I shared Andrea's good report with Pro and he gave me the horsey equivalent of rolling his eyes like "Yeah right Mom - I was bad@ss as usual. I'm a tough guy - don't believe her!" Silly boy. It was SO humid out today but I'm feeling very accountable to this blog :) so I rode anyway. I spent most of the ride trying to replicate the feelings I had (regarding the separate roles of the outside and inside reins) on Wednesday with Gayle. It actually went fairly well. I still have to laugh as he starts every ride by desperately putting his head up and rushing, in an attempt to see if I've forgotten everything. Nope, sorry. He not only has to put his head down, but he has to get plugged into my seat so he's not rushing me out of place. Similar to Gayle's working student saying that her horse fakes an allergy cough so she can get her off balance, and then she takes off. Ha!
He was a little resistant to give (at first) at the trot, but I really put my focus on the outside rein and it seemed to help. Outside rein stays stable and steady, inside rein is forward and soft 90% of the time and "in play" only when my inside leg kicking isn't working. He did a little dance by the bunny tree but actually (surprisingly!) stayed relatively round as he danced. I don't see *why* we had to prance by it as we did our best passage impression, but oh well. He kept his head down so I wasn't going to argue.
I did some leg yielding at the walk/trot but I think I'll need to lay out a more specific plan for that tomorrow, since he's trying to rush through them. I think part of it is me trying to coordinate all of my limbs - simultaneously be opening and "allowing" with my outside rein but "managing" the scooting with my outside leg, while still not hanging on my inside rein and using my inside leg to move him over. Stupid body...it refuses to listen to me!
His canter still feels unbalanced but I have a hunch that it's due to a whole lot of rebalancing over this past year...he's abandoned his old upside-down way of cantering so now he's not quite sure how to canter. I feel moments of balance, but not an overall sense of REAL balance like he's developed in his trot. That's okay, it will come. :)
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8 comments:
Oh, the balancing woes. So hard to try to convince a 1000 lb animal to balance themselves.
I know exactly how you feel w/ leg yielding. I know the aids, but it NEVER works like I want it to. So frustrating.
I've always found the leg yielding easier coming off of a circle....
You'll get it though and laugh when you are showing FEI and thinking that leg yielding gave you troubles. HAHAHA
It is frustrating, Ellen...I feel like I have a "body learning disorder" or something.
Alex - yup, we do them coming off a circle instead of going center/quarter-line to rail. Which I'd never thought of before, but Gayle showed me. And oh yes, the day Pro doesn't give me problems is the day that he has no pulse anymore!!! It's hardwired into his brain. :)
Hmmm, maybe the stuff at the bunny tree was his way of trying to tell you he *wants* to do passage! :)
I think my body has dyslexia...or something!
I hear you on the balancing issues...Surf has a very difficult time balancing his big-old self!
Kate, try to worry less about your body "making" him do the movement and put more into imagining the move.
Set him up for it and then look up and picture it and wait for him to follow you over to the rail.
Good Luck!!
I'm with Alex- sit up, think about how it SHOULD look in your mind while you're asking for it, and LOOK UP at where you're going! (Looking down only makes you slump which isn't good for body control!)
But I think you guys are doing A GREAT job and making really good progess.
Can I have your and Gabby's autograph's when you're both doing Grand Prix and I'm still trying to get my monster to stand still in the wash stall? ;)
Oh yes definitely with the imagining. :) But I have to force myself to consciously think about putting my inside rein forward so I don't let him trick me into letting him lean on it...hopefully once that's "autmomatized" in my mind, I'll be able to let go of the gritty details more. :)
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