The Sally Cousins Clinic

It happened yesterday. A jump so perfect it felt like we were flying. So perfect I didn’t feel like Surya and I were jumping and I was trying put all my pieces in the right place; I was Surya and Surya was me and we jumped. It was like water flowing over smooth stone, or exhaling with a hard struck electric guitar chord. Or…whatever, you know what I mean.

It happened because Sally Cousins came and taught a clinic at our barn. Sally is an eventer that has competes horses at the highest level, is aiming to compete at the WEG 2014, and was the Leading Lady event rider in the U.S. the past five years running. She has many well-known horses, but her most famous is The Robber Baron, who was the 2011 Intermediate Horse of the Year. Sally’s website is here. My trainer is a student of hers. So I was very excited but also worried that our (my) jumping ability was not up to snuff.

To make me feel better, Surya got her mane and tail brushed yesterday morning, and then we headed to the jump arena in a slightly nervous state (okay, fine, it was more an “I” than a “we”). We warmed up fine, albeit with one dropped rein and slipped stirrup. We stopped, and I gave myself a mental talking to. Get your shit together NOW. And stop being such an irritating wuss. okay Sufficiently motivated, we were prepared to jump. Sally had us warm up for jumping by trotting over a cross-rail in both directions. That went fine, and I relaxed into the saddle a bit. Sally then watched us go over verticals, oxers, and a four-stride at the canter.

I still have a problem of swinging my lower leg too far back and landing on Surya’s neck. I try really hard not to. My trainer tells me to ‘land in my feet’. Sally said ‘keep your leg forward’. I did a little better with that phraseology, but still lost it over the jump. But THEN Sally changed tactics. She squinted a bit, watched my body over the jump, and then said ‘hold on with your thighs and knees’. It would maybe appear that I do not need to do this, as I completely lose my lower leg and it seems that the only thing I am doing is holding with my thighs and knees.

But I wasn’t really. I was pivoting on my knees, and losing my balance forward. She clarified, ‘hold on in the air’. We went to another jump and I tried it. It worked perfectly! I was following Surya over the jump, and I could use my lower leg, which meant I could swing it forward! Which meant that I didn’t land on Surya’s neck.

Now, my trainer has told me many times to ‘keep my knee next to the tack’. First, that is not the same thing as squeezing. Second, I think I felt reluctant to hold on too hard, because in dressage, squeezing with the thighs and knees means to slow down, become more collected, or stop, and that is not the reaction I wanted while jumping. But I guess with the more forward seat combined with continuing to apply lower leg it doesn’t mean the same thing? At least, Surya didn’t interpret me holding on better as a request to slow down or stop.

Sally had me jump a corner and a bounce, both of which I’ve never done before, and a chevron, which we’ve only done a few times. It went great! And then the perfect jump happened over the corner, and we were done.

Plus, Sally Cousins said she liked Surya!

A technical question that I asked Sally: A horse takes off a certain distance from a jump. If the horse is jumping the same jump at an angle, should it take off the same distance away from the jump, or from further away? I’m not asking about seeing a distance, but rather holding all else equal.

Answer: The horse should take off from the same distance in both situations. That being said, taking off from further away is less risky because the horse can be lazier with its inside hind (the one closer to the jump), and so you are less likely to get a rail. But, the distance will be ‘gappy’ and coming out will be more awkward. So jumping closer is riskier but more technically correct.

Compression v. Blocking

Well, I’ve made my point. If I shove Surya over with my inside leg, hold onto the outside rein, and open the inside rein, she will bend her neck to the inside and move off my inside leg.

In the process of insisting on this, and trying to muscle her into a bent round frame, I have completely eliminated her natural impulsion from behind. Also, instead of pushing her to the bridle, I have pulled the bridle into her. In essence, rather than compressing her into a bundle of collected potential energy, I have blocked forward movement.

Because of the holidays and other circumstances, I hadn’t had a dressage lessons for a few weeks. As we trotted around for our trainer this week, she said to get more impulsion from behind and squeeze. We tried a few circles of this, and then my trainer got exasperated and told me to drop the reins completely. Surya stretched her neck down and out and moved forward into a beautiful swinging trot. Then, my trainer said to push Surya to the bridle by squeezing with my legs, but not changing my posting rhythm. Surya reached out, touched the bit, and got rounder.

To be fair, I’ve received this instruction many times before and have theoretically tried to implement every time I ride. But after almost two months of focusing on only applying pressure with one leg at a time (the inside!), I have gotten very lazy with my lower legs. Squeezing is difficult. Also, without the reins defining a dramatic bend, my legs have to do all the directional, bending, and impulsive work. (Owie.)

I really like how light Surya got in the contact. Rather than pulling against the bit, she lightly mouthed it with a slight pressure. Of course, she was very light in the contact last March, but had a tendency to lose the contact completely and get behind the bit. Over-corrections are good? I know the amount of contact has a great deal to do with personal preference, but I think I like the light contact better. Two months ago, though, if I rode like I rode this week, I would have had no directional authority, would not have been able to define a bend, and she would have traveled on the inside rein.

I feel like there’s been two months of pressure….and now that she’s got it, release. An extension of moment-to-moment horse training. Because I am so green, I tend toward over-correction and extremes. But, do all horses go through more contact/less contact phases? Is it alright to sacrifice impulsion and freedom to stretch to the bit in order to teach inside leg to outside rein?

Surya either didn’t understand moving off my inside leg, traveling on the inside rein, and bending to the inside rein, or she was being stubborn and didn’t want to do it. So I made the reins short and got very insistent. Now she gets it and does it, and does it even when the reins are long. Maybe, if I had a do-over, I would approach the concept more slowly, and let her come to the idea without limiting impulsion or taking such a heavy grip on the reins (aka, let her be happier). If I don’t get something, I take a hammer and school it and school it and school it and drill drill drill until it’s right. Subtlety is not my strong suit. Is that a bad thing? Something to think about.

In other news, I lengthened my stirrups a hole! And it felt better than when they were shorter instead of difficult or weird.  Hooray!

In yet more news, Sarah from West 12 Ranch Kigers sent me this very informational video of a clinic by JP Giacomini on bending, half-passes, and weight. It blew my mind a little, and made me confused before I thought about it. I particularly like his comment that horses don’t bend like cats. I knew this, but it made me realize that I need to study how horses DO bend. Because there is a basic idea, but then a whole lot of nuance that I don’t understand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWl4tvtZYGg
(for whatever reason I can't embed the video in the post, so just click on the link)

Cupcakes for Everyone!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 20133.7. Our destination is Planet Piaffe, a beautiful world full of flowers and unicorns. The exact coordinates of the planet are unknown, but the crew is in high spirits, and we’ve determined a proximate trajectory.

The shift started with a warm-up as usual, walking on the bit and then trotting the perimeter of the ring for 5 minutes on a loose rein. Today, Surya stretched forward for contact with the bit even with the loose reins. Good girl! And it was freezing (okay, not quite…in interest of precision, 33 degrees Fahrenheit) and we weren’t warmed up yet! She just got right to work!

We’ve been having a series of fantastic rides. This is because we both have an understanding of what we are trying to accomplish. While I visited my family over Christmas, ARF rode Surya for me twice, once dressage and once jumping. I feel like I should pay her for training, because she got something to click in Surya’s brain re bending. She also did a gymnastic with Surya, and now her jump is very improved.

With this understanding of concept, we are marching forward with implementation.

There are two ways to reward a horse. One is via the release of pressure, and the other is via praise. Like all horses, Surya learns from the release of pressure, but she loves praise. I think this is because of her exceptionally willing attitude and desire to please. During riding, I have used my voice to tell her she’s good, and have scratched her withers with my fingertips. However, I’ve been somewhat limited in my ability to take my hands off the reins and praise her more, because I did not have enough skill to keep everything else the same, and she was consistently leaning on the inside rein. My trainer said not to drop the outside rein because then I would be rewarding her for bending to the outside of the circle and traveling on the inside rein. When I tried to drop the inside rein, she used to throw her head to the outside; I also did not want to reward that.

Toward the end of our ride, Surya and I were traveling in a circle to the right, and she was bending around my inside leg, on the bit on the outside rein, and curving her neck as I indicated with the inside rein. She was so perfect, I let go of the inside rein and patted her neck and told her she was a good girl.

She stayed traveling in the same way.

Her ears got incredibly floppy. I swear the horse was grinning.

Her trot got even bouncier and happier.

My heart ached with how happy she was.

We trotted a few more circles, and then called it a day. Surya is generally very relaxed and even-tempered under saddle. She can be a little grumpy if I insist on something difficult, but typically doesn’t get upset. Yet I have never seen her so absolutely joyful outside of extended scratching on her crest and chin. So I'm going to continue on with the positive reinforcement (provided I can continue reinforcing the right things), and hope it contributes to mission success.



Looking for grain and being cute.