Today was lesson day. And her hock is still slightly puffy but not bad at all. So, we got to Ashland early and met Kelli to play with saddles. Not that Kelli is trained, but.. she does have a good eye.
So... we put the Ryder on her and Kelli agrees that it seems to lift up off her back fairly noticably. She also felt like that Funny had gotten way more narrow and angled over the last year. Which, is true. I know that. But that's also why I bought her jump saddle with the adjustable gullet... and why I wasn't intending to buy her a dressage saddle just yet. Sigh.. But alas. So... she thought that instead of back shims I should try front shims... and like... 3 of them. And that really seemed to help balance it. So then she put her old Custom Advantage on her. Which is an 18" seat! It seemed to fit Funny pretty well so I hopped on real quick for an assessment. (Sadly we ended up running into my lesson time so I only had a few minutes to feel it out). And... Funny seemed to like it starting out, but I didn't like it. It felt way too big.. I was sliding around in it, although I did seem to settle into it a little bit. But Jacel had gotten there and she didn't like my leg in it at all. She didn't say that right then though. But since I wanted to see if I could make my saddle work or not, and wanted video, I ended up swapping back to it for my lesson. With the three front shims. It did seem better for me and my position and apparently it wasn't as "chattery", although it did fishtail a little bit at the end. Of course, my girth was also fairly loose! Sadly, I didn't get video and by the time I thought about it, I didn't want to pick her back up again and make her mad! So.. .overall, I'm still not sure that the Ryder works for her because she was a bit fussy in my lesson still. But also.. is that because she was having to work hard? Is it because she didn't like the saddle? Is it because she has something else going on? Sigh... So I guess I'll ride her in Kelli's 2nd ryder saddle Thursday and see how she feels. And then maybe I need to play musical saddles for a bit and see. In the beginning she seemed softer in her back and topline in the custom, but it's hard to say because I hadn't done anything. So was she softer because she liked it or because I hadn't picked her up yet?? But at this point... I'm not sure there's any recourse for me so... it is what it is I guess???
So anyways... I put her back in the Ryder for my lesson. I did drop my stirrups one hole, which I think helped. And had the three shims up front, which seemed to be good. We started out walking a little bit and chatting and she was a bit more animated than initially but not bad. So then we went to trot. And overall, she was already slower and better tempo, but Jacel had me slow my post and hold my core and thighs in the sit, and close my fingers to help half halt. She also had me sitting upright again and not perched forward. And then we did some leg yield out, pushing her haunches out. And then we rode her shoulder in... I got confused and asked and we clarified that I wanted to do a "counter shoulder in". Ha ha! Or I called it a backwards shoulder fore. But basically... she explained that Funny's giant shoulders needed to be ridable. She needed to be able to differentiate her front half from her back half and let me ride certain body parts. So, by riding her in a counter bend and pushing her shoulders inside the circle, thus a counter bent shoulder in, I was unlocking the base of her neck and getting her to use her body more correctly. So we would leg yield out with her haunches out, then counter shoulder in in to a smaller circle.. then release the counter bend and let her just circle the smaller circle on a true bend and then leg yield out again and repeat. And it worked super well at unlocking her and getting her to lift her back and stand up on all four limbs. It was lovely! We did it both ways. She got a little fussy at times and a few times in the lesson she squealed out at me and kicked out and a few times she popped up in the hind end. (Which made me panic but Jacel thought it was just her being sassy and rebelling at having to use her butt so much). But we got some really lovely trot!! She was quite upright and round and soft and she stayed so much slower in her tempo and more lifted in her back. Jacel said she was stepping up and under and carrying herself and lifting her back and tail. And she didn't curl very much at all! She actually was fairly quiet in the bridle when she wasn't slinging her head around.
We cantered too and it got a bit spicier but I realized that I was still asking too loudly. Honestly, I could just get her soft and positioned into a correct bend and "think" canter and she would canter. I just had to slightly lift my inside seat bone and that's all it took. When I used my inside leg, she got mad and kicked out and bucked. Okay.. noted! We had the most amazing right lead canter too! It was so uphill! Almost scary uphill! Like... so much power... so much lift... so much energy but balanced! It was lovely. I imagine it's what a 4th level or higher horse feels like in the canter! Ooooohhhh!! Going left was not so good. She was leaning on my left leg and a bit more motorcycly. So we did the same thing in the canter that we did in the trot. Which was a lot more difficult! But we managed. And the canter definitely improved, although the left lead is much harder. But at the end we had almost a whole circle of that lovely back lifted, uphill, lofty, and balanced canter! Wheeeee!!!
So much fun! We quit with that and then she power walked around the arena. Like.. that's a 10 free walk girl!!
So... I guess we'll play musical saddles and see if I can figure out if she actually likes something better than the others... or what...
Sadly we didn't get to go hack because it took way longer than we thought starting with the saddle assessment and then I had to get her home so I could get back with Lyric. But that's okay. She worked hard! Pony pilates!
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