We LOVE Jacel

 Seriously.. how lucky are we?!? I LOVE how Jacel coaches.... me and the horses. She just... figures out how they tick and how to work with them!

Today Funny was a bit amped up so we started off with some trotting and Jacel had me move her body around to keep her guessing and then also kept her attention on me. She had me slow my post and when I sat, close my thighs, squeeze my fingers, and sit heavy to help slow her down. Ahhh... okay. And alternating half halts is helping too. And it slowly worked... she got softer and started to lift her back and tail and settle. Ahhhhh good girl.

Jacel had set up a similar pattern to what we did in our lesson but we tweaked it a little. We trotted the pole in a figure 8 and worked on half halts before it and me not getting into two point. The goal was to trot over it... Not jump it. She needs to learn how to use her body and not jump everything. This way, if she loses her balance on course and comes to a jump from a trot, she won't panic. Plus, she needs to learn some respect and not just bulldoze ahead. Ha ha.. Oh jeeze, I wonder where she gets that from?! Ha ha.. ME... Dan.... We need to work smarter not harder Funs! And it worked. Mostly. She did occasionally jump it or kind of bounce over it but we had a few times where she trotted. So then we added some other pole piles and she trotted the first one, could land in a canter, cantered the other one, then we were supposed to come back down to the trot, circle around the far jump, and trot the next pole pile and then canter back to the first pole pile. It sort of worked. If she got bulldozey, I had to stop her. And Jacel said this will either really piss her off, or she won't care. And yeah, she knew what was up because as soon as I picked up the trot, she was flinging her head and trying to canter. Ha ha.. So it was a bit of a struggle but we managed to finish with some really nice patterns. And we talked about how if she was polite, we could let her canter, but if she was bulldozing, to insist she trot or walk even. I told Jacel that I loved how this exercise rewarded her try. I felt like if we had gone through it 7 times insisting that she trot in specific spots each time.. it was just going to make her resentful and not have fun and not enjoy it. BUT... by doing it this way.. if she was good and listened to me and trotted politely, and then kept a polite canter, we could canter all the things. We reward the try! And that makes it fun for her. And avoids a fight. 

And sure enough, she was so much more ridable! Just like last week... we have to meet her half way to get her on our side and then we can conquer the world! She really is smart too because a few times she got to a spot in the canter and instead of just plowing through, not changing anything, she actually rocked back and jumped! And yes, it was bold and a bit of a flyer, but that's okay because she hasn't gotten so rideable that she is collectable yet. And I don't want her to be. At this point, she has to figure it out for herself a ltitle bit. Because if I keep telling her, I"m going to get it wrong and she needs to learn how to adapt NOW while they are just small pole piles. We're educating her!!! I love it! And she's really learning and even biomechanically she's going better. Not once today did I hear Jacel tell me to "put her in a frame", "get her on the bit", etc... it was just do these things to get her body right and then she got really quite nice in her "frame". Oooh, she's gonna be so fancy! 

Unfortunately I was a little late getting to Ashland before our lesson and then had to get back to get Lyric so we didn't get to do any hacking. But she worked hard. It wasn't a lot of work but it was hard work and it's so warm and she's so hairy, she was steamy and sweaty! She got a rinse and then got to go back out when we got home. Later I put Dan out in the lane and she was mad that Lyric was out with her so she went bucking around. Hee hee. Naughty girl!