Lesson!

Well, it's been over a week, might as well get this out before I completely forget it.

I last left this blog at the part of my ride where I just got in my new saddle. From there, it was time to work on Peanut's gaits. Since the farm has a nice, 1/4 mile paved driveway, we used that as a sounding board to listen to the pitter-patter of Peanut's little feet.

We were looking for a nice 1-2-3-4 beat, fast "like a Rocky Mountain horse!" Leeandra said.

Going away from the road, the driveway is uphill so that's the direction we gaited. And fishtailed. It was like driving my old rear-wheel drive Mazda 929 on ice. Peanut's little butt went everywhere. He would also keep breaking into a canter when we were supposed to be doing a nice running walk.

Our second time up the driveway was best, but after that I think we both ended up getting tired. We ended up veering completely onto the grass and spending more time cantering. It was very frustrating, but we can practice any time we want and I started to learn why we just couldn't gait up the damn driveway.

I had a hard time with my left leg. I couldn't keep it against him like the right, and I couldn't keep weight in the stirrup. After I dismounted, I saw that my brand new saddle pad was showing wear at the bottom from my legs. On the right side, it was right behind the girth. On the left, it was a little behind right behind the girth. So, what does this mean? It means I was giving him a canter cue unintentionally just by my leg position. On the last time up the driveway, if my left leg just brushed into him he would begin to canter. Gee, wonder why?

I realized that my inability to keep that foot weighted meant that my heel would rise, my knee would bend, and thus I'd be cuing him behind where I should have been.

Video exists. It should not.

On the way down the driveway, I'd practice collecting him up for a controlled downhill walk.

It was a very, very frustrating lesson, but I was told that it was great when we had it, and besides my riding has improved vastly overall and I should be proud. Still... so frustrating....

Walking back to the barn, Leeandra got out a clicker and with her dressage whip started working on Peanut's Spanish Walk. Previously, he had a pretty good Spanish Stand, but he couldn't fathom putting motion to it. Anne and Rick both said that he looked confused as hell, but eventually he started to get it.

Yesterday, in lieu of riding I got out my clicker, the whip that I use as my clicker wand, and I worked some more on convincing him that he could walk and paw at the same time. We got some really great results, mostly out of his left leg (the right's a little slow, yo), and I was very impressed. The main problem seemed to be that I can't make him walk straight while working on cues, so I got a kick or two since he kept turning towards me. I was in the saddle working on impulsion when Leeandra was working on the Spanish Walk, so having a helper would probably move things along well and I can retrain him to the "proper" rein cue. *cough*