Lesson Day

 I LOVE Jacel lesson day! It's always so helpful!

I was hoping that Lyric would be cleared and we could lesson too, but... alas. She gets a week off to let her injections kick in, so... it was just Funny today. I was sort of hoping to do a flat lesson because we've been struggling with the flat work. But Laura and I were going to lesson together, so I figured we'd do grids or something. But then Laura wasn't feeling great so she cancelled, so it was just Funny and I afterall. Good deal! 

I got on about 40 min early so we went for a nice hack. We did some trotting. She was a bit jumpy today. The squirrels were making a LOT of noise. But she didn't do anything else other than jump a bit. We ended up in the XC field so I walked her over the ditch and then we tried to trot through the water. She squirted sideways and didn't want to go in. Funny!!! But it wouldn't have counted as a stop and I managed to get her in. I'm not sure why she's suddenly become aversive to going in the water complex. Oh well. 

We got up to the arena and I told Jacel I wanted to flat. She was like "oh, I have a great cavaletti lesson set up". Okay... we can do that, but I did want to talk to her about my flatwork first. I told her how I was struggling with the whole connection issue and admitted that I might be overthinking it. "Shocking!!". ha ha. Okay.. fair enough. She reminded me that Funny is not Lyric, nor is she Dan. So... while Lyric may go around with a 1... and when she gets too heavy or inverted, I go to a 2 and then she softens to a 1. But... Funny seems happiest with a 0. Fine! She's allowed to be different. Okay... but then she's not really seeking the connection... when we do our free walk, she doesn't follow the bit. Jacel reminded me that it's okay.. she's 4! She doesn't know. She then reminded me that it was going to be a work in progress and suggested we start riding so she can help me better.

So we picked up the trot and started around the arena, doing serpentines and changes of directions. Immediately Jacel told me she was too quick. I know... I know when she gets too quick, she gets running onto her forehand and bracing. But it's hard to get her to slow down without getting in her face. Of course she was so much better for our lesson than she is at home.  So, basically... what it boiled down to was that I was overcomplicating it. But mostly... I wasn't being patient enough and letting her work through things. I was asking the question and if not given the correct answer pretty immediatly, I was changing things. I never gave her a chance to figure it out and realize if she was or wasn't giving the right answer. So... she had me trot serpentines... and to move my hands forward... and keep my elbows bending... and Funny gradually got nicer and nicer. Sure.. there were moments where she would get quick... or brace... or fall in... but overall, she got softer, more lifted in her back, and more relaxed. I just needed to sit up tall, ask for slight inside bend and then put my hands forward but low and wait for her to come into the bridle and bit. And she did! It wasn't consistent, but it was getting better. 

So then we did the cavaletti. It was four trot poles, then we leg yielded 10 meters to another set of 4 trot poles, then leg yielded to the rail and then came back through. And at first, she wanted to canter the poles, so I had to halt her a few times. But then she started to get the hang of it and was starting to engage that hind end. Jacel reminded me that part of the reason she wasn't reaching into the bit was because she wasn't pushing from behind. And it's not from a lameness or soreness or even disobedience. It was from lack of training (appropriately though) and lack of education/strength. So... we were working on it. And once she started stepping up and under, she really came into the contact. Yay! 

We even got a few good steps of her really moving her haunches up and under! So then we gave her a little break and we added the next part. After we did that, we would leg yield to the rail, canter, and then canter 4 canter poles on the ground, come to a trot, leg yield back to the rail, turn, canter the canter poles and then trot to the trot and leg yield poles. That was hard. She got naughty and bolted after spooking at something in the woods. So we had to take a moment to circle figure 8's to get her to relax and breathe again. She wasn't being awful or malicious.. it was more of a "I know what I"m doing, let's do it". Fine... but you're doing it wrong monkey! So... let me help you. And she was like "ohhhh, okay.. maybe your're right). She was still rowdy but we got some nice passes through and she became more rideable! Yay! Mission accomplished.

So then we finished with a bit of jumping, as her reward. We jumped about 5 fences and she was great. Then Jacel told us to come to the 2 stride, but she might get 3. We tried to come to it but the scary woods monsters sent her spooking. I did decide to just let her canter the fence instead of trotting it and we managed to get to it and through it. She was just... BOLD. Aggressively bold. So the trick was to half halt and LET GO! If she made any semblence of a half halt... reward tremendously to encorage her to make it stay fun. But it's hard as she is so game and go-y. Zoom Zoom Zoom! But we were able to get it together so we called it quits. She's jumping this weekend so we didn't want to do much. 

Good pony!