Kate & ...Elvis?!?!?! lesson

YUP, I rode someone new. I actually can't remember the last time I rode another horse. A pretty far stretch from my days before Pro, when I rode different horses my whole life. Mostly the ones no one else wanted to ride, for various reasons. Elvis, at all of his massive 15.3h, felt HUGE. Gayle's been insisting that I ride a different horse, and she adores my barn owner's horse (Elvis), so we convinced Tara to donate Elvis for a lesson. He's an OTTB who was a school horse for awhile.

Anyway, Gayle's a magician. She's never seen this horse go (only stand in the pasture, that's it) and before Elvis had taken two steps into the arena today, she's already describing exactly how he works and how I should ride him. Every word was dead on!! She's truly incredible.

I felt like someone had slipped him a bottle of vodka before I got on. Steering, anyone?! Bending wasn't even the picture. We played "follow the inside rein" by gently opening the inside rein wide, having him follow it with his nose as we walked circles. He's definitely a "lower legs OFF" horse!! If my leg started clamping, he would lean/move into it. I had to keep my lower legs consciously off his side unless I needed them. At which point it was bump-bump! and go forward. Or bump-bump! and off my leg. He was pretty okay with that.

Once we got some sort of directional work mapped out, and he was pretty chill with all that, we started to trot. Hmmmm, some sucking back. Bump-bump! and move on. Follllllow the inside rein, Elvis. He leeeeeaned to the inside and tried to figure out what I wanted. Weight more in my outside seatbone, eyes to the outside of the circle. Which, as absurd as it sounds, rebalanced him. And has done wonders for Pro's balance on circles. You know how everyone always says to look around the circle? Not anymore. I look just outside the circle. Suddenly, the horse stops leaning and lifts up. Works every time!

We switch to the left after a walk break, and then I ask for the trot. He snatches the reins, shakes his head, starts to throw a tantrum. Whoa!! What was that?! Try again, same thing. Back to the right, re-establish the trot. Change direction through the trot. Gayle emphasizes"be ready and anticipate, but DON'T be tense". Fine distinction, but it's so true. He seemed very stressed about something to the left. Gayle said it seemed like he was anticipating being snatched/yanked by the left inside rein. To counteract this, I gave it to him. Ahhh, there we go. He seemed surprised, but pleased.

At the trot, while looking just to the outside and fooollllow the inside rein and weight in my outside seatbone, I had to post in a manner that would bring his back up underneath me. He seemed hesitant, like he was expecting a retaliation from my seat. I "sat down on eggshells" as I posted down and "pulled" his back up underneath my seat as I posted up. He would raise his back for short periods, which relaxed him a lot. We did gradual figure-eights, and he was okay with this. Lots of praise when he softened and lifted his back. Loud grunts when he tried to pull a tantrum. He seemed surprised that his tantrums didn't work.

Overall, it was very...interesting...and very very different from what I'm used to, but fun. :) I think Elvis even had a little fun!!! I also rode Pro after Andrea's lesson and he was really good. Until I let him cool out at the end and he spooked at jump block. Nope, back to work!!! After he finally walked by it decently, THEN we cooled out for real. Arabs...

**Note - I have a short video but can't for the life of me get it to upload to youtube!!!! I'll keep working on it.