I don't want to work anymore!!! I had fun today just playing with the horses all day! Hee hee. This is as much fun or more fun than the ski trip we were supposed to be on. ;) I'm glad I didn't refill my work days and am enjoying my down time.
I slept in a little. Then fed the ponies. Then cleaned stalls and added shavings and blew out the barn. Then Dan and I headed to Athens and got some hay before our lesson. Then we had our lesson. It was a good one! Tough, but good!
We did some walk and trot work and Rana reminded me to keep the walk very focused and collected almost, because he keeps tending to get lateral in his walk. It was more of a 1,2...3,4 beat vs a 1,2,3,4 beat. Then we went to trot and got a nice trot and kept him round but not overbent at the neck. She reminded me to keep his neck straight between his withers and shoulders and keep his ears level. So then we did the haunches in serpentine exercise. Where we track left, with the haunches in. Then we changed direction in a figure 8, but kept the haunches to the left and kept the left bend, so almost a counter haunches in. We did that a few ways each direction. Then we moved onto the canter. And she wanted us to do the same exercise. We started off and then I was like "Wait.. hold up!?! I have to counter canter a figure 8, while haunches in-ing?! I'm not prepared to do this!". So we fell apart. I admitted that I had logically knew that we were figure 8'ing but it didn't dawn on me that it would be a counter canter, so I was not prepared. So... I braced myself and off we went to try again. And dude.. that is HARD! I laughed cause I was all proud that we had gotten the 3 loop counter canter serpentine and then Rana was like "cool, now figure 8 that counter canter and while doing that, haunches in!'. Mannnnn.... Ha ha! But it's a great exercise. It took us awhile to get it because I had to keep my seat aids saying left lead canter and keep sitting left. And if I even thought about sitting right, or dug my right spur in too hard.. or crossed my left hand over his neck... he swapped or broke to the trot. Once I managed my body though, we got it. It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't bad considering. Then we went the other way. Eeeks, also hard. And apparently it's not just my left hand that's naughty and crossed the neck. Sigh. She was explaining to me that when I cross his neck, I break up the line between bit and elbow. The connection is to my elbow, not my hand. I couldn't quite get my elbow to loosen up enough until she told me to feel it from my shoulder blades and to push my shoulder blades together. OH! I mean.. it all makes sense, but that helped my brain kick in. Instead of crossing over his neck, I need to keep the connection with the inside rein by opening that rein, or pulling straight back with my elbow. It's an elastic connection. A following, but steady connection. And thinking of riding him from my scapulas helped. So then.. she upped the ante. She explained that this would help the half-pass. So we half-passed to the rail and then she wanted me to counter canter on the rail. Basically.. the same exercise we had just been doing but more specific lines. Well that blew my brain a little too but we finally got it. Maybe. Almost. ;) We did manage a half pass to the rail and then holding the counter canter for at least a few strides to many strides at least once each direction. But man.. if I don't pay really close attention to my body weight aids.. and really keep him supple and almost over bent to the inside.. he will prop and swap or partial swap or break. And in some ways... in my brain at least, that's good! Because.. we don't want him to do a change based on rein aids. We want him to change based on weight and seat aids. Great! He's doing that already!!! :) It's just that my body isn't coordinating enough so I'm not purposely asking for a change, and he's not balanced enough yet, nor am I, so it doesn't work. But in my brain I am happy because not only is he responding to my aids (so in theory, when I get them right, he'll be able to swap correctly and off my seat aids) but he's also teaching me to be in better control of my aids. So yay!
So a very challenging but fun lesson. And Rana pointed out that he was very sound today and that he very much did everything I ask. Yes, it was hard for him and yes, we didn't do it right from the get go, but.. he tried. He didn't say no or try to avoid doing it. He was honestly doing what I was asking him to do. So super good boy! So we'll definitely keep practicing that at home. And hopefully, soon we'll have control over our bodies and be balanced together and my coordinated aids will make sense and we can do the things to allow us to move on to doing the big thing!
We got home and I tossed him out briefly until Kathleen got here. She said he felt really good! She couldn't find anything in his shoulder or neck base and didn't really know why he'd been tripping. She said his gluteals had some trigger points and that he had been working hard, but they worked out nicely. Dan thoroughly enjoyed it. I meant to adjust him too but I sort of ran out of daylight and time. So maybe tomorrow morning before Freddie comes. And hopefully I can get Freddie to bring the shoe back underneath him some and see if that helps the tripping.
And we had a beautiful sunset tonight! Tomorrow we'll go to Ashland and play. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment