Labor Day Lesson

Since I moved, I’ve desperately missed having my trainer for advice and weekly lessons. At home, I was lessoning once a week and we made enormous strides in 2016. My last lesson with Kendra at KClarke Equine was the day we discovered Goober broke his splint bone, so it really wasn’t a lesson at all. It was more an unwanted exercise for my checkbook.

Lately, I’ve been feeling like I need a refresher. I’m a capable rider and bringing him back carefully and correctly is something I was confident in doing on my own. Now that we’re out of the rehab stage and the weather is headed towards fall, I’m struggling with some concepts because The Dressage is difficult at best. I’ve only been in dressage lessons for a few years, and half of that time they were on and off because being poor means you pay board and get your pony everything he needs while giving up things for yourself. Like learning how to ride said pony. But as long as he eats and gets supplements, right?

While Goose has been coming along great and I’ve been working on a few things I know I need to improve, I am of the mindset that I will always need professional help to continue my education and improve. If something isn’t working or if we’re hitting a wall, probably time to schedule a lesson. Right now, I could use some professional eyes on the ground and a butt-kicking lesson to keep us on track and give me some ideas on what to work on. When I got a text about a last-minute clinic being put together on Labor Day Monday, I was all about it! I got paid on the 5th, so could totally pretend I could afford it.

I’d heard only excellent things about Kelly Bauer-Thrasher and was excited to see what we could learn from her. Goose is hard for some people to understand, and I’m so used to him I tend to make him look easier than he is. He is a drafty goon with very little work ethic and no motor of his own, and I’ve had a lot of people not understand how to work with a horse like this. I was thrilled to learn that Kelly has experience with draft horses with similar dispositions to Goose, and decided to focus on dressage instead of jumping in the clinic. Best to work on flat now while I get my jumping legs back on my own time.

I immediately liked Kelly when I met her. She was friendly, had nothing but great things to say about the horses put in front of her, and was genuinely interested in helping the riders work better with their horses. She didn’t have an agenda and took things as they came. I’ve been in some clinics where there was a set lesson plan and the instructor stuck to it. While that’s great, I get more out of individual lessons where we can focus on exactly what needs to be worked on, even if we veer off the original track. I got to watch one lesson before mine, then I brought Goose out of the barn. Obviously, I knew we’d get along great when she immediately asked who this big cutie was, because who wouldn’t think Goose is adorable?

We made our way to the covered arena (because the sun is HOT in South Carolina, just in case I haven’t mentioned it yet) and I told her a little bit about my background, Goose, and what we’ve been working on. I explained that we have no work ethic, no motor, and at this point he’s way more educated than I am because I forget that all parts of my body must be working together at the same time. Dressage is hard.

She had me start on a 20-meter circle at the end of the arena at the walk while we continued to chat. Goober was particularly sluggish and I completely forgot my normal warm up and how to ride at all. She had me focus on an inside bend, holding the outside rein steady, keeping my hands still, and with my inside leg at the girth, rolling my spur up in time with his outside leg. She explained that while he was giving an “OK” bend, he was not really using his body correctly. We had a few excellent moments, and then I would focus too hard on one thing and start doing the Macarena with my hands again. Back to basics, okay another good moment. Oops, now I’m doing the jive. Okay, focus. Change rein. Good! His right side is easier! Shit, lost the hind end. Gotta move it over. Yay he moved his haunches! Damnit, I’m doing the chicken dance now. Get it right, Alyssa! To be fair, I did warn Kelly about my busy hands and she was great about reminding me kindly and often.

The thing I liked most about Kelly is that she didn’t stop talking the whole time I was riding. She was a constant stream of corrections and explanations, and I loved it. If I’m going to be paying for a lesson, the instructor had better be telling me more than just to keep my heels down and change directions occasionally. She also took time to ask me questions and listened to what I said before responding with guidance. We discussed that one of my issues is straightness. While unresponsive to aids asking him to go forward, Goose is almost overly responsive to lateral leg cues and turns into a wiggle worm. I took the heat for this one and said I also get too busy with my leg and the horse really wants to go anywhere but forward, so takes it as an out. She laughed and said that he’s long-backed, so it’s kind of like pushing rope on the floor. It just wiggles and goes whatever way it wants to. That is EXACTLY how my horse feels sometimes, and the advice was to establish forward motion and for the love of god, just do LESS with my legs and hands, or rather use them better. Dance moves were not recommended. Straightness will come with strength and correct riding.

She also had another point that is going to change the way I warm him up. She asked me to step up to trot, and when I did, asked me to explain what I was doing. I advised that when I warm him up at the trot, I let him have his head for a lap or two before asking him to come down and work correctly. She asked me to explain my reasoning, to which I responded that with this horse I try to pick my battles and he tends to be more reasonable and willing if I give him his lap or two to just do his thing. Kelly went on to tell me that she’s had a lot of clients with the same mentality towards their drafty mounts; that giving them time to come down on their own works best. However, what ends up happening is the horses use up all their energy in that “warm up” time that they have nothing left to actually do correct work. She said that it’s not good to get on and crank their head down either, but from the moment you get on, they should be put to work and moving towards correctness. This totally resonated with me as we both run out of steam too easily, and while I think it’s still going to take a few laps to get him down and correct, I’m going to be asking nicely from the time I get on for him to be working. Sorry Goose, no more courtesy giraffe time for you!

As I trotted on my 20-meter egg, because let’s be honest, it wasn’t really a circle, I felt completely discombobulated. Nothing to do with Kelly or even Goose, more to do with the fact that I hadn’t ridden in five days and was a little over-tired from my weekend adventures at Tryon and in Hendersonville. I struggled to get it together and ride the way I actually know how to. I made some progress, Kelly had me walk, and then asked if she could hop on for a few minutes. This is another moment I knew I would really like working with Kelly.

As I mentioned above, Goose is a lot harder than I often make him look. He’s a lot of horse to hold together, often has an attitude problem (luckily he brought his good ‘tude to this lesson!), and is more leg than anyone should ever have to deal with. He’s not some impossible horse that only I can ride – he’s really quite safe and fun. But to ride correctly, he’s a LOT of effort. I’ve found that it can be hard for trainers to understand him for these reasons, and if they can sit on him and figure him out for themselves, they can better help me when I’m the one in the saddle. I love that Kelly asked to hop on, and was more than impressed with how she got him going. She put big spurs on, think western wheel but with dulled points on an English spur, grabbed my whip, and very nicely made my horse work harder than she was. Well, almost because she did work very hard.

The moment she got on she exclaimed that she was already exhausted, he was a LOT of leg! She was very fair to him, and as she worked through getting him to correctly bend, walk and trot on the bit, and even hold himself in self-carriage, she explained everything she was doing. Outside rein steady, inside hand opened to the inside sometimes exaggerated to try to unlock him. Everything she was doing was asking him to submit to her aids, and bless his heart (I can say that now, I live in the south) he finally realized it was easier to just give in. I learned so much from watching her ride, and when she asked if he had any laterals, I said yes of course. He has leg yields, shoulders in and haunches in, turns on the forehand and haunches. He’s technically capable of all of it. I also declared these are areas I struggle to hold him together and keep him straight and correct. So off she went, leg yield corner to corner up the diagonal. She reminded me that the crossover of their legs is the most important here, and something that he needs to work on a bit more. He likes to just lead with his shoulder and trail his hind, so with a whip just continue to ask him to move the hind in time with the front. She did a few shoulders in as well and talked me through what she was doing to me after I told her they’re the bane of my existence. Apparently, they’re way easier than I make them out to be. Goose did them perfectly, and I just over think. Sometimes, I hate my brain and its overreactions.

Then she cantered him. And oh, what a canter it was. She loved his rocking horse gait, and had him in total self-carriage, reins loose, his neck proudly arched, light in his feet. I’ll be damned if my unicorn didn’t look every bit the part of a fancy dressage horse. Proud mama moment! Poor Goose is totally going to regret showing me what he is capable of, because that is what we will be working towards for every ride.

I hopped back on and he was much easier for me at this point, and I was more on the ball with my aids. I had some truly lovely moments at trot and canter, and laughed as I promised Kelly I do know how to ride sometimes. She had me do an exercise to work on shoulder in too, which I’m excited to add to my rides. We walked straight across the short side of the arena, turn on the haunches to go up the long side off the track (basically a quarter pirouette), leg yield out to the track keeping an inside bend and then ask his shoulder to come in, continuing to keep the bend. I had a few successful moments and know what we need to work on.

My major takeaways and homework:

• Make Goose work harder than me and submit (HA! Good goal.)
• Hands are for bending and holding, not for dancing. Shorter reins are needed, no fighting, just asking until he gives, then I give
• Legs are not for dancing either. Inside leg at the girth, squeezing or rolling spur up when his front outside leg is going forward
• Correct leg yields corner to corner with a focus on him really crossing over front and hind
• Shoulder-in exercise: Straight across the short side, turn on haunches to walk up long side, leg yield to track, keeping bend ask for shoulder-in
• Goose has two good gaits: walk and canter. Trot can and will be improved

We went over far more than just these key points, but these are what I most want to focus on in the next few weeks. I want to establish all of this at the walk, then work towards the trot and canter with these same ideas. I also saw some fun exercises she did with other riders than I’m excited to try out too. It was a great day of learning, and I enjoyed watching all the others’ lessons. She hopped on a few of the other horses too, and when they were naughty or mad, she would laugh and say “oooh, he’s mad look at that!” and just keep on asking. She never got angry, aggressive, or frustrated, just did what she needed to do with an explanation and advice. The horses all seemed to like her and I was truly impressed.

Hopefully, I can try to get in some semi-regular lessons from now on. I’m diligent with homework, so I think if I can manage once a month and add in some extra as funds allow, I can continue to make progress and keep us headed in the right direction. I enjoyed Kelly as a trainer and as a person, and hope that Goose and I will be seeing her more often. Goober can have today off, he was a very good Goose after all, and we’ll be back to the grind later this week.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to ask someone to video for me. Womp womp. Hopefully next time I can ask someone to take some pictures and videos for me so I can show off Goose doing the fancy thang. For now, here’s a picture of him looking like an alien, and some other pictures from this weekend’s adventures.

Friday night I was packing Zuzu's backpack for our day at Tryon Saturday. She was very concerned I was leaving without her and dragged her pack to her bed.

Watching show jumping at Tryon

The view from my cousins' porch in Hendersonville

Zuzu audited all the lessons yesterday!