Kate & Pro - alright, who doped him with Ritalin?!

I'm back! Okay so last Thursday I rode Pro after a few days break due to rain. I was surprised to find that he was calm - not looky at the bench or anything else. I generally stuck to a 20m circle and just focused on releasing my inside rein, getting him to relax his neck even though I was keeping my hands up in their proper position.

Friday morning was my lesson. I committed the Student's Mortal Sin of Riding - I left my tall boots at home (#*#&!) so I had to ride in sneakers, but Gayle said she could look the other way. ;) We started off by getting him looser at the walk, since he'd had a few days off. Gayle also said the words "and his age", hahaha - 16 is not old!!!! - so yes, it was JUST from the days off. We worked on getting him moving evenly, tracking up, and then focused on that darn outside rein. For that, walking on a "square" with quarter-pirouettes. Except I had to make sure that I did NOT touch the inside rein during each pirouette. Outside aids only. Which turned out to be very awkward - when I put my outside leg on and started to move him over with the outside leg, his brain thought "oh, Western spin!" so he would put his head up and try to do a 360-degree spin. I had to carefully bump him over with the outside aids and quickly "catch" him and send him forward with my inside leg so he didn't spin all the way around. Stupid Western training.

Anyway, even though at first he kept putting his head up (trying to weasel me into pulling his face around with the inside rein), this eventually softened him. To flex his neck, I was only allowed to half-halt on the OUTside rein. Big mental change for me. Gayle's weaning me off that inside rein dependence. So, we're learning to turn/steer from the outside rein only - it's a difficult mental change for me. But Gayle says that once you control the outside of the horse, you control the horse. That's pretty good motivation to learn this solidly!

Also due to stiffness, Gayle had me adjust my posting to 99% sitting down in the saddle on the down beat. Within two strides, Pro lifted his back!! It was a neat sensation that he clearly liked. It took a bit more effort on my part (haha, no being lazy with this) but it really helped him to develop a better, swingy trot. We also picked up the canter, and then went down to trot without letting me lean on the reins at alllll. I'm still pounding it into my head - "If I don't give him something to pull on, he can't lean on me." Tricky!

Tonight I rode him again and he was still resistant to fully coming soft since my hands no longer drop (much to his dismay) but at least he's not being an angry idiot about imaginary spooky things. He did fuss a bit over the bunny tree tonight, but I kept to a tight volte until he dropped down. But for the most part, he's been fairly focused the past three rides. :) (Hope I didn't just jinx myself!!!)

Sorry for my absence lately...I'll be better about posting!!! Gabby - you win most dedicated poster!! Hey Christie, how's Deuce doing these days? Haven't heard any updates...