Game Plan!!

 

So.... I needed today. And yesterday (good friends and good moral support). And I've got a plan! Back to regular lessons with Rana and I'm just going to do what she tells me. ;) ha ha! But seriously though. I don't know enough to know when I'm getting sidetracked vs pulled off the path, so... I'm just going to trust her knowledge and skill. And.. I'm going to listen to my horse. Because quite frankly, no matter who I'm "following" or what path/route I take, if my horses is unhappy... or his musculature or posture looks awful... then I need to reevaluate. If he's happy and his muscling and posture look great, then.. that's the answer for him. So tomorrow I will take "Start" photos and then in December I will take a progress photo and see if we can get him back to happy again. Looking back... I'm pretty sure his posture and muscling were looking amazing when I was lunging him and doing pillar work and then it fell apart again when I started riding and doing pillars under saddle.  So hopefully we can get him back to happy again. 

So anyways, we got to our lesson and I had him in his saddle and the lunging cavesson. We started talking and she explained that yes, I needed a soft connection for positive tension/tone. And that also the soft connection would help him be straight, which was vital, especially for him. We also talked about how I needed to just be in the moment and focus on what I had underneath me and not get ahead of myself or frustrated about the timeline. But then at the end of my lesson she also said that she thought we would see significant changes in a month and that if we can hold true, we'll be where I want to be quicker than it seems. She said that right now, his posture and muscling was awful. And that he definitely did not need to be cantering. 

So we started off by lunging. Oh.. ha ha... well, while we were talking he inched toward Brie and was like "watcha got?!". She was eating a poptart and was like "it's a poptart dude!". I told her he that he LOVES poptarts so she asked if she could give him some. I told her of course and she held out about half of her poptart and he snarfed it in one bite! I was like "oh dude.. you didn't have to give him that much... I thought you meant a little bite". And she was like "well, I wasn't going to give him that much but he just went for it". Ha ha. Ooops. Daniel does love him some poptarts! Maybe I'll have to start buying him some as rewards. hee hee. whoops! Sorry Brie. I owe you a meal.  So anyways, back to lunging. We started off and it actually went pretty well. Rana reiterated a few things that I had sort of gotten myself confused about...

• Tracking Right: His left hind swings wide, so push his shoulders out to fall in line with his hinds. Aim my shoulders and whip at his shoulders and push him out. 
• Tracking Left: He is tracking wide behind but time it's because he isn't bending. So aim my intensity at his barrel... 

So then, she was like... "yeah, I'm happy with this.. nothing to fix... hop on"!. Yay! At least I'm not screwing that up too much. So I put his bridle on and off we went. Basically... it's not that he's haunches right or haunches left.. he's just crooked, too fast, and on the forehand. So, we worked on riding the haunches in figure 8, where you keep the haunches in and the bend to one direction (say left) no matter whether you are tracking right or left. 

• Slow and precise steps. Slow it down and make each step intentional. Speed is his cheat and speed makes him tip onto his forehand. The Economy trot 
• When riding haunches in, even in the figure 8, the haunches must match the bend, so... no bending left while haunches right. 
• Sit on my inside seat bone (or the seat side that the haunches are in). Don't let him throw me to the other side
• Long legs... toes up, heels down. He should respond to my leg pressure. Not my heel. If he doesn't, tap him with the whip near the girth. I should aim to *DO* less and *FEEL* more. 
• Don't worry so much about his head, but focus on a soft connection. With even reins and even hands. If I need to lift the inside rein some, that's okay. But make sure to coordinate the inside leg with the inside rein.
• When riding haunches in, focus on riding outside leg to inside rein. 

So we pretty much did that the whole lesson. We started at the walk and then went to the trot. And he felt good. And he was happy. He didn't stick his tongue out... he chomped a little bit but it wasn't a nervous fretting chomp so much as a "this is hard" chomp. So yay! Rana said that I did a good job and rode well. :) She also said to try to lunge him every day, but not for very long. And to lunge him before I ride. And she bets that in a month, we'll be looking good. So that's the plan! 

Oh, one other thing! Rana mentioned that when Dan stays slow (in his correct tempo) his front foot is straight underneath him when he is bearing full weight. When he is tipped onto his forehand, his front foot is back underneath him. Well, when it's back underneath him... where are the hind legs supposed to go?! DUH!!! Ooooooooooooh! That makes sense. If he's tipped onto his forehand, his center of balance is a bit behind him, so his front legs are a bit behind the plumb line, which means his hind legs have nowhere to go, so his stride shortens. And his hind legs are then out behind him... pushing him along, but not in a good engaged way. Which then just throws the energy onto the forehand, dumping him back onto the front feet that are still stuck behind him too. So it's a vicious cycle.