Today was a double day - both a lesson and a trim! The lessons started at 9, the trims at 10.
First, I got two lectures - one each from Denise and Dawn - about the same thing: Peanut's weight. They don't like it. They want him muzzled, but I'm paranoid. So very paranoid that something will happen, something will catch, the halter won't break, and it won't end well. I think deep down that's the real reason that I'm so resistant to muzzling. I don't like the idea of Peanut being miserable in it either, which I think he will be (he's so mouthy), but deep down I'm afraid of being here while a dozen miles away my horse is in dire straights and no one notices.
Yeah, that could happen at any time due to anything, but I so do like a naked horse - less to go wrong. Shoes, blankets, halters left on - all can go wrong. Muzzles too.....
So, instead, the roly poly pony will start getting a lot more exercise. Just one more month and the sugar will lessen. Am I terrified of founder? Sure. Am I terrified of leaving my horse in a field in a muzzle? Sure. Argh.
Best yet, my newly-customized Fhoenix now also has Denise's seal of approval. So there.
So, my lesson.
First, I have been using my trampoline faithfully for the past 3 weeks. My legs feel like they are shrinking, and my hips are not as wide. I haven't measured anything, but I can hold my arms at a different angle now - my hips are no longer holding them out or even vertical. Well whoopee, what has it done for my riding? Denise has noticed quite a difference.
So, I may have misunderstood. She didn't mention the abs at all and said a great benefit was balance and in hip movement. What happened? She said that my position was great. I was far more relaxed and comfortable in the saddle than she's seen, and my riding has improved greatly. Finally! After years of feeling like I was treading water I am moving forward. :)
So, what did we work on in this lesson? My legs. The gait. Speed consistency. Turns (90 degree ones). Relaxing my arms. And straightness. Oh, and I hurt myself and it still hurts, ow.
My legs:
Now that my leg position has been corrected and I can actually contact his barrel from thigh to toe, I have a bad habit of clutching with my lower legs. I must relax them, and get them off of him. But this is the horse that would not take a step when I first got him, then would not move over a walk, and that would fall out of gait as soon as pressure was released! Well, no more. I kept my legs on his sides, but just touching and nothing more, and he was very responsive and didn't drop his gaits. :) Time to move on from that assumption.
The gait (and also relaxing my arms):
The gait has always been challenging for us, and Denise hasn't had experience with gaited horses before. But, she knows her stuff and actually did some research for us. The big thing that I do in the gait is keep my arms rigid. She watched and said how he wants to move his head and neck, but my arms are not letting him. Relax relax relax! I need to let my arms relax to the point that they are moving with his head/neck to allow all movement without any resistance. My lower body was finally relaxed, my back wasn't doing half bad, but I was having a dickens of a time releasing my arms.
She kept saying to let my arms do what my hips were doing - namely following his every movement instead of fighting it. I couldn't tell what the hell my hips were up to, and when I tried to make my arms relax and move with him, I realized his head and neck were so busy that I couldn't coordinate the effort to keep up with them.
At a couple of points I did manage to let my arms go, and was rewarded with a lovely gait and praise from Denise. This is a very interesting aspect that was a revelation.
Speed consistency:
As the ring is currently unusable due to an unfortunate dumping of stones (which hastened the redo), we had our lessons in the small one acre field at the front of the property which was momentarily empty. The ground is flat-ish, but not flat.
Denise was having me gait on a slight rise, and I told her that Peanut would try to canter up it instead of gait - which he did, every time. Well, that gave us the chance to work on this.
If he tried to go into a canter, I was to do nothing more than half-halt on the outside rein and apply thigh pressure. Then, as soon as he dropped into a gait, relax everything and go smoothly on as a reward. The transition in myself once we got to the speed I wanted was never mentioned before, but it makes such perfect sense. Momentary correction, get on with life, forget that anything happened. I've been trying to use that philosophy since before I got Peanut, but never thought to apply it to speed corrections.
Still, he never stopped trying to canter up that slight rise, so we had ample opportunity to practice. The fact that I was thinking about my arms while gaiting probably didn't help anything.
Turns (90 degree ones):
So, we worked on general turning at our last lesson. This time, it was 90 degree ones and she changed the way I thought about reins.
First, I am to do what I was always taught not to - pull the inside rein out to the side. Then, keep the outside rein just as it was. The inside rein moves his nose, the outside rein keeps that pesky outside shoulder in check and means that he has to turn, he can't just keep going straight with his nose and head off to the side. :)
Oh yes, don't forget to look and turn the body to give a seat and leg signal as well.
Straightness:
There was a lot going on around us as we had our lesson - Gene and Rick were wandering about the farm, two horses were being loaded into a trailer and moved out, another rider was working in the ring (despite the footing). Peanut was distracted by it all and wanted to be with Gene more than anything. This made him a slippery boy that I had a hard time keeping straight when going across the middle of the field towards the street.
Just like with 90 degree turns, I had to change how I used my reins. The goal was to keep his neck straight while keeping him from moving out. To do that, Denise had me move my rein opposite to the way he wanted to move out away from us (like in the 90 degree turn) to keep his nose from wandering away. The rein that was in the direction he wanted to go was to remain steady, and I nudged his body over with my leg. I had variabe success with the squirrely Peanut, but at the end we could keep pretty straight, then do our 90 degree turn. :)
And how did I get hurt? My hands are still defiant and not staying in proper position (tip of thumb nestled into side of index finger and no fingers dangling loose). As we gaited up the rise, he kept spooking out sideways, again and again. This gave us time to work on this as well. It always seemed to happen just as the Mason Dixon marker would pop into his view from amongst the undergrowth across the street - I wonder if that was really it. But anyway, during one of his sideways jaunts, my outside hand slammed into the side of his neck, jamming my thumb whose tip was hanging out there all vulnerable. Ouch.
It's a good way to break a finger, Denise later said.
Ouch. :(
No comments:
Post a Comment