Yay, sunshine! Before getting on this morning I spent a peaceful hour or so brushing filthy little Tango to a shine, de-dreadlocking his tail, and also thinning out and evening up his mane (just to my own lax aesthetic standards). At least he doesn't have that "Pigpen meets Bob Marley" look happening anymore!
We worked for about an hour again today, and it was apparent immediately that he hadn't been worked since my ride last weekend -- probably thanks to the weather, and also because his owner is pretty busy lately. It makes it a little more difficult to get "full of beans Tango" settled down for a productive ride, especially when I don't know how often his owner is getting on or what she's doing with him. We really need to coordinate better, but it's hard when everyone is so busy.
Anyway, there was lots of jigging and silliness. So in the spirit of Ellen's suggestions, I kept him at a walk for longer than I usually do at the beginning of a ride and worked on how we pick up contact. I discovered that when I pick up contact, I manage to keep my legs from tensing up but do actually struggle with keeping my seat, and with keeping my elbows flexible once I have those shorter reins. Drat. So I experimented for quite a while and eventually, after many tries, managed to pick up contact (outside rein first) without a jig and sustain a nice walk with contact for a couple laps around. It was a short-lived victory -- once I asked for a circle at the walk, he got all bunched up again, so we went back to square one and did it all over again in both directions until I was satisfied that I could pick up and drop contact without a jig. Thanks, Ellen, for the suggestions! These hyper-horse days can be so rough.
After all of that, I asked for a trot and got some rushing, but before too long we settled into more or less a nice, relaxed trot and got some decent figures. I figured that was the most I could ask from him after a week off, so I called it a day even though I hadn't exactly tired him out. More to come Monday, when hopefully the horse won't be quite so up.
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5 comments:
That sounds like a good ride! It's so frustrating when you finally get what you're asking for and then the horse won't stay there. I'm impressed you had the patience to fight it out again. I can usually only make myself work through it twice with Pro before I get off ;).
I've gotten so I ask and if I get it once, I'll praise like he's the best horse ever and then I let it go...I even try to avoid that topic later on so the one good response 'might' stick. Otherwise, I'll drill and drill and drill and drill until its wrong : )
One day, you'll look back and wonder how you made it so far. Remind yourself that it was these eensy weensy steps that seemed so frustrating at the time!
Great job for sticking with it!
And as annoying as JUST walking can be, I'm glad in the end it worked out well!!
Mary- posting as Elizabeth
Jigging is annoying, I know! :) See if you can manipulate him into moving from the jig into a more forward walk. I love it when we can use their evasions against them.
Glad you stayed patient!
Good for you for staying patient and working through the jigging. That is so hard to do. "Give me patience and give it to me NOW!" LOL!!!
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