That is the dreaded question that Ms. C likes to ask me during my weekly lesson.  “That” could be a transition, a circle, a halt, a centerline.  Well, just about anything during the lesson.  This is when I most appreciate that it is a private lesson with no one watching or listening.  The Socratic Method of Teaching is well-known to law school students and many of my graduate school professors also enjoyed putting you on the spot by firing questions at you.  It must also be recommended in the secret handbook of dressage trainers.  In grad school, it is amazing how they would always manage to call on me when I’d either not done the required reading or spent most of the lecture doodling in my notebook and not paying attention.  That bright crimson flush would overcome my face as I stammered through a pathetic answer.  These days, I don’t flush, but I still muddle through when asked what I could have done to better my ride.

Class participation almost always played a role in my final grade, and here I am, almost 20 years later, still having to participate to improve my grade.  Only now, my grade is a score from a stern looking judge sitting at C.  If my dressage scores were graded on the same scale as my engineering courses, I would still be in school attempting to bring my grades up enough to graduate.  Mid-60’s would not cut it.  In my current world, mid-60’s are the norm.  My how times have changed.

But back to the question at hand, “How could you have made that better?”  My go-to answer is “a half halt.”  Safe enough, but the follow-up question of, “And, what else??”  or “What was wrong with that half halt?” is usually where I get tripped up and the stammering starts.  Lucky for me, Ms. C will patiently explain what the “else” is when it is evident that am clueless.  Typically, I forget to include enough leg with my half halt. I also have the tendency to pull rather than squeeze my reins during a half halt which puts Ike behind vertical.  And if you have followed our adventures for a while, you know that I tend to overuse my inside rein and overbend Ike’s neck rather than just achieving the proper flexion at the poll.   These problems were clearly evident in the photos from the show.  If you are so inclined and need a good chuckle or a good example of what not to do, here is the link: http://www.picsofyou.com/store/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=20459#page=1.

On a positive note, I can now identify what the problem is when I see the photos.  Now I just need to translate and transmit that knowledge to my arms and legs while astride.  There is a disconnect or maybe it is a lack of……SQUIRREL………..focus. [My dogs tend to have great focus during training until one of our furry-tailed friends cross our path; then all bets are off.]  Whatever the problem is, it is keeping us from crossing that magical 70% threshold in our scores.  Luckily, there is no pending graduation, just a passion to indulge and a dream to fulfill.

The title of this post kind of sums up this week’s riding lesson and it is going to be my new mantra…I think it would also make a fabulous book title as well.  It is a sobering realization that Ike’s success in the world of dressage is completely dependent on my ability to master the elusive half halt.  Before my riding career is done, I would love to say that I could execute a correct half halt and that I was able to be an effective rider at something other than Intro and Training Levels.  The half halt is the necessary skill to claw my way out of these lower levels.

I have written quite frequently about my struggles with learning a correct half halt.  Could probably be the poster child for How Not to Half Halt.  You know you are doing it wrong when your trainer screams, “Stop pulling on the reins and squeeze your fingers!”  “Stop squeezing your fingers and release.” “Close your legs as you squeeze your fingers.  Your lower leg is not on your horse.” Oh, yeah.  Yes, I do realize that I need to perform these movements as part of a correct half halt, but when the 1200 pound freight train ignores my gentle squeezes, the mind goes blank.  The arms, fingers and legs then start doing whatever they please until my blank mind reboots.

Another key point that I need to add to the list of skills to master is the ability to keep my reins at an equal length so that when I do half halt, I do not cause my horse to end up crooked.  Then I also have to make sure that my dominant hand doesn’t do more than my other hand whereby making Ike even more crooked.  Lots of crookedness plus my blank mind equals one very unattractive picture.  Think of a worm wiggling down centerline.  Pretty, huh?

With less than two weeks until the show, we schooled the movements of the tests during my lesson as well.  Lots of reminders from Ms. C to half halt my outside rein to help straighten Ike.  Yes, there was a lot of crookedness on centerline, on circles and on my long diagonals.  The centerline crookedness was subtle – Ike was slightly flexed to the right.  Worst part was that I couldn’t tell that he was, but I bet the judge will see it.  On circles, I need to make sure to let go of my inside rein a bit and utilize my outside rein to turn my horse…just don’t let that outside rein cross over the neck.  Arrgghhh!  So much to think about to be an effective rider – no wonder my brain likes to reboot regularly to help clear out the clutter.

Fingers crossed that one of my reboots doesn’t occur as we head down centerline nine days from now!