Candy
Hi Candy
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Here's your own page where we'll record all things that we do so you can access at any time
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Megs
25th April 2023
Candy 25th April 2023
Session Summary
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This was our first one to one session together, and so it was a discovery session of what is happening within the partnership.
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We worked through the basics to see where there may be some weak spots and what maybe happening when they occur.
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Homework from the session
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Working on smaller more detailed patterns that require more engagement, once we Brough the circles down he lifted up through his thoracic sling and naturally started to become more balanced, this reduced the feeling of needing to lift him up with your hands and created a much lighter feeling. So when you are working try to avoid big long sweeping movements and keep them more detailed and tighter, this work with then create that need to for him to step under more and you should feel this through both your contact and his back.
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Be really aware of how you balance out yourself especially on the right rein where theres a tendency to sit into the right side and create a lean from both of you.
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Riding things like serpentines and smaller figures of eight will really help you feel this.
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The hard is something you both struggle with because he gets into his shoulder and then ploughs forwards and you loose your centre when he does this, so for you thinking about engaging the centre of the body and not allowing the ribcage to pop when you ask for your downwards transition. And to help him stay up in front, thinking about where and when you ride your transitions, try not to do them off a straight or when you are not riding a movement that is naturally creating the hind leg engagement, riding your transitions coming out of a couple of strides of leg yield or on a 10m circle will help him stay more up and balanced. Once he re-learns this body pattern you can then take these more into the open sides, but if you feel him heavy again then bring ham back onto an exercise that increases his engagement.
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All of this can be done in both walk and trot.
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Exercises for you
Theres still a tendency to sit into your right side, the balance board work will really help this so to focus on that and finding rotation whilst balanced, and playing more with he different sessions.
16th may 2023
Candy 16th May
Session Summary
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What a great session, in this session I wanted to focus on correct movement through turns, and add the challenge of accuracy and changing the size of the shape we are working on.
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This does a few things, its makes you have to think about your whole body, you cannot ride accurately if you are leaving one side of your body behind, the circle will either become too small or too big depending on which side (inside or outside) f the body is not playing the game. To aim for accuracy means that you unconsciously and sometimes consciously have to start to bring that side back to the party.
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By changing the size of circles from 20m to 10m and moving the circles around the arena by doing the 10m circles in the two corners rather than one, it meant that patterns couldn't be formed and habits stuck too, you had to continue to change you positioning and that again meant that you were much more level through your body.
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This pattern is a great one for you to play with and here are some ideas for you to work on, I'd highly recommend you setting out some poles and cones if you can too as this will really focus your mind on the accuracy and help you find the balance much easier.
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https://www.megparkinson.com/post/suppleness-balance-excersise-1
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Breakthrough
From doing this exercise we managed to bring your mind and body back to feeling more as a whole and so your right hand was back on the map, this made a huge difference as it allowed you to support Vinnie though his outside body and not over ride and over bend the inside.
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Homework
To work on this exercise, follow the way I build the difficulty in the link above, and also so the latest audio lesson which will be released today AL61 this goes into what you felt last night in much more detail.
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29th may 2023
Candy 29th May
Session Summary
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Yesterday we worked on building a more self carried in Vinnie whilst building the self carriage in yourself. Using the exercise of circles and straight lines we were able to help him to engage himself through the transitions and therefore keep his thoracic sling lifted.
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Walk
Things to remember in the walk, keep your pelvis mobile whilst encouraging a more active stride, noticing when you go to use your leg that you don't grip up and create a shortening of the pelvic movement, working on keeping your leg long for the leg aid so your hips stay open and able to absorb the movement of his back as he responds.
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Trot
When you got yourself in balance and through both sides of your body with a level hand and with he focus on your outside hip to hand Vinnie could suddenly find his own balance, this meant we could reduce the amount of aid you were using for the turn to just the rotation of the ribcage, this made such a difference to both of you ability to stay balanced through the turn, and Vinnie not jack knifing through the turn. Keep working on that.
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The next challenge is to maintain that level of self carriage whilst through n upper wards and downwards transition, theres a slight movement pattern that when you ride a transition you grip up with the leg and crouch forwards, this looses your centre of balance and makes you more reliant on the hand, so by using the circles as a way to help Vinnie stay balanced it also made you have to continue riding throughout the whole transition, when you achieved this the whole transition as more balanced, Vinnie initially found this harder and was inclined to jog rather than make the clear transition, but this is just a sign of him having to rebalance himself in a way he's not used to. Once he understands that the transition is led from the hind leg, even in the downwards transition he will find it easier to support himself through this.
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Canter
Working on the canter and how we balance through the transitions using the pattern meant we could establish a really clear and balanced transition, thinking about keeping your body lifted so that you don't collapse forwards was key, having a bend in your elbows so that your hands didn't drop too low was also key at helping Vinnie to lift up through his shoulders.
Once in the canter the key is to then use your inner thigh to help you lock yourself into your saddle and then feel the movement around your belly button to match the back movement of the canter. This requires mire thigh than you believe especially when coming back to work but when you got it you can see and you felt yourself much more secure and in your own self carriage which leads to you being able to make smaller adjustments.
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Using the pattern we had is also great as it requires you to work on the carriage through the transition.
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I wouldn't canter the smaller circles yet, as that would require a lot of Vinnie and his abdominals!
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29th June 2023
Candy 29th June
Session Summary
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Due to the heat we focussed the fine detail of the walk and your position, taking time to work out some movement patterns that create a restriction and ironing them out so that you maintain a much more balanced and self controlled position where Vinnie can then feel he can lift and balance under you.
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A noticeable pattern was a tendency to drop the shoulders and ribcage behind the vertical, more so on the left than the right but still a tad on the right, so I wanted to bring your focus towards the front side of your body and draw your collar bones more forwards whilst your tucking the bottom of your breast bone in, this gave you the feeling of leaning forwards but as you can see in the video you are then upright.
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This is something to work on, plays with this position in the mirror at home and also practice what it feels like to rotate your ribcage without dropping your shoulders back top far.
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Once this had become more in balance it showed that your legs wanted to seal the calf and the heal creating them to be more infant of your line of balance, this also adding to the tendency to drop through the back of your pelvis, drawing your focus down the front of your thighs and balls of your feet and with you adding in the feeling of keeping the hip socket mobile meant again that you were much more in a balanced position throughout your body.
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Whilst it is hot I would really focus on this feeling being created so that it starts to be more of a normal body pattern.
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When working through the bends watch that you don't rotate too late through your turns, and if he falls in think of a mini leg yield to help you activate and engage the hind leg.
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To keep Vinnies brain active we then moved into the halt work, the free halts in the arena were vastly improved compared t previous sessions so well done there, when I got you to test this in a more specific area (over the pole) this is where the original shoulders dropping back lower leg forwards showed up again, so we focussed on maintaining that feeling of being more through the front of your body into the halt when you had to be more accurate, Vinnie found this so much better and he lifted up through his back too.
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"Are we in rear wheel drive or front wheel drive"
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Coming on from he bend work and even into the halt work it was clear that when Vinnie was in rear wheel drive he was more precise and happier to respond, so this is a question want you to ask yourself continually, teaching him the body pattern of rear wheel drive so it also becomes more of his normal too.
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When you go to ask for a transition part of your preparation wants to be that of engaging the hind quarters so he is able to balance himself so much more, this means he will be much less likely to pull through you.
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The final stretch not he long rein was huge, showing all the precise work we'd done had really helped him to find the right muscles.
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Another thing we played with was challenging you to create the hind leg activation by choosing the side you wanted to activate, this is a really fun way to look your feel into his movement at an even greater level and will come in very useful when it comes to wanting to be more precise with aids further down the line.
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Fabulous work with some real changes shown
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Let me know if you have any questions
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Megs xx