Are You With Me? TRT Method to the Rescue

 

The first lesson after the Pippa clinic LM and I went over various things that were pointed out but LM had one additional overarching thought that Pippa didn't really touch on.  As LM put it, Cruise knows a lot of stuff but he does everything at about 50%.  Yes ma'am, I feel seen.  She wanted me to work on all the techniques that Pippa gave me but with one added element.  He must be with me and match my energy at all times.  When walking out of his stall, when in hand, lunging, when under saddle, and so on.

So, I knew this was right on the money but knew I needed some help with my use of energy and projection of energy.  I remembered the TRT Method's connective energy module and logged in.  It was so helpful.  The module goes over how to make connective energy in your own body by imagining small balls in your body that start to swirl faster and change color.  Connected through your feet, capped by the top of your head, and then sending energy out through your middle or your pinkie.  This stream of energy is what you want the horse to join up with and follow.  You are not driving the horse with your energy you are encouraging him to join up with your projection of energy.

I've got to tell you that this has been a game changer for Cruise.  Added in to his improved balance and my improved riding posture this has been amazing.  I've spent a lot of time doing energy work on the ground to get him more responsive.  Things as simple as forward and back from my energy at the walk in a halter.  Then I've taken that into more formal ground work.  The truly amazing thing though has been the under saddle work.  LM was blown away by how much he improved in a week.  Forward, matching my energy stream, and with a flowing canter.

In a lot of ways I'm finding the current lesson and clinic schedule really suits us but I think we're also making quicker progress because of the base of all the online courses I have cycled through.  Nothing quite put it all together for me like Legerete lessons but so much is familiar from my wanderings.  Really glad for the courses that offer lifetime access so when something familiar comes up, I have another detailed explanation.

Discovering the Kreuz

 

When Pippa gave me position corrections during my recent clinic with her, it sparked a memory of something similar I'd seen on a Facebook reel.  After some digging I came up with the German term Kreuz.  AI describes it as "the invisible aid".

Well sign me up.  I'm always somewhat skeptical of Gemini's answers, but after some further digging, I found an explanation of the Kreuz HERE on ridingart.com that is very detailed.  There is an unmounted exercise that is super useful.  I've been riding all week having my Kreuz somewhat in place and the results have been pretty phenomenal.  Check it out!

Balancing my Dressage Whip

 

So today I learned why I have so much trouble using my whip effectively.  See the explanation HERE.

The short version is that every dressage whip has a balance point and mine was about at the lash.  By weighting the top of the whip(with electrical tape) I changed the balance point so it is much easier to hold in position and use efficiently for tapping purposes in hand and under saddle.  Who knew?  Not me.

This all came about after my first lesson after the clinic.  LM gave a thumbs up to my work on Pillar 2, mouth/bit conditioning exercises, and rider position changes but posited that our root problem is that he doesn't stay with me.  He rolls at about 50-60% for everything in hand and under saddle.  Hence the need for effective use of the whip to tap him if his responses aren't immediate and to have him match my energy.

So we had a lesson full of immediate responses to my energy during leading, in hand, and under saddle.  Huge difference.  He is a bit offended but by emphasizing it on the ground first, we worked out a lot of the "feelings".  I still struggled though, to quickly tap him.  Enter Google and the realization that it was actually the unbalanced tool making things more difficult, not just me.  Who would have thought such a small thing could make such a huge difference?

Pippa Callanan Clinic

 

We did a two day clinic with Pippa Callanan this weekend and it went so well.  Pippa is calm, concise, and so knowledgeable in all the French Classical riding techniques and practical applications.  It was a delight and privilege to clinic with her and also to audit one full morning.

Key takeaways from the clinic:

*the posture you are doing the exercise in matters just as much as the exercise

*I need to be much more conscious of my posture and use it to sit tall before using the hand

*I tend to ride with my shoulder blades curled around to the front-instead draw my shoulder blades towards each other and then down towards my tailbone, lean back, THEN bring my energy up

*Cruise needs to switch to a single jointed bit-possibly a Fulmer

*Cruise needs more mouth exercises to loosen his jaw, hyoid, and TMJ 

*Cruise benefits from doing some Pillar 2 from BTMM before the in hand work -it gets his front legs vertical and thoracic sling engaged so we do the in hand in better posture 

*all the lateral work needs to be done in the taller posture-are you sensing a theme?

*all downward transitions in a taller posture not in neck extension 

*use walk halt rein backs in a taller posture to get his haunches to bend a bit 

*when he gets balled up/stuck go to a very forward trot in neck extension to free him up then bring him taller and back to work 

*everything starts with picking up the reins correctly(buckle in one hand, running the other hand to set the length), then correcting my shoulder blades and sitting back a bit, then raising my energy to walk off

There were many more details but these were the things that really stood out.  Cruise was quite well behaved with horses screaming and some commotion.  Distracted sometimes, but I was able to bring him back to me.  Such a good boy!  I'm planning on taking him to LM's for the week for the next 3 day Pippa clinic in July.  Until then we have tons of homework and lessons with LM to fill in the gaps.  So much fun!