.

 

A Little French (Classical)

 

This past weekend I audited a Pippa Callanan clinic at a local dressage barn, and WOW.  Seeing the lightness and gentle aids but the serious gymnastic progress of each horse in an hour was eye opening.  So much so, that I signed up for an in-hand lesson with the host barn’s instructor, using a school horse, this coming Saturday.  If things go well, I’ll haul in Cruise in the next couple of weeks after that.

I looked around on YouTube to find something close to the clinic exercises and found this GEM.  We’ve been playing with versions of the flexions, in-hand work, and counter-bending all summer, but when I followed this exact progression of exercises, Cruise and I had the lightest, most free, gaits and ride we’ve ever accomplished.  Much to learn, but I’m so excited to explore the School of Legerete!

Fall Frolics

 

As you can see, we got our ribbons from the ODS Championship Show and Cruise was very excited.  We’ve been plugging away, working on parts of First Level Test 3.  The trot stuff is all pretty easy for him but the canter still needs work, especially the counter-canter loop.  We’ve been doing a lot of counter bending at the walk and trot, working on getting better upward transitions in general, and doing lots of rebalancing at the canter.  We’ve also added in a bit of shoulder-in and haunches-in at the trot under saddle to get some strength and balance improvements.  He’s progressing but it feels really slooooow.

In other news our field trips have continued and we’ve added another horse!  The barn owner recommended someone with a dead broke quarter horse and it has worked out beautifully.  I pay her $25 to ride while I fool around with Cruise, first on the ground, then under saddle.  He’s been really good, a little nervous but able to focus back on me and after two sessions we’ve done passing at the walk and trot and a few horse shyness drills.  I’m hoping to continue this through October and then shift to adding in other horses.  We’ll see how things go.

I’d really like to ride First Test 3 this fall and get a 60+%.  It’s all going to depend on how fast his balance and strength progress and how the weather holds up.  So far, so good.  We’re having a gorgeous fall and we wish you the same!❤️

DSO Championship Show 2025

 

We filmed First Level Tests 1&2 for the DSO Championship show and I was quite pleased with our scores and placings.  Test 1 was definitely better than the first time we did it this year and I thought the scoring and comments were spot on.  See it HERE if you’re interested.

Test 2 was not quite as good as the first time we attempted it. Our canter transitions were not as accurate and that hurt our score a bit.  The good news is that we got honest to God canter lengthens, the bad news is our canter transitions up and down suffered in consequence.  See it HERE if so inclined.

We placed 1st in Test 1 and 2nd in Test 2 which was quite nice.  I feel like, as a learning experience, you can’t beat DSO for the price.  Tons of useful feedback and comments from at least an L judge.  Not the same level of stress as showing in person but a really good metric for how the training is going.  Next up continuing our weekly field trips and a lot of work to gain more suppleness at the canter before we tackle First Test 3 and the dreaded counter-canter loop.