The title is misleading -- I actually had a very good ride last night on Tango, but it was one of those days that made my own rusty riding very clear. 6 lessons in the last 3 years = a very rusty Libby. The trouble is that I know exactly what I'm doing wrong, but struggle to fix those bad habits on my own without at least an occasional lesson. It can get very frustrating. I managed to police myself pretty effectively last night, and Tango and I managed to have a really productive ride. But truthfully I'm anxious to know whether I'll be able to half-lease Tango and start taking some lessons with him, or whether he's going to be sold, in which case I need to find another riding situation.
Ok, enough angsting-- on to the ride. We did our usual warm-up of free-walking, and then moved on to a warm-up at the rising trot. He's still fairly stiff after all that time off, so my goal yesterday was to work on straightness. He will often supple too easily to the left (he evades by letting his right shoulder bow out so that he appears flexed) and resist suppling to the right -- and when I ask him to ride a straight line, we do a lot of drifting. To work on this, I ride a lot of figure 8's, circles, serpentines, and leg yields in both directions. We kept at those exercises at the walk and trot for a long time, until I felt like I had him working softly in both directions and not evading or drifting. He did a great job, despite the fact that I was struggling with my hands (my biggest bad habit).
My wonderful boyfriend has agreed to come out on Sunday and take some pictures of Tango and me, so stay tuned!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Oooh! Pictures! I'd be interested in hearing more about how you deal with the issue of actually going straight on straight lines, as that's my newest issue to try tackling on Pro.
Don't feel bad about losing your riding legs - I lose mine if I don't ride for a week! It took me over a year of regular riding to feel truly comfortable on a horse again after my time off in college. For the longest time I felt so frustrated b/c, like you said, I knew what I wanted my body to do, it just couldn't do it!
I hope that you can find out something about half-leasing Tango soon, and resolve the anxiety of not knowing. I hope it will work out for you! Your ride sounds like it actually went pretty good! I can't wait for some pictures! :)
Yay pictures!!! Can't wait to see them!
Don't worry - many of us feel like we've gotten out of the groove even missing a week or two of riding, so you're doing great with what you're working with.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that it all works out with the half-lease!
Thanks folks :)
Andrea -- in my experience, the reason a horse struggles to stay straight on a straight line is because he is having difficulty coordinating muscles on both sides of his body equally, due to being weaker/stiffer on one side. All horses have a weaker side, as do all riders. (Ahem, my left, ahem! lol)
To fix a crooked horse, I ride a lot of figures (circles, serpentines, figure 8s, riding the diagonal) and really try to focus on getting the horse supple and strong in both directions. At the end of each ride, I ask the horse to walk (and eventually trot) straight down center line once each way, bent in each direction. This works for me as a gauge of how both sides are coming along. Good luck working on straightness with Pro! :)
yay pictures to come!!! It will take time to build those riding muscles back up. Ive been there too, you know what you are doing wrong, but it hard to fix. Hang in there, each time you ride, it gets better.
I can't wait to see the pics! You'll be back in shape in no time.
Post a Comment