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.

Field Tripping the Update

 

Starting in June we’ve been hauling out to a local boarding barn every Sunday morning.  I think we’re on outing 13 or 14.  Things started out pretty hairy with Cruise way over threshold and uber worried.  Bordering on unruly.  I’ve taken Warwick Schiller’s philosophy about this that any “misbehavior “ is about the horse feeling unsafe though, instead of thinking about it as a dominance thing.

Using TRT leading on a long line to bring his focus back, TRT clock face and behind/across for calming, and adding in the tension release technique have all helped.  He’s gone from super worried and unruly in hand weeks 1-3, to rideable after ground work and lunging weeks 4-9, to getting off the trailer calmly and doing all the things quietly.  Including cantering and walking the indoor on a loose rein.

We’ve been getting to the barn early when most of the horses are out, doing all the things and then quitting as the horses’ food is being prepared and they’re brought in.  This last week we unsaddled but stayed in the ring and started working on his feelings about horses being loose in the aisles, the feeder’s dog darting around, and all the other chaos that ensues.

The plan is to add this under saddle when he’s pretty solid in hand.  Then add a horse in the ring.  Then add multiple horses.  Then add cold weather, which is always a tension multiplier for him.  I’m planning on keeping my stall over Winter and hauling as many Sundays as possible with the weather factored in.

I can’t tell you how pleased I was yesterday (on a cool morning!) to have him get off the trailer quietly and sniff the ground, and stay under threshold for ground work/lunging/under saddle/scary chaos ground work.  It’s going oh so slowly, but it’s going!