Gratuitous Dog Photos

Because, why not?

We love living in the city, and Buffalo Bayou Park is the best dog-friendly urban wilderness for roaming, sniffing, and seeing the sights.  Home of the Wortham fountain, the Waugh bat colony, the canoe trail and more.  Rosco's favorite is eating breakfast sandwiches on the patio at The Dunlavy.

Here is downtown Houston from our street with Rosco the Cocker spaniel and Gunner the Border collie.  Gunner is an AKC Canine Good Citizen and holds an AKC Trick Dog Novice title as well.  Rosco, at twelve years old, is ruler of all he surveys.

There's always someone interesting in the park, and today we met Alisa, who loves saying hi to the pups.  Alisa writes the naturalist blog for the Buffalo Bayou Park, an awesome blog about a variety of naturalist topics, not least of which is the multitude of animals in the park.  Among other animals, Alisa said she loves Border collies and especially Corgis!

Some principles to remember

Upon reflection of Jazzy's and my ongoing dressage training this past year, the following principles continued to emerge from our training with Andrea Attard, Conrad Schumacher, and Lyndon Rife, and are worth reviewing:

This is how to increase reliability: if the horse does something you don't like, just keep going, riding correctly, and make an improvement a little later in motion.  Always ride with the outside leg, so that the connexion will be correct.  Use the rider's outside leg to hold the horse round in the connexion; have the outside leg in a guarding position.  It is very important that when you are riding the inside leg to the outside rein, you are also riding the outside leg which is guarding, as well as you can say a guarding outside rein.  The principle is you bring the horse to the outside, not that you're holding the outside tight, rather bring the horse to the outside rein in a soft way.  And when you have brought the horse to the outside, then the neck gets stable and gets soft and stays round.  

Be very fussy about riding very accurate geometry, such as in circles.  Understand the arena and know exactly where each size circle should be ridden according to the letters and your position in the arena.  

Timing is everything.  Strong position is everything.  Correct contact and connexion is everything.  

If you get a not-perfect walk to canter transition, freshen the canter and make it better first, then go back and improve the walk to canter transition.  Otherwise if you immediately go back to walk, the horse learns that he was still a bit slow to the leg in the transition; instead make the canter better first, then go back to the transition.  

The idea of training movements for a particular level is not worth much without the overarching idea of developing the horse correctly right now and to build on for the future.  The idea of developing the horse by teaching him to carry and be in self-carriage is of utmost importance.  Always examine and challenge the straightness, the bending, the connexion, and the lightness of the aids.  In a moment of crisis, first establish that the horse is carrying itself (you are not holding it up nor pulling it down on the forehand with the reins), then establish that the horse is in alignment (the horse is not falling over the outside shoulder with neck in, but rather the horse is established into a good outside rein connexion and the rider's inside [and outside] leg is being used to keep the ribcage out in correct bend), and then make the contact good by suppling the horse within this already established correct balance and alignment.  Developing the horse for the future by teaching it to move correctly in the way of a dressage horse is the most difficult thing, but the most important thing.

It's been a good year for learning, and I'm grateful to all my teachers including this four-legged one:

Lyndon Rife Clinic October 26-27, 2019

Improving rideability was the theme that developed over the weekend.  Remember to keep your hands more side by side, and keep the horse "on your outside elbow" with your wrist closing your hand on the outside rein, and you can lift your inside hand to flex him them your hands are side by side again.  An exercise to help steady your hands is to bridge the reins, keeping your hands side by side and quiet, and occasionally the inside hand up the crest.

Before asking for the alignment in lateral exercises, be sure that the horse is good in the ribcage first by riding him straight, then getting the inside flexion while he is still straight and then adding the alignment last, keeping his shoulder from falling in and keeping his ribcage in a good position from your inside leg.  Be able to separate it, that you can get flexion without aligning him right away, which makes him better in the ribcage. For Jazzy, ride him less low, with his ears up at the end of his long neck.  It is more important to get the flexion without him getting low in the neck.  Sometimes you can ride him rounder, deeper as an exercise but I need to work on the lateral suppleness so he doesn't think everything to do with the bit has to do with only being deeper.  As he warms up, Jazzy gets cruising so use that to keep him more uphill, otherwise he'll be really forward but still a little on the forehand, so be sure that all the time you're working to get him off the forehand more and more.  One way of doing this is to stay taller in your position, squeeze the outside rein and make him wait on you a bit.

If you get a not-perfect walk to canter transition, freshen the canter and make it better first, then go back and improve the walk to canter transition.  For canter to walk, step down into a deep inside leg, freshen the canter, then make the canter shorter, shorter, shorter, walk.  For walk to canter: keep your inside leg deep, take it off a couple times and bump bump down a little to wake him up, squeeze on the outside rein and keep the outside rein in the transition, take your outside leg off, bring it back and then ask for the canter with your inside heel down (bring your outside leg back without it being on him and then your inside leg).  If you slide your outside leg back, then you push the haunches in.  Remember he has to be prompt and pay attention to your leg.

An exercise to improve rideability for the canter: ride half pass toward the centerline and then change the flexion, stay cantering on the same line then change the flexion back to the true lead then turn in that direction without doing a change.  So half pass from the longside toward the centerline, keeping his shoulders on the line, then counter flex him but keep his shoulders in the same positioning then flex him back to the true canter lead flexion then track in the direction of the canter lead.  So you can play around with the flexion without doing the change.  So that you can control the shoulders and that you can flex him without him thinking about doing the change.  It helps to half pass directly out of the corner because you can really bend him and put his haunches to the inside and make the point that his ears and his shoulders lead slightly because you already have control of the haunches.  On the short side, get the haunches more to the inside so that you know they'll be available when you start the half pass.  You need to be able to keep the haunches caught up (for Jazzy, especially the right huanches when cantering on the left lead).  If he gets too strong and won't let you half pass, walk and do the half pass at the walk, almost halting and really bringing the haunches with the half pass, then canter and do the half pass in canter.  Remember to keep the outside rein, outside leg control, keeping him on your outside elbow.

Note: when you counter-flex him (let's say to the right while cantering on the left lead) don't turn him right, he has to keep turning left and you flex him right, using both reins.  The new outside rein (the counterflexion rein) yields him over and the left rein keeps him and is supported by your deep, weighted inside leg keeping him really cantering on the left lead.  When cantering on the right lead, keep his shoulders right but be able to flex him left.  Keep him in shoulder fore right, and your left rein can flex him left but the right rein has to lead him right.  Looking left, but turning right, even on a straight line.  On a circle, the line in the middle of his chest stays on the circle, and you can flex his poll right or left your choice, but his shoulders and chest stay turning on the circle in shoulder fore.

Conrad Schumacher Clinic September 20, 2019

When schooling the halt, do not correct the halt if the horse fidgets or is a bit tense; don't move just be quiet.  Rather wait for the halt to settle, even if for just one beat, then walk on again.  For Jazzy, Conrad suggested it is okay to ride him a bit shorter in the neck even during the warm up phase.  To encourage relaxation, school several halt, walk, halt transitions, waiting for Jazzy to settle in the halt.  After you start the trot, do trot, walk, halt transitions with your seat wide and heels down, and do walk, trot transitions from the halt.

A warm up excercise in trot is to ride a three loop serpentine, making a ten meter circle each time you come to the wall.  After the serpentine, go down centerline and make a ten meter circle figure of eight left then right near G (or D), coming to a halt again at the end on the centerline.  When bending be sure to keep your inside leg down and carry your inside hand a little higher to ensure that the horse keeps the flexion.  As necessary walk on and halt again, remembering not to correct anything, rather allow him to settle in the halt then walk on again.  To reward him, soften your shoulders (rather than petting him).  

When cantering a twenty meter circle, keep him in shoulder fore on the circle.  In the walk to canter transition, follow the horse's motion with your hips.  To get a purchase on the outside hind you can think baby travers (haunches in).  Conrad commented on the good quality of Jazzy's canter, saying it is a very pretty canter.  

Ten meter circles in canter are an exercise to improve bend.  If you have a not so perfect walk to canter transition, do not imeediately go back to walk to do it again, rather stay in canter and make the canter better again before going back to the walk and reschooling the walk to canter.  

Another canter exercise is to ride a ten meter circle right from the centerline near L (or I), then go on the diagonal and stay in right counter canter through the short side, then do another ten meter circle right near I (or L), then again make a counter canter half twenty metre circle through the short side.  Then ride the diagonal back to true right canter followed by a walk transition.  

When schooling medium trot on a twenty meter circle left, be sure to guard the outside (right) hindleg.  Conrad commented on how beautiful Jazzy's medium trot was.  At this point in the ride, Jazzy was allowed to stretch onto a twenty meter circle in trot, holding the rhythm while staying in self carriage.

This is how to increase reliability: if the horse does something you don't like, just keep going, riding correctly, and make an improvement a little later in motion.  Always ride with the outside leg, so that the connexion will be correct.  Use the rider's outside leg to hold the horse round in the connexion; have the outside leg in a guarding position.  It is very important that when you are riding the inside leg to the outside rein, you are also riding the outside leg which is guarding, as well as you can say a guarding outside rein.  The principle is you bring the horse to the outside, not that you're holding the outside tight, rather bring the horse to the outside rein in a soft way.  And when you have brought the horse to the outside, then the neck gets stable and gets soft and stays round.

While test riding: In the renvers, allow the outside shoulder to allow the bend.  In the extended walk, the rider should remember to move the hips with the motion of the horse, and keep the contact so that the neck does not get too long; a slightly shorter neck will help you later in the next transition.  Allow in the right rein in the counter canter.

To improve the walk, ride the walk through the neck.  Do not be stiff, rather follow the horse with your hips.  When the walk to canter transitions improve, the walk will improve with it.  

 Jazzy having a chat with Conrad: