We did the cavaletti clinic with Beth today and learned a bunch. We got on at the trailer and walked up to the jump arena. She thought for a minute that Judy and Teller were monsters as they were coming back down the hill and hidden in the trees for a minute. Her heart was beating out of her chest! But once she saw them, she took a big breath and was fine. We got up there and walked and trotted around quite politely! She had Danielle lunging Sparrow in there and then Gail riding Nate. I think this might be the first time she has been ridden in there with other horses. And she was good! Although we did try to sneak past Danielle on the lunge and she shied at Beths' lunchbox in the judges booth and basically ran into Sparrows lunge circle. Um... no baby girl! Beth had to go touch her lunch box and then Funny felt stupid. But she never gave it another glance! Smart girl!
The cavaletti lesson was hard! But it was great because it pointed out some issues. Beth had set up four poles on a circle, all close together. (So it was like a 10th of a circle). If we stayed on inside half of the poles, it was set for a walk. If we stayed on the outside half of the poles, it was set to a trot. So we walked them a few times. At first Funny was just moseying along so Beth had me sort of put her together and get her more marchy and it was better.
Then we trotted the poles. Which... was fine when it was good but silly when it wasn't good. Funny was leaning hard into my left leg so when we trotted, she kept falling in to the inside half of the poles, which made the steps hard at the trot. So then I started a little to the inside and thought about essentially leg yielding her out to the outside, she got a better bend and it was better. Except then by the last pole she would throw her shoulder to the outside and fishtail a bit. Going to the left she even came inside so much she missed the poles entirely once! Girl! So then Beth had me take both hands to the outside to help keep her shoulders lined up and that helped a lot! We eventually got some really nice passes but it was defintely not easy to keep the shoulders in line, the haunches in line, the barrel off my inside leg, and then the rhythm from getting too quick. That's a lot of baby horse to keep in line!
And not only did we trot the poles, but then the next pass, we came down to a walk just before the poles and walked the inside half. Then picked up the trot to go around and trot the outside half. Then back to walk. HARD STUFF!! Beth did notice that I needed to sit on my pockets because Funny (and Lyric) tend to pull me forward, especially in the downward transitions. But if I can use my core strength and stay tall, they can't pull me down and get heavy. And our transitions get better! As does the trot and walk! We managed to get some great moments in a couple of passes through. It was never perfect the whole way through, but we had good moments!
Then it got a whole lot harder! The next step was to trot the trot side, then on the opposite side of the circle was a single pole, slightly offset. We had to trot that pole, and then turn the opposite direction and pick up the canter, making a half circle to another single offset pole, canter that pole, then come down to the trot to go back to the trot poles. We made a figure 8 pattern. Oh boy! Beth told us that we could circle at the canter if we needed, circle before the canter, etc. We tried and we had to circle in the canter a time or two. And we sometimes didn't hold the canter over the second pole. And sometimes we cantered almost into the trot poles or had to regroup. But it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. I stayed on. We managed it! And we learned some helpful things. She definitely leans/motorcycles hard core to the right. She hangs on me and gets heavy and strong at the canter. So, Beth had me focus on balance more than getting the exercise done. If we had to circle, circle. If she breaks out of the canter, don't kick her back up into it. She fell out of it because she lost her balance, so let her regroup and rebalance and then ask again. And most effectively, she had me do alternating half halts at the canter (but even at the trot too) to help her balance and not get so quick, but not hang on her. And that helped immensely! Her canter gets so big, so doing the alternating half halts helps her stay smaller and balanced.
So... we managed to do the pattern a few times and while it wasn't ever super pretty or super smooth, there were plenty of great moments! And like I said, we learned some stuff.
Definitely a good day. She rode in a group in an arena without kicking anyone or being snotty. She stood quietly and waited her turn. She didn't give me too much sass or fuss. She figured out some things and worked hard and we got some really nice moments. And I learned some tools to help me with her. It was a good day!
Sadly I had to get home to get some other things done so we didn't get to go for a hack after. Sorry baby girl!
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