Thanks to a fantastic on-going opportunity offered to me by Anna Ross Davies I spent yet another superb day at Bury Farm and Patchetts EC observing all sorts of her lessons and training.
Considering my £0 budget for personal training at the moment I can't even start to tell you how grateful I am to be able to learn so much simply by being able to watch, listen and be around people who do Dressage for a living.
What I like about watching the training, both horses' and riders', is that I can think up my own corrections and what I would say myself if it was me teaching/riding and then confront it with what Anna is saying to her riders.
Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I manage to be on the similar track of thoughts. Many a times I am well off the mark though and hearing it immediately corrected works wonders for my understanding of consistency and continuity of the bigger picture of the training process.
My personal interest is very much in rider's performance and I try to log into my head all the position problems riders show during their lessons and how it affects different type of horses.
It seriously feels like a training experience on quality fast-forward when you can note so many different riders on so many different horses in one day.
It was very much a Dressage To Music lessons theme today with riders preparing for Music tests from Novice to Medium. As much as I love Music tests the whole floor plans plus well chosen notes are still a bit of a foggy area for me so it was great watching the work in progress.
The thing I really noticed today was what a difference riding a test a few times over and over again with well incorporated corrections did to horses' way of going. It might be that the riders had more focus on the quality of the movements, it might be that riding certain sequence of movements simply improved the horses' balance and acceptance of the aids but the difference in between first test-ride of the lesson and the last was substantial. Go on - ride those tests at home, the movements are linked together for a reason :) You might be surprised how much better your horse goes as a result of having to think about changing its balance in transitions and correct positioning in arena figures.
I hope I am making some sense here, I am well and truly knackered after 5am start and rather interesting travelling adventures! Can't wait for the next time though!
Running first Training Day of 2010 tomorrow and the rider will certainly work hard! ;)
2 comments
Good for you. Remember it is always the bigger picture that should be observed and not just your personal preference!. Have fun :-)
It is only by opening your eyes and looking at the whole picture, that the little things become so apprarent. Well done and have a great training session
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