Kate & Pro's Marathon Lesson

So Friday's lesson nearly shattered my pelvis. I rode for just about 2 1/2 hours. Paaaaain! Which of course now makes it difficult to remember everything that Gayle said, what we did, etc. I'll try to get the highlights. He was being such a twit when we started that he was lateral-walking and giraffe-facing. Gayle pointed out that he likes to hit me with multiple forms of evasion. So he was trying rhythm evasion (lateral walk) and bit evasion (giraffe face). To combat the rhythm, she had me focus on making his rhythm very correct and distinct. I move him and I dictate the rhythm, not him!! Then for the giraffe face, pick up my hands. And not just up out of my lap. UP. Even up to my chest. To wherever the bit stays in the same place and I have a straight bit line. And hold it there. Pro was, of course, infuriated by this. He eventually put his head down, I lowered my hands to their correct spot, and praised him.

We worked a lot on moving his shoulders over. Somehow, I had a magically huge revelation with this. I wasn't putting my outside leg back enough when I asked him to move his shoulders over on a turn, or a quarter-pirouette. So he'd been moving his HQs as well, subtly so I wouldn't notice. No western spins, says Gayle! Once I put my leg back as I asked, WHOOSH, his shoulders moved right over freely! It was so neat. We played around with that a lot as well with the submission.

Then the inside rein, my crack habit. We discussed purposeful use - ie, when I use it, I *USE* it, and then return it to neutral. No tweaking, no gently using it. Pull it ALL the way out, then release to neutral. She did get after me once because I used it and let it go too quickly, she said his head ricocheted like whiplash! ;) but I eventually figured it out.

We also talked about how bent his neck should be at all times. She integrated a little physical therapy into our lesson by working on his neck, getting his poll to flex in her hands, working on his jaw, etc. He loved it, of course. His nuchal ligament, she thinks, may prevent him from ever correctly being poll-high. When he's lazy, he breaks at the nuchal ligament area, not his poll. Thank you western pleasure Arab trainers who cranked his neck in draw reins at age 2-3... We also talked about only being able to see his inside eyelashes when he's bent. No more bend than that! True bend is body only. However, he does use wiggly-ness to evade so I need to watch that.

At about the 2 hour mark, something magical happened - he submitted!!! He started to come truly through and step under himself and relax over his topline. Of course, Gayle said I couldn't get off yet. If we were teaching him a new skill and he finally mastered it, you praise and get off. But if it's something basic (going round), you can't. Then they win. So I pushed through it. We worked at the trot, applying the same moving-shoulders turning, keeping the correct bend, getting him to step under himself. I also spent time playing with inside rein neutrality. When I give as a reward, I can't just fling it out there and leave it be. I have to GIVE the reward, then take back to neutral. Hmm, interesting.

Anyway...he finally got his post-lesson carrot. :) Last night's ride was pretty good, only took us about 10-20min to get submission and then he relaxed into a decent trot. We're still using the whip in groundwork before every ride, I think it's making him less freakish about it. :)