Robin Brueckmann's Road to Belgium

Wednesday September 20, 2006 - A Ride on Jessica

I went to the barn and got Rocky ready. I took him for a half-hour powerwalk before our lesson. It was a lovely crisp early-fall day. I went into the indoor to meet with Jessica.

I started with simple trot work. Rocky's trot was much stronger than even a few months ago; all the passage he had been doing had helped give the trot more elasticity and push. Jessica reminded me to keep Rocky's poll up, which was always an issue for me. I was hoping that Jessica would give me a great tip on how to accomplish this, but she left me to figure it out. I presented Rocky's piaffe and passage. Jessica wanted the piaffe very forward-thinking, to make sure that Rocky stayed active behind. When I was able to keep the piaffe in this balance, Rocky had an easier time getting into a good passage. He did offer to dive into my hand, which he had not been doing recently. It was good that he made this mistake in front of Jessica, who could help me through it. She had me shorten my reins and put my hands on either side of his neck, so that if he dove he would be pulling on his own neck rather than disturbing my position. This was particularly helpful.

I rode transitions within the canter, both into medium canter and into pirouette canter. When I had good control of the pirouette canter, I let Rocky do the actual turn a few times. Jessica wanted the pirouettes on the big side, to maintain the activity. I showed her the exercise we had done all last summer, doing all our pirouettes around a mounting block so that he could not spin. She liked this approach.

Jessica asked me if there were any parts of my tests that I wanted her to review. I was comfortable with the IPEC tests, but I said that apparently my four-tempi changes had not been perfect on Sunday. I did some changes, first on the circle. Jessica said that Rocky was tending to dwell in the changes rather than flying forward, and she had me keep Rocky more active. This helped. I rode fours, then threes. I put Rocky on the diagonal, and rode twos and then ones. Rocky gave me some of the best one-tempi changes that I had felt, forward and straight and active. I was very happy. Jessica and I reviewed the lesson. I needed to keep Rocky's poll up and keep him active. That was the punch line for the entire ride. I took Rocky out for another powerwalk when we were done in the ring. Rocky enjoyed his time out.

I got Rocky taken care of. Now it was time for the hard work. I had to get my stuff, Becca's stuff, and the USET stuff packed into my truck to take to JFK in the morning. It took four of us to lift the USET trunk! My truck quickly filled up. This task took well into the afternoon.

Missy was gone for the day. James had gone with her as she prepared for lessons with Robert Dover and Holly Mitten. I did not expect to see her today. Becca and I were more or less on our own to finalize this packing. I had a moment of panic when I realized that I did not have an international health certificate. Becca and I called Paul Weygand at Mersant, the shipper, and he assured us both that it was all under control. We had done the right blood tests and screens, and the international health papers were in his hands. I felt much better. Paul said that we should leave Missy's by six, not seven as I had planned. It was going to be a long day!

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