Ugh... Today was emotional. I'm trying my hardest to not believe the lies that Satan is throwing my way. And I'm trying hard not to... stay in that place. Because... I don't want to be there, but... in some twisted way... It's comfortable there. It's awful though. Ugh. But anyways... I was debating just hacking today... but Kelli and I had planned to ride and she wanted to do some arena work and I knew that I would want to also if she was. So... I stopped and got a new lunge line since the clip on my other one isn't working well and I decided to leave it up at the arena and get a new one to have two. My plan was to maybe lunge and then hack. Kelli had also mentioned she might appreciate some eyes on the ground, so... there was that too.
So we got there and got tacked up and I did a few minutes of pillar work. I even got a yawn again today, so yay. He hasn't done that in awhile. So then I went to lunge and he immediately grabbed the lunge line and ran off. I managed to get him before he left the arena alley way, but only because I had it clipped to his bit from one ring to the other. I don't think he liked hitting the end of it. Sorry bud, but.... I mean...
I got about 2 circles into the trot before Kelli asked for help. And to be honest... lunging him the way I had him set up didn't seem to be doing any good. So Kelli and I talked for a bit and then I just took the lunge line off and got on. I watched her ride for a bit. She was talking about her "homework" and what she had done in her lesson. She said that basically she had been so focused on getting his footfalls lined up and getting his limbs straight/in line... and getting him to stretch through his neck.. that she didn't realize how crooked he had gotten. And that his wither was tipping. Basically, he was tipping his withers right, dumping onto his right front shoulder, weighting his right front more, and then throwing his haunches out to the left. Which also then meant he can't bring his right hind forward because it's being blocked by the right front. So.. we talked about how the heck we can get them straight again. And my brain was thinking... well, pillar 3. And maybe leg yielding out to the rail a bit. And maybe shoulder fore.... So anyways, I watched her a bit and she said Rana told her to do haunches in because that would put his left hind back underneath him... and essentially.. kind of throw his right shoulder back out. I think. Maybe it's more of riding the hind end back into alignment with the front end. So... I could see a difference. When she tried to ride him "straight".. he got stabby and sticky in the right front and tight in his back. When she rode him haunches in to to the right, he got much more even up front and softer and looser in his back. And while he didn't "look straight"... as he clearly looked haunches in... his overall picture was much happier. And after a few strides, he started to straighten out without falling back onto his shoulder. Until he did.. and then haunches in again fixed it. Cool.
So then she quit and I went. I picked up the trot and tried my best to keep him from being on the buckle and dumping on the forehand by slowing my tempo. But then he either got lazy and draggy... or he curled behind the vertical. And then I tried dropping the reins entirely... and using my core to lift his front end. And honestly.. it all sucked. He just felt dumpy and lazy and sluggish and awful. Kelli was saying that he was good at being all loose and floppy but he still just wanted to dump on the forehand. But I'm afraid of "holding" him up by shortening my reins because.. that's not ideal either. I did try to ride with shorter reins but keeping them soft and him following them, but even then... he was still either curled or on the forehand. Sigh. I was about in tears. Kelli asked if she wanted her to get on. Sure... why not?. jSo she did. And immediately I noticed that she was very much tipped to the right. Like.. she looked like she was literally being tipped to the right side no matter how hard she sat left. So, it's not just me. I also don't think it's my saddle... because Cindy fixed it. So Kelli rode around at the walk and really didn't accomplish anything. She asked what I wanted her to do and if I could see anything, as she felt a head tilt. I told her to trot. So.. she did. She kept getting some canter strides too. ha ha. But she didn't really get anything special. He just looked like he was behind her leg... or he was lazy in his hind end. Or he was too quick. He went behind the vertical with her too. She did finally get some semi-decent trot but he was a bit braced in his neck.. but he was at least not on his forehand and not behind the bit. And at one point I swear his tongue almost came out. Sigh.. She asked if it helped and I told her ... no, not really. I mean, it was nice to see that it wasn't just me. Then she commented that he felt crooked like her horse. So.. I got back on. And thought, well... okay, she's right. He does feel like he's tipping to the right in his withers and I've known this, but try to compensate for it by sitting left and trying to leg yield left. But for some reason it wasn't working/helping today. So I thought well.. let's try how she was riding Marvin. Maybe if I ride haunches right... he'll unlock. So I did. And sure enough.. it helped! I could feel when he was actually upright in his withers and not tipping. And he then felt straighter and more uphill and he wasn't behind the vertical. Did he hold it for very long? No... but it was at least a better ride than I had been getting. Kelli said it looked better too.
We'll see. I was hoping to do more but... I'm trying to get better about quitting while I'm ahead and not riding past the point of fatigue for him. Not cardio fatigue. Correct muscling/correct biomechanics fatigue.
Anyways.. turns out I don't have my morning farm tomorrow so I do get to ride tomorrow too. Poor Dan... Sat, Sun, Mon, Tues and now Wed too! Plus Thursday. ;) At least he definitely gets Friday off!
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