Like many other Dressage riders I was anxious to get a look at the NEW 2011 tests. What changed, what's good, what's bad. What will I need to do to ride them well...
Well, along with some other functions that were lost when I fell and hit my head over a year ago, my memory is NOT what it used to be. Numbers, figures and memorization is now a painful agonizing duty that I force myself to work on each and every day. But, I still struggle with simple things. Let me put it this way - Dont ask me for my phone # and if I type and spellcheck doesn't find it - it's not going to get fixed! I do read, but understanding and remembering take lots of effort. Reading about circles, and letter to letter which I can't seem to keep in memory where those letters belong on a rectangle (that I've known for over 50 years) is agonizing.
Square 1 - I am definitely back at school, so remembering how different people learn, I am using lots of different ideas to help me get something of the tests remembered. I started with 1st level, as it's not yet spring, and if I school and leg up my horse in lower level frame and work upward as she develops strength and stamina, perhaps my brain will also have a bit more stamina to remember. I hear it, I say it, I do it, I trace it.
I have taken milk jugs (plastic gallon jugs) and lettered them - and spaced them on my shop floor (a larger floor space than my living room, and far less cluttered when tractor and vehicles are out of there. I practice movements while walking - thinking about what I want where. Then when I ride, I can think about how I did it on the floor - bend, flex, which leg to which rein, where do I want my weight to be, which is inside, which is outside, where's the bend, is there bend, am I straight... (Gee, It never used to be this hard BEFORE). I read, then "do" the movement on the floor, and also trace it on a blank board. I read the test out loud, and finally practice putting all the movements in order adding each movement - so it gets long and boring hearing me recite, from A enter... to the end.
Reading thru the tests I really like the 3rd and 4th levels as there is a lot of movement and changes to keep a horse's mind engaged - but I'll not challenge my brain with those things yet.
It's been a real long winter. Ice, snow and lots and lots of high winds have been the norm. (You know it's windy when the 1500 lb round bales start blowing across the fields!) Thank goodness the doghouse is chained down to the ground.
Now, the days are longer, the snow is hopefully on the wane, and my horses are starting to get a bit legged up. I'm ready for spring. I'm working hard on strength, stamina and good breathing techniques for myself - so that when conditions outside are better I can get into full work.
I'm a long ways ahead of last spring, and every day on a horse is a great day. Forward we go!
