Funny and I had a lesson today! I miscalculated my time so I had to speed tack up and get on. I did walk around a good bit while Jacel and I chatted so she got warmed up, but we didn't get to hack. We rode in the jump arena just in case we wanted to jump and so we had jump poles. And she was pretty good. We started out with a decent walk around and then picked up the trot. She was a bit quick and was spicy and kept wanting to look in the woods. Which, to her credit, the Ashland crew was doing something out there and drove by twice, so it was slightly justified. At one point shortly after we started she spooked hard left and spun and I almost flew over her neck. I lost one stirrup but managed to catch myself. Naughty girl!! We went back to our trot and she was extra distracted and falling in and looking for more things to spook at. So Jacel told me to ride her into the outside rein. Yep... trying, but especially going to the right, she just falls in and I get frustrated because I feel like I'm just spinning her in small circles that are biomechanically disastrous! So... she gave me an awesome new trick!! She had me lift my inside rein, super high! And then open the outside rein but a hair low. This immediately unlocked Funny's poll and neck base which then allowed me to push her barrel into my outside rein and the opening outside rein gave her a place to go! Ooooooohhhhh this is soooo much better than me fighting with her! And yes, it's not really ideal in a sense of creating a twist, but.... once I get her unlocked then I can move her barrel, and once I move her barrel, she pretty much straightens herself out and carries herself properly. So she goes from not so biomechanically correct to quite correct and nice and we avoid the fight and the spinning! And the spinning wasn't ever biomechanically correct either. And by the end of our session, I could do it much more subtly and get a response much quicker. Baby girl is definitely smart!
We also trotted through a bunch of groudpoles again. Jacel had purposely set them spaced semi-randomly so that Funny had to think and be responsible for herself. Fifth leg training! And to her credit, she only scrambled once or twice. (Her and Lyric are SOOOOO different!!). We played with doing the line of poles, then circling before and after to stay balanced. And once she was polite and balanced I started skipping circles here and there and she stayed balanced! Yay!
So then we went to work on the canter. We found a place to do a circle and started with the left lead. She picked it up when I just rode her inside leg to outside rein and added more leg. But she sort of ran into it. So we tried again and we managed to get it more often than not! Yay! Jacel told me that as soon as I got her into the canter I was perching. No!! Sit... sit down and make her carry herself. If she can sit on her haunches, she can lift her shoulders. Let her lift!! And Funny heard her and decided to drop her head and let our two or three big bucks! "I'll show you LIFT!". ha ha. We all giggled. Then we went back to it and she was better. So then we went to the right and I was now getting the left lead canter. Wait,...what?!? We NEVER get the left lead when I'm asking for the right. That's not our struggle! So we talked about how I felt like if I just used my inside leg and rode her into my outside hand and leg, she would get the correct lead. But if I tried to ask with my outside leg, I threw things off. So we talked about how it really isn't wrong to use inside leg or outside leg as your canter aid. It won't mess us up for tempi changes later in life. Phew! This is my life long struggle!! Some people teach the canter cue with the outside leg... some teach it with the inside leg... some say it's not legs but hip swings. But then when you get to tempi changes, they almost all talk about how your outside leg is the aid. Okay, but... then why is it not the aid in the beginning too!? Sigh. Jacel was like... basically... by the time she gets to tempi changes, she'll be educated enough to understand and move more off your seat aids. But we did decide that I should focus on keeping my outside leg slightly back, but don't try to "kick" with it. Just ride her from my inside leg and she'll bounce almost into my slightly back outside leg and she'll get the lead! And it pretty much worked, so yay! We'll practice more! We also have to work on our downwards because a few times when I asked her to trot from the canter, she slammed on the brakes and got very behind my leg. Nope... that's not it. So I had to chase her into the trot. Even if it got ugly... she must go forward in the downwards! But we fixed it.
Then she started to set up a cross rail and Courtney and Annabelle had walked up. Jacel told them we needed a few more minutes and sent them to the grassy warm up area. She told me to trot the giant cross rail (It was giant!!! ha ha.. not really, but it was tall on the sides!). She had two placing poles, one on each side. So by now Funny was all spiced up again because of the "intruders". We picked up the trot and headed to it and a few strides out she broke into a giant bold canter and launched it! I knew it was coming so I sat up straight and on landing lifting my hands a bit because sure enough, she tried to put her head down and get to bucking! Fun! But... not allowed! She does NOT get to take charge! I was cracking up because I told Jacel that in the beginning of our lesson she was like "She needs to learn to think for herself and make decisions" and then at the end she was like "She's NOT in charge.. she doesn't get to make the decisions". ha ha. But... she's not wrong! Context. ;) So we trotted towards the crossrail and then halted before the pole. Then we trotted off and jumped. And then we halted. Then we did it again and as soon as she started to barge off, we halted. Well... that's no fun! ha ha. Sorry baby girl... But because she is so smart, she figured it out quick and was polite. We finished with two very polite jumps! Good girl
We laughed about how Lyric and Funny are soooooo opposite. But that I almost had to ride them the same way, just for opposite reasons. Funny is a cocky little take charge brave toaster. And she needs me to be the leader because she does not get to make all the decisions! Lyric is not brave at all and needs me to be the leader so she knows she's safe. I'm so lucky to be able to have them both. It's a great education for my riding and they both are fun in their own ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment