Today was a lesson day. And as always... it seems much happier and better at home. Ha! I think it's because I don't quite push it as much at home and I'm not quite as picky about the straightness and all the things I should be. BUT.... it's so encouraging because I do feel like I'm actually figuring it out. Like... I'm actually able to be a thinking rider and a feeling rider. I'm having to relearn things and undo bad body habits, but... I'm actually able to make some progress with that. And I don't really understand why. It's not like it's stuff I haven't heard my entire riding career.... so, maybe I'm just at a point where I can understand it? Maybe it's being worded just the right way for my brain to hear it correctly? Maybe it's the ability for me to actually feel what is happening to correlate with the words? Maybe the words are correlating more correctly with what's happening?? Maybe the stars have just aligned just so, but... whatever the reason, I'll take it! So again, while it's not earth shattering or anything new... I just feel like I'm actually changing things for the better! Both in Dan and in me. I love my friend Cindy's new mantra... Progress, Not Perfection. I mean... I want Perfection and I want it now, but... I'm also really enjoying the journey and trying hard to not get caught up on the end result and how far away it is. :)
Anyways... we did our turn on the forehand and haunches and I was reminded that forward is key! Don't let him die! He also can't lean/fall into them too, so I may have to use both legs and get a bit more forward and positive energy before I initiate them. Then we talked about doing some leg yield and some half pass while I'm also doing those walk exercises. We then did some half pass at the trot. It's better. In the sense that I'm not quite having to work as hard with my body and Dan is a bit more responsive, but... it's still not correct. I'm riding backwards with my hands. In an effort to get more sideways, I'm pulling back, which.. is doing the exact opposite. So... I need to kick... with both legs if needed, and push him into the contact.. and keep my hands forward. Forward first.. then sideways... then get the correct bend and positioning. Right now, focus on getting him to move forward and sideways at the same time.
So then we went to the canter. And we never got past the left lead. It was a doozy!! He put up some serious temper tantrums today. He basically decided that he cannot canter on the left lead if he has to keep his right shoulder upright and his barrel straight. If I have contact on the right rein, NOPE... I cannot canter! So there was a LOT of propping, lead changes, counter canters, cantering on one lead in the front and one in the back.... It was a hot mess! Once we worked through that... kind of. ... ;) We did manage to keep the canter (on the left lead) although it did take lots of pony club wailing and whip flicking and... spur. Sigh... So much effort. And I tried to sit in the saddle.. I tried to sit up tall and sit back, which is actually upright, and sit on my pockets.. but it's really hard when you have to keep flailing to keep him going. I tried not to get sucked into spurring him to keep him going but it's hard to kick and not lose my position. So... new plan... ride without spurs and without stirrups and just make sure that when I ask him to canter, he canters... but my seat has to keep telling him. So, also I need to ask for the left lead canter by closing my inside leg, having my outside leg slightly back, looking back over my right shoulder, and sitting on the inside seat bone. And it works!!! Then to keep the canter... keep my right elbow at my side and use my elbows and shoulder blades to stay stall and straight and strong.... keep the outside rein connection, don't lift that outside hand, counterbend for a few seconds to get him straight and off that right shoulder, but then go back to true bend, and... he's falling to the inside with his haunches, but I can't correct the haunches in the canter because I will confuse him. In the canter, I have to ride the shoulders in front of the haunches, so I have to ride a shoulder fore.... or think about riding a turn on the haunches, so I'm pushing his shoulder to the inside with the outside rein and my upper body. And I also have to keep the hind end moving quick and zippy, and think of lifting the front end with my upper body. Sigh.. it's a LOT!!! So we struggled... a lot. BUT... we also got a few moments of very nice canter and after a while, he realized he could hold the left lead and go into the outside rein and keep cantering and while it was hard, he was trying. Then to make it even tougher, now we had to have a good downward too. He tends to collapse into them, so... she wants me to initiate the movement for a turn on the forehand into the downward transition but keep him moving forward. Which is hard. I can't quite figure out when to stop the aids for the turn on the forehand and so we kept doing this awkward weird downward. But it got better and got more forward, so... practice.
Then we were talking and Dan just decided that was his chance so he started to march towards the end gate. ha ha. Poor guy. That was hard work. :)
When we got home, he was tired... and both Fleck and Funny seemed tired and not interested, so I ended up putting them all out together! They were all happy and great and minding their own businesses for about 30 minutes. Then Fleck went after Dan a little bit but it was much less aggressive, so I let them be til dinner time. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment