Pretty Pony!

I've been riding, I just haven't been blogging. In part because for awhile there before Thanksgiving my rides were only about 15 minutes long because I was constantly running around. I'm back for awhile now though!

Kate met me out at the barn after work so she could coach me through her lesson revelations before my lesson, which is Thurs morning. She hopped on first because I wanted to see what she did before I tried to repeat it. Pro was in full-out Arab mode when we walked down to the ring and she got on. He tried to rush through his walk with his neck up and sucked back. He looked awful. Kate talked me through how she was using her seat to regulate the rhythm of his walk and we discussed the new, milder method of correcting him when he gets looky (just a quick, firm tug to the inside with the inside rein, then release - if he's being responsive then just use a quick tap of the whip and then give him a pat). Within about 5 minutes he was stretching forward for the bit and stepping under himself and was pretty focused.

So I hopped on to try to duplicate things and he was amazing. I realized a ride or two ago and this one really cemented it that I have to be sitting IN the saddle, not ON the saddle. I think this goes along with the thigh-bulk idea, but if I roll my entire leg in so that it points forward rather than my knees pointing slightly out then sit BACK my butt-bones make a much firmer connection to the saddle. It almost feels like I'm sitting on him too hard, but that's probably not the case since his immediate reaction tends to be to puff up, go forward, and stretch his shoulders to his nose when he steps. I'm probably not explaining it right, but it's like if I roll my leg forward then my calf comes off the horse (which makes sense, everyone gets told to make your feet point straight). But typically I'd do that from my ankle or knee, not really my hip. By rotating my entire leg to keep it straight, I can't squeeze with my thighs so Pro has room to move up under me and really use his shoulder.

We decided to be brave and trot and he was moving like a 30k horse, I swear. At one point I got sort of lazy about my outside rein and so he got sort of disjointed, still moving nicely, but without that suspension that was making his trot so insanely nice before. So I took back contact with the outside rein and within a stride he was back to his awesome, balanced trot. I even cantered him, which we don't really do much these days. He certainly does not have an awesome, balanced canter yet, but I think it's starting to improve some as he builds the muscles from carrying himself at the walk and trot better. We're still in the half-seat, opening rein, baby-ing mode so it's hard to influence it much.

So, the final miracle of this entire ride was that it was dark, cold, and Kate hadn't given him his dinner before hand and yet he was still willing to focus! I'm super psyched about the lesson on Thurs, which is in turn making me start to freak out that I'm going to get tense, expect to much, and turn it into one of those awful lessons where you have to relearn stuff you could do just fine a couple days ago... Kate is coming to be our videographer/photographer so hopefully my post on Fri will be full of pictures!