Today was hot! And humid! And fairly miserable! Ugh... summer's almost over right?!
Anyways, we had a 10 am lesson. Luckily in the covered arena. We were not as early getting there as usual so we didn't warm up as much as I had wanted, but oh well. And he was in a mood too. Grooming and tacking up was met with more than the usual snark faces. Anyways, we decided to work on the canter half pass, since.. it's a struggle. And yeah... it's still a struggle! Sigh.
We started off doing some tiny trot getting him collected and using his hind end... quick hind legs! Unfortunately Dan was in a mood and fired out at Rana a few times! DANIEL FLOYD BREAUX!! We DON'T do that!!! But it did get his hind feet moving quickly and him thinking forward. We had some good "super baby thinking of piaffe" type trot and then some nice forward moving trot. So then we went to the canter and did a very small bit of the same thing. Then we did the half pass. Rana wanted us to circle just in front of her to start it so she could help encourage. Except... Dan kept counterbending away from her, which makes it really hard! Doh. But we eventually managed to do it. Kind of. It was a hot mess!
We managed to screw it all up multiple times. Mostly me. But he's not really helping me at all either. Then at one point we sort of got it and ended up on the rail and I panicked. And stopped riding. So Dan threw in a change... popped me out of the saddle a little and then before I could figure out what happened.. he threw in another.... then another... then another.... I think we did about 7 one tempis! I was just like "What is happening?!?!" and Rana was laughing at me and trying to tell me what to do but Dan kept flipping, so... we eventually just stopped and had to laugh. But YAY!!!! Dan can do it! And I have a feeling, once we figure out how... he's going to LOVE doing them. :) Anyways... so after that we tried again and then again... And then Dan got all cranky and wouldn't go into my outside rein. I booted him and he got all pissy so then we both got irritated and it spiraled quickly into an irish bar fight. Honestly, I wasn't mad. I was just insistent that he MUST GO FORWARD without me giving the outside rein. He can't win. I always give up the rein to get him to go forward but not today.... NOT today! So we rodeo-ed a bit. Maybe a 3 minute rodeo involving bucks, bolts, running backwards, threatening to rear, and lots of boot thumps and whip smacks. BUT.. he went forward. And then we actually had a decent half pass. And then... I asked Rana if we should be done, since he acquiesced and we accomplished it or... have another go to prove my point. She said if I had it in me... do it again. So we did. A few more times. And it got a little bit better. We sort of figured it out. The tough part is that he starts out bending but then gets straighter the longer we go. And I start tilting to the outside instead of staying on my inside seat bone, and I can't put my inside leg on to get the bend because I end up using my lower leg instead of just my upper thigh and then he uses that as an excuse to prop and swap, and I bring my inside hand across his neck instead of just using it properly. SO.... I had to really think of sitting to the inside, really think of using the outside rein and outside leg to bring him over, and then keep the inside rein jiggling almost non stop to keep him round. I felt like a games kid hanging half off the side of my horse! ha ha.
Anyways... after my lesson I stayed and watched Kelli's and then we were all talking and somehow we started talking about body position. We talked through the half pass and my shoulders and I basically did it hobby horse style. OHHHHH... well that's a lot easier to make my body cooperate now. Hopefully I can mimic it tomorrow and see if it helps. I just had to slow it down and get my brain to comprehend. Of course I'm sure that when Dan throws things at me, my body will start fighting it and get all confused and discombobulated again.... but...
So the plan is to get a nice forward but collected canter... keep my inside rein extra short, so I'm not tempted to overuse my hand. If it's short... I can just use my elbow vs having to pull my hand so far back when he bends that way. Then ride haunches in. Ride all the haunches in. Practice haunches in all the time and even spiral in and out. So... start the half pass with a haunches in. Think of pulling his hiney over with my weight aids, like I do in the haunches in... and keep the inside bend at all costs! And then.. go from there. Then once he gets a few steps, circle to the inside... 10 meter circle... so we don't lose the inside bend.
So.. fingers crossed I can sneak in a ride in the morning!
After I got home I turned him out and 30 minutes later found him like this! Maybe we finally wore him out! ha. Except 10 minutes later he was up and in his stall. Although it may have been because it was 9000 degrees out there.
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