On the Rox

So I have decided to use this blog for my riding notes in addition to the random musings. For some background info, I have been given the ride on my good friend Randi's mare Roxy or "On the Rox". I have ridden her on and off for the past few years and I have taught Randi semi-regularly and helped her at shows as well. Roxy is a 9 year old liver chestnut Appendix QH mare, around 15.3hh. Randi has competed BN on her the past few years, and was going to move up to Novice last fall but Roxy had an abscess at the last minute so they had to scratch. I will be taking her Novice at the FRVPC mini event this weekend, and hopefully to some recognized events at Novice this season as well.

Rox is not a difficult type of mare, she can be opinionated, but she mostly wants to be good. She is not an extravagant mover and struggles with stiffness in her body, so the flatwork is a challenge but it is coming along nicely. She moves off the leg well laterally, but could be more responsive to the forward aids. She likes to be "one-dimensional" with her body and not relaxed and bent through her neck and ribcage. She sometimes travels with haunches in at the canter, and the upward canter transitions are a major work in progress as she gets stiff and hollow if she is not asked exactly correct.

She is very willing over fences although her style needs some improvement as well as the ability to lengthen and collect her stride. In short, she needs to become more rideable between fences. She has the tendency to flatten out and become very choppy as the fences get bigger, so we are working to make her more supple and responsive so her style gets better. She is comfortable in a small collected canter, but she does not jump well from it. Learning to jump out of a bigger stride will make her jump much better. She can be looky on XC, so a firm ride is necessary. The balance and adjustability will help her XC as well because she tends to get in one gear and not come out of it for the whole trip. I think the boldness will come with experience, and she must know that she does not have the option to run out or look hard at something, she must go no matter what or she will be punished.

We recently had a dressage lesson with Barry Fript, who I have lessoned with on and off the past few years. We ran through the test we will ride this weekend (Novice A), and it went quite well, although I don't feel as though she was as sharp as she has been schooling for me lately. We did a shorter warmup without any lateral work, so I think this may have been part of the problem. Some of the key things I took away from the lesson:

-sit back more in the sitting trot and let her forehand lift up toward my hand
-push for more suspension at the same time, but not a faster tempo
-keep giving the inside rein every 5 strides or so to make her relax through her neck
-give the inside rein in upward transitions so she can't hang on the rein
-more bend in the 20 m circles, use my body position to keep her on the circle
-give the rein in front of the judge so they can she her stretching to the end of the rein
-push more with my hip in the free walk so she tracks up and is more forward
-use outside rein away from her neck in the corners so she fills up the space
-use both legs slightly behind girth in an upward motion to help collect her and engage hind legs more