Reprogramming muscle memory

Sorry I haven't been blogging. There's just so much to do and so little time.

Last week I got serious about getting a new saddle and tried one out from Triangle Horse Sports. It was a little bit too wide for Pro and Gayle says that the gussetted style of panels won't sit properly on his back, so that had to go back. She thinks a Prestige will work best for him, so she's supposed to have her saddle fitter/neighbor David keep an eye out for a used Prestige in my price range ($800 or less, I'm a poor broke grad student right now). Until then I'll make do with shortening my stirrups a hole so I can post over the pommel of Kate's saddle ;). I realized about two weeks ago that I was slamming my crotch into it every stride at the trot so my butt would like some extra room. Dennis from Rocking B may come to the barn in July to fit several horses, so depending on how much that is I might buy in and have him see if there's anything closer to my price range that will work.

My lesson on Friday was hard because Gayle made sure we went to my weaker direction (going right) instead of left. To the left I apparently do an ok job of not fiddling with my inside rein, but to the right my right hand wants to do all the work still. That makes sense with what I'd noticed on my own about how I needed to keep a firmer connection with the outside rein. Unfortunately by the time my hand started understanding what I wanted Pro had already gotten pissed about me screwing around with his inside rein and gotten less cooperative. Gayle took control of my inside rein and helped get him to stop laying on my inside leg so that we could bend correctly. At the end we got a couple circles of nicer trot, though we had to go very slow to keep things at a speed I could control.

Last night the rain stopped/held off long enough for me to get a ride in. It was my first ride post-lesson and I went to the right and made myself not let my left elbow get in front of my left hip. That worked pretty well for keeping the outside rein connected. Then I tried to focus on every time I wanted to twitch my right hand bumping him with my right leg instead. If he didn't listen to the leg, he got tapped with the whip. If he didn't listen to the tap and get off my inside leg then I let myself pull his head in quickly and then immediately let go. He seemed much happier with that system than with me constantly monkeying with his head. I wasn't completely successful at staying out of his way with the inside rein, but I felt like it was progress. It's just a lot of work to stop myself from pulling inside, tell my leg to react instead, etc. We did almost the entire ride at the walk until I felt like he was stretching down and forward for the bit consistantly and taking "big boy" strides forward and was really in front of me. Staying at the walk helped give me the time to think and not worry about my balance while applying my aides. Our trot work was better than it normally is to the right, but it took a couple laps to get him back on the outside rein. It's going to take me awhile to get it right consistantly and convince Pro that I'm not going back to the way he's trained me to ride where I drop my hands and worry about his nose more than his ribs. Still, I was pleased with my progress in one ride, so hopefully by next Friday we can work on something different. :)