Alex Gurding lesson

No day off for Hickory last Monday. Usually the horses get Monday off after they are at a show over the weekend, but, as Hickory did nothing but stand in his stall on Sunday... German dressage man Alex Gurding was back for the week to do follow up lessons and coach Lauren before NAJYRC (North American Junior and Young Rider Championships). He came in late Sunday night when dieke, lauren, and i were sitting in the living room--someone knocked on the door at like 11:30 and we were like hmm strange.. and then I remembered, 'it's the german guy!' He's very nice.

So, anyway, Monday I had an Alex dressage lesson! I was kind of nervous to ride for him. I used one of Pat's dressage saddles which I was trying out, but it sort of threw me up in the canter I felt like. So, we started out with a lot of walking and he asked me what our main problems come from. I told him that when Hickory gets really excited or tired he gets over-light on the bit and curls in his neck. There was a lot of 'ok, bring him rounder, bring him rounder.' We did some trotting and hit a problem area-- walk to trot transitions Hickory does not stay 'through' during the upward, his nose kind of pokes out in the air for a stride or two. So we did lots and lots and lots of walk to trot and trot to walk transitions, being sure to wiggle the bit around in the bit around before and during the upward to keep him very round and connected through the transition. I was really glad we worked on this, because I felt like it was one of those things that I had never really payed a lot of attention to or focused on, I knew his head was a little unsteady through our transitions but it always came back in a stride or two, but I feel like it has really made a difference in our overall performance. And I feel the need to mention that our downward transitions seriously were amazing in that lesson. So we're doing trot work and Alex keeps saying things like, "You are riding this horse with your hands like he is a light-mouthed Thoroughbred! Why do you do this? Communicate with your hands! Be more busy with your hands! Use those wire like things called reins they are for communication!! I do not see this horse curling or being too light, in fact I think he is being the opposite of light!" Because in my last few dressage lessons I've been supposed to be not using my hands, Alex!!!!!!!

We did some leg yielding and Hick was fantastic. A little canter work. And worked on getting the good swing-trot that you want for dressage via the leg yield and walk-trot transitions. I was really glad I ended up doing the lesson. It turned out much better than I had thought--there was lots of 'Ah, yes, this is nice, this is nice. Excellent, excellent!'

After my lesson Martha and I were talking about how it went and I was telling her I felt dumb for saying Hick gets overlight and then he didn't and Alex kept talking about how he was a big draft horse, he is not light! And Martha said how she wished Alex could have seen him when he first got here and how he was behaving at the show the past weekend. She said she almost said, 'Well, you should have seen this horse when he first came, how over-light he was,' but that she just decided to not say anything because he wouldn't have believed her haha, thanks martha.

More to come: Crescent Noseband, Penny Oaks, and more!