Charles de Kunffy Clinic

What I am reading: CdK book- Dressage Principles Illuminated
What I am listening to: Crazy by Gnarls Barkley

The trip up (yesterday- to Nipomo) was great... beautiful scenery, easy ride. We left later than anticipated, and arrived about 4:30. I got the boys settled into their GORGEOUS stalls. The stalls are 14X16 with 14X24 runs, auto waterers, REALLY clean, GREAT shavings, sand in the runs (perfect for rolling). The barn itself is great- 10 stalls, indoor wash rack with all the hot water you could want, big grooming stalls, SO CLEAN!!! I felt like my stuff was "too dirty" to be in the barn! There were NO DUST or FLIES.

I rode Smiley and Venturo lightly- just got them out and about to see the ring.

There was a light snafu with the hotel (they put someone else in our room), but that got sorted out and we settled into our Grand Suite- big bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, and family room. It's really comfortable and altho not super fancy, it's cozy.

This morning I got over to the farm about 8... watched a bit of some of the rides, but really wanted to get the boys settled. Yesterday, Venturo and smiley screamed for each other (oddly enough, I think smiley whinnied more yesterday than he has in the whole time I have had him- he is a VERY quiet horse), and I did NOT want that to interfere with my rides today.

I went first on Smiley. First, we got him out from behind the vertical. The main thing we worked on was SLOWING it all down, no rushing. When I say slow, I don't mean like a western pleasure horse, I mean taking the time to articulate the joints and push off, really "living" in the half halt from the seat. We worked on me loosening and rounding my lower back more (pelvis more up) and sitting down more on my own hind end. We did some half passes at the walk and trot, leg yield at the canter, simple changes (really good today- he described during my second ride that this must be done on the outside hind rather than the inner). He really liked Smiley, thought he was "very nice" with a really good mind as well. We also dealt with spooking- instead of pulling the horse back onto the track, we let the horse spook and then quietly corrected him. It was a really good lesson.

Hank (Thomas' mom) provided a tasty lunch, and due to the fact that one of the riders couldn't take her ride, she donated it as a theory session. We met in the RV and discussed dressage theory- everything from the bow and arrow theory to the last WC in LV, lameness because of bad riding- it was really informative.

After lunch, I checked on Smiley- he was happily grazing in one of their pastures- SO content, so happy... he hung out there all afternoon until after my ride on Venturo.

Venturo's theme was also SLOWING DOWN. At first, this was very difficult. Smiley understands the concept of slowing down in the seat much better than Venturo does. Then, he wanted me to do haunches in, in the trot, on a circle. We discovered that Venturo just wants to speed up when I put my leg anywhere for the lateral work, so we took him down to the walk and started it there, then moved to the trot and was able to to haunches in without speeding up both directions. At some point during this, Charles moved into the arena with me and Venturo and showed us the proper rein and leg aids and way to use them, and we moved onto half pass in both directions. At one point during the half pass, Venturo was just AWESOME- The whole horse was controllable and was so able to manipulate. I was just able to SIT INTO him and really have him articulate his joints. We did some canter work, where he had me lean WAY behind the vertical (in my own body) and really find my seat and upper torso. We worked on some simple changes and then some more trot work to really get him to find almost what will eventually be his passage (i want to make this clear- it was not like those fake passage things where horses get slowed way down and kicked to stay active).

Mom cried during both the lessons. I am really excited- I am going to ride Smiley with him tomorrow and then Venturo again on Sunday. Hank lent me some blankets for the boys (in July!) because it gets COLD at night here. The boys are all settled in- Smiley has been LOVING standing outside in the sand with the sun on his back.

Heading out to dinner and then a little Murder, She Wrote.