Laura Hermanson Dressage Clinic

 Before the western clinic, I rode in Laura's dressage clinic. This time, too, I rode Anna, and I was still getting used to her as I had only ridden her one time before that. Laura started by checking everyone's bridles to make sure the nosebands and flashes were correctly tightened. Then she talked about the proper way a horse(or mule) should flex. She always flexes her mules slightly to both the inside and then the outside before a transition. After everyone had tried this, Laura talked about roundness. When a horse or mule becomes round, it's back should come out and the neck should bend. Laura flexed every mules(and the one horse's) back by gently pressing on the haunches so that each rider could feel what it feels like when an equine becomes round.

The group. I am third from the left.

 Next, we worked on getting our equine's in a forward, steady rhythm. We did this by using poles. We started with walk poles. Heading around the arena, we rode in a free walk, but just before we had to shorten our reins and push our equine forward if needed. I had to push Anna forward several times, because I had trouble keeping her in front of my leg.

Getting Anna to stretch down at the walk(free walk).

 After doing it at the walk, everyone tried the exercise over trot poles. It was a sharp turn to get to the poles, so we had to make sure to keep the correct rhythm around the turn and over the poles. The first few time, I made it over the poles but not in a very good rhythm. The last time heading over the poles, I kicked Anna forward. This time, she really reached forward, keeping a good rhythm over the poles and on the straight line after it as well. Laura said that that was the rhythm I need to have all the time.

More free walking

Over the walk poles

During the break time, a saddle fitter taught about fitting both western and English saddles, particularly focusing on mules. Mules have straighter backs than horses, and their ribs start out narrow then widen out, so they are built much differently than horses. Consequently, saddles are much harder to fit. It is hard to fit English saddles made for Thoroughbreds, or western saddles made for stock horses. To fit English saddles, the fitter uses special half pads with three pockets on each side. She inserts foam pads into the pockets to adjust the saddles fit and fill in the empty spaces between the saddle and the horses back. Thus doesn't fix a too big saddle, but it helps a saddle to be custom fitted to a horse or mule. I don't think any saddle you would by online would fit perfectly without some minor adjusting. She also flocks saddles to help the fit as well.

Over the trot poles. Straight-arming though

 In the afternoon, we worked on pats of Dressage Training Level Test 3, the test ridden at Bishop Mule Days, the mule world show(look Mule Days up). We practiced a serpentine loop, which is a loop that goes from H to X to K. The judge looks for a change of bend in this loop. The first few times I didn't quite get to X, and I used to much outside rein rather than inside leg, but the last time I tried it I got a fairly nice bend.

 Connie then decided that I should rest Anna for the day because I Anna would have to work a lot over the weekend at the western clinic(1, 2).

Connie Lara Western Clinic, Part II

 The second day of the clinic was a lot about reining and western pleasure, and I learned a lot. We started by learning some of the warm-up exercises that Connie does. We combined both arenas for more room. One of these exercises was one in you ride down the side of the arena, making a large circle at each corner. This is one way of getting the horse to be responsive to the aids. We did the exercise at the jog and the lope, working both ways. Another exercises Connie uses is the counter canter. Counter canter is difficult, but it helps the horse to become responsive and more balanced. First, we started on the left lead, cantered down the side of the arena, made a diagonal, circled, then headed back. This was very difficult, and the first time I intentionally counter cantered. Nevertheless, I could keep Anna in the counter canter without her falling into the trot/jog. the next exercise was more difficult: we had to ask for canter right away, rather than making a diagonal. Connie said to think of it as just asking for a right lead or left lead and not asking for a "wrong lead." Since I was heading left, I used my left leg when asking for the canter(from the walk) so that Anna would ice up the right side lead. She picked up the counter canter, but I difficulty maintaining for the circle and across the diagonal. It was great that I was able to get the counter canter right away, though.

Next, we rode some western pleasure. Western pleasure is a discipline that is very different than dressage. In western pleasure, you the horse to be in a low frame and you want the horse to take short, slow steps, rather than the big, expressive strides of dressage. I did a pretty good job at this,  except I need to lower my hands a bit to allow Anna to stretch down like the horses do in western pleasure.

 We also worked on reining circles. There were lots of cones that were it up into one large circle and two small circles within the larger one, and we would ride the big circle, then break it down into smaller ones. The practice of the day before had prepared me for this. I tried the exercise in the jog and the lope. However, I had a little trouble when I returned to the jog because I didn't continue to make a wide turn all the way out to the edge of the arena. I instead let Anna cut the circle small. I loped off and tried again, this time continue to focus as I returned to the jog, making a good, wide circle.

 In the afternoon, the riders who had done more reining practiced the reining spins. Since one other rider and I had never done this before, we watched the other riders instead. Then, we rode a mulemanship pattern. This is something at Bishop Mule Days where the riders ride down a koine of cones, following a set pattern where they have to walk, jog, and lope, circling some of the cones. I think the rider is judged in this one, as well as if they do do the pattern correctly(of course) and make even circles. The first pattern was simple: walk from the first cone to the second, jog to the third cone, lope off, circle to the left, return to jog and halt at the last cone. I did pretty good, except I came into the circle a little tight and halted a little early.

The next pattern was similar, except the lope circle was a figure eight first to the right and then to the left, with a simple change in between. Again, I cut the circle tight rather than going deep into the turn.  It's harder than it looks! The last time I did it, though, I did really well. I made transitions at the right moment, and made a great figure eight with large circles. Connie was so happy and proud of me for doing so well with her mule, especially considering that I had only ridden western a handful of times before that weekend, never before trying reining, western pleasure, or trail course. Furthermore, I was new to the mule, who isn't green but is only six and doesn't have much experience. I was the only teenager there, and held my own against experienced riders, many of which had been riding for 20+ years.

By the end of the weekend Anna and I had gotten the hang of each and my riding was greatly improved. A lot of the exercises I had done that weekend really helped me make better circles and to ride much less with my hands. Plus, I got to try a lot new things. Also, I just turned 15 on the 8th.

Connie Lara Western Clinic, Part I

 Over this past weekend, I rode in a western clinic taught by Connie Lara, a friend of Laura's. Connie let me ride Annalissa, her bay six year old mule that is actually very horse-like. At the start of the clinic, I learned about riding a good warm-up. If you have a warm-up plan, you will be better prepared to ride, and you will be more prepared when warming up at a show. Connie has a list of several things she wants in her mule when warming up. She wants her mule to be responsive on a small circle, driving from the hind end with impulsion. She also wants to be able halt and reverse her mule, and to be able to control both the front end and the hind end. If she loses any of these, she goes back to the beginning.

 Everyone warmed up together, moving the hind end and the front end after circling. I had some difficulty moving the haunches at first, but once I relaxed I was able to do it. We next worked on circles, a very important aspect of riding because every pattern in riding consists of either straight lines or circles. The goal was for the mule or horse to have a nice bend and to be in the proper western frame, where the equine's head is low. She also wanted each rider to be looking two cones ahead(there were four evenly spaced cones on the circle). When it was my turn, I made sure to use enough inside leg to keep Anna bent on the circle. Connie thought I did a good job and commented that I made her mule look nice. Because I had done so well, she had me break the circle down into very small circles at each of the four points. I had no problem doing this either and made the circles.

Spiraling it in. Each layer of cones represents a circle. This is before the circle was made into the smaller version.

 Next, we worked on adjusting our mounts by spiraling circles in. There was a large circle marked by cones, with several smaller ones inside, the smallest being only several meters in length. I spiraled in and out of this, making a fill circle at each layer. Then Connie made the circles even smaller, with the innermost circle being just large enough to put a barrel standing up in the center. I didn't have much trouble with this either.

Heading around the box

Before the box was made smaller

 In yet another exercise, we had to enter a box made of four poles, circle a cone within it, then exit the box. I did it well the first time. Connie made the box even smaller, and I tried again. It was a tight squeeze, but I made the circle. However, I rushed getting of of the box, going out at a steep angle and heading over the pole rather than going in between the corners. The next time around, I focused more, making the turn and heading out nicely.

The cone exercise in which I circle around several cones. I go to the middle cone on the right after this and circle twice to the left.

 The final exercise of the morning was one in which we had circle around multiple cones set in a pattern. Basically there was a row of several pairs set at an angle, and we had to circle the top one in the pattern, head to one set at an angle to it, circle it twice and continue. To do it successfully, one had to go straight across and not right next to the cone that would be circled, making a wide turn around. I did well on the first two cones, but in two tight heading toward the third cone and couldn't finish the pattern. The second time, the same thing happened. The third time, however, I really focused and made nice turns around all of them.

Going between the tall poles

 After lunch, we worked on straight lines. The first exercise was a straight line between several pole-bending poles. It was very narrow, and I almost bumped my legs on the poles, but I kept Anna going straight. There were also several sets of parallel poles set in a straight line, with each of these chutes set in front of and a little off to the side of each other. The object was for each rider to use their legs to push their mule over into each chute. The first few times, I was weaving in between them rather than leg-yielding over. Then I tried to use more leg and was able to push Anna over when I wanted to. Next with did the same thing, except for with cones set close together(like pole bending). The object was to push the mule over, rather than pull them and weave around the cones. I did well for the first few cones, but then Anna rushed off and I couldn't use my legs to push her over. This happened a couple of times, so Connie got on Anna, and it turned out that it was something Anna was doing wrong, not me.

Moving sideways from the poles to between the cones

 When I remounted, I was prepared to ask Ann to stay at a nice slow jog. I went through the pattern nicely, and could even wind my way back. I later tried the same thing with even closer cones that had poles set between then. I tried the exercise at the walk first, doing it successfully, then jogged it. It went well! It's amazing how much better I was at using my legs to move Anna than I was when I started the clinic.

The figure-eight after the poles.

 The final exercises involved poles set in a step pattern. We had to do some circles over each of poles, starting at the top and working our way down, so circles got larger further through the exercise. That wasn't too hard after the small circles from earlier that day. next, the poles were moved into steeper angles. This time, we had to jog a diagonal across all the poles in one line, then turn left and go across the sharp angle made by two of the poles. After that, we would make a shape u-turn go across another angle made by two poles, the jog to two barrels and figure eight around them. This was challenging, but I could do it.

 It's amazing how much better my riding was by the end of the day. I was better and more refined at turning without relying completely on my hands. Laura thought I did a great job holding my own against adult riders who had been riding for much longer than I have. Stay tuned for part II, where I try reining. Also, another highlight of the clinic was meeting Olivia from DIY Horse Ownership. It's always fun to meet a fellow blogger!