Oh it did my heart good to have a lesson with Kelly Eaton today!
I took Funny since I didn't get a chance to ride Lyric yet to know if she was sound or not (sadness... she's not!). And Funny and I want to up our dressage game anyways. We got to ride in the covered because when Caroline made the schedule last night the arena's were still closed so yay! Except we stayed in the top corner so I never really got to see us in the mirror. Doh. But it was nice to be in that fancy footing.
I parked in the show grounds and Funny and I hacked up to the covered. She was a bit jumpy and reactive but nothing more than a flinch here and there. Well, that's not entirely true. We had some trotting as we got close to the covered and a teeny bit of jigging. She was fresh! But it was chilly and she's naked! When it was our turn, I told Kelly where we were at and she had me pick up the trot to assess. I showed her what we had and told her it was pretty much where she was at. And bless her, she made me feel so good. She said that there was a lot to be pleased with. She had good hock articulation and she wasn't out behind. She said she had naturally nice gaits. And she said she was fairly tension free! I believe her exact words were "She's through her back enough that she's very jiggly!". Yay! She said she saw what I was saying I was feeling - the lack of consistent connection, the speed, and the wigglies. But she said she was impressed in the difference from the last time I saw her. To be fair, the last time I saw her, might have been Funny's fourth ride away from home!
So anyways, we went to work. We started with figure 8's to warm up and she had me do some slight leg yields in the middle part of the figure 8 as I was heading back to the rail. Then we went on a circle and just basically worked on inside leg to outside rein. Nothing exciting, nothing crazy, just... correct riding. I had my hands sort of set but soft and following, but kept a connection. When her shoulder popped to the right, I would move both hands to the left, and when her shoulder popped left, I would move both hands to the right. I can use my hands to guide/block her shoulders. I also need to remember to keep the outside rein connection, but I can open it to encourage her to move out into it. We noticed that on the circle, she would consistently fall in the whole way around, except for one quarter of the circle where she would fling hard out. So I would keep my hands slightly to the outside and ride with my inside leg pushing her into the outside rein... and then right before she would sling that outside shoulder far out in the one part of the circle, I would move my hands to the inside to help block that shoulder and keep my inside leg on. I was trying to use my outside leg to block, but that was confusing the issue. It was creating a sling shot/ping pong ball effect and the fishtailing. Ooooohhhhhhhh!! We had to break it down for my brain. I need to simplify my aids. Inside leg to outside rein. I can block the outside shoulder with my outside rein. But not my outside leg. Not yet. However, if she sucks back and gets behind my leg, I can use both legs at the same time to bop her forward. Not just the outside leg. Both at the same time. Okay. Cool! Makes sense and my body then cooperated. Until, when tracking left, she would break at the wither, bend her nose way inside, but fling that right shoulder hard right. Then I wanted to use my outside leg to throw her shoulder/barrel back in. But nope... don't do that. Instead, I had to think about keeping my sternum between her ears and keeping her ears between her shoulder blades. Ride the neck straight! And that means pushing her barrel with my inside leg to the outside rein. And that outside rein better have a feel so that she goes into it and stretches the outside of her body! Kelly kept telling me to stretch the banana! And, sure, sometimes I may even have to counterbend her to keep her straight in the neck, but really, it didn't quite come to that. Mostly, when I kept my outside leg off, and rode my body correctly and used the outside rein, she stayed in a correct banana! Sure, she would bounce out of it some, but she's learning and it's hard!
We also added a cloverleaf in the beginning. And I had to focus on the tempo/rhythm. If she got too quick, she lost her balance. Slow my post and close my thighs on the sit and half halt on the post. So we would trot a 20 meter circle and add in a 10 meter (ish) circle (ish) at noon, 3 o clock, 6 o clock, and 9 o clock. And then we added it just when we needed it. They weren't pretty and many were 14 meter ovals, but... it did help get her more balanced and off my inside leg.
It definitely got better as the ride went on. Then we cantered. The left lead wasn't actually too bad, especially if I sat to the inside. But the right lead got a little chaotic! I started hanging on her mouth and she was throwing me so hard to the outside of the saddle and then my saddle got a little twisted. It was just hard. But when I sat, and half halted instead of hanging, and pushed her off my inside leg, and kept my sternum pointing correctly and my ears even, she got quite nice for a few strides!
We took a nice long hack home and did a little canter on the gallop track. It wasn't a gallop as she never really dropped that gear, but she definitely got bigger and longer and it took me a minute to gather her back up. That's a lot of horse to balance and hold together! For her too! Then we walked back and headed home and she got a little bit of naked time!
Good Monkey!
No comments:
Post a Comment