Aha.....

I'm so not normal. I swear, I can't even coordinate my brain and my body. And not in the way that most people can't. It's not like I'm just uncoordinated. It's that what my brain THINKS my body is doing and what my body is ACTUALLY doing are two completely different things. No wonder I struggle so much. And I don't really know how to fix this. I mean.. it's hard to change bad habits when you think you are doing the opposite. Sigh...

Anyways.... we had a good lesson. It was a nice warm day and Danny was spooky and ready to go! He was spooking at the tractor and then kept shying away from it every time we passed that end of the arena where he could see it. Goofy! But I'm glad he's feeling good.

We had a pretty good ride. We had some good work. We did some serpentines and then did a 20 meter circle that spiraled in and spiraled out. And while we were doing that, we played with haunches in and haunches out. I really need to remember to bring my memory card so that I can video and then watch it that afternoon. Maybe that way my brain will see what my body is doing so I can correct it better.



Anyways, the biggest thing was that Dan tends to tip to the inside, especially tracking right. And he is twisting his dorsal spinous processes to the right. Which is dumping him on his right shoulder and throwing his left shoulder out. So... here's what I get all wonky. My brain recognizes this fact. I am very much aware of this and the fact that it's wrong. I realize that I need to get him up off his right shoulder and more square. However, instead of trying to lift the inside with my inside leg and just catch the outside shoulder, I think that if I counterbend him to the inside and/or throw my weight to the outside to get him to "stand up" more on that outside shoulder, that fixes the problem. Wrong. The problem isn't the outside shoulder, that's just a symptom. The problem is the inside shoulder. So what I should be doing is pushing him into my outside rein and getting him to lift that inside shoulder. So... okay, I can think about lifting with my inside leg. The problem is that my inside leg is weak. And... when I (in my brain at least, who knows what actually is happening) sink a bit more weight into the left leg and sit a smidge heavier to the outside, I feel like he gets better. And Cindy says "Yes!! Feel that!". So yay!! Except then afterwards.. when I asked to clarify to make sure I was doing it right, she said that no... I should not be putting my weight to the outside. Because that's where Dan is throwing me, and if we make his spine the center line, and make him an exercise ball... his spine is rolling to the inside. So if I shift my weight to the outside, I'm only rolling that ball farther to the inside. Okay... That makes sense. So rather than moving to the outside... I just need to focus on lifting the inside. And I guess... in my brain... I am lifting my inside when I sit a smidge more to the outside.. Maybe I need to think of it as lifting my inside and by default weighting my outside, rather than shifting to the outside? I don't know. And really.. it probably is the exact same thing... I'm probably doing exactly what Cindy wants me to do but am thinking of it backwards. And because of that, now I'm going to overdo it and mess it all up. Or... I'll convince myself that I'm overthinking it and not try so hard and fall back into my old pattern. ARGHHHH

It's really annoying.... stupid brain...