Sitting Trot

 Fun lesson with Liz! Of course they usually are. 

 

Today we worked on sitting trot. We started with the walk and walk poles. Liz set them slightly closer so (I need to go measure!) and Funny was really lifting her limbs and really engaging her joints. The tighter distance helped her do that. We talked about how I needed to pay attention to what my pelvis was doing. Because that lateral swing both ways is how my pelvis should move in the sitting trot.  Which... was kind of odd, because in the posting trot Liz wants me to post more up and down (not front to back) but in the sitting trot, she wants me more side to side swinging. Which, seems to be the opposite of everyone else, but..it seems to be working! So to get us into the sitting trot politely Liz just told me to allow her to trot after the poles (but not every time cause she's too smart)! I was able to get a few good steps in of sitting trot before I had to post some. And some of my sitting trot was more of a hovering with my bum. But we managed a few steps here and there. It's hard! And I was still trying to stay upright in my core, which made it a bit harder to absorb the shock at the same time. 

 

Once we played with that a little bit, we went to canter from the trot. But before I could trot, I had to get a good walk. And before I could canter, my trot had to be good. Which is hard. But we did it. Liz said she was proud of me because I didn't get frustrated or angry. I just ignroed the tantrums and kept politely asking for what I wanted. One time I reacted, but it's because she kept escalating despite me not engaging, and finally I was like "That's enough ma'am" and then immediately went back to neutral. Liz said that it was justified and that Funny agreed because she admitted she was pushing it and stopped trying to be quite so naughty. It's one thing to ignore her when she's naughty, then good, then naughty, then good, but when she goes from naughty, to naughtier, to even naughtier... okay, at some point I have to break the escalation. We did finally get a decent walk and a decent trot and were able to canter! And we even got some nice canter. I tried to sit the canter too, like how I sat the trot. But instead of a bilateral lateral swing, it was a unilateral swing. Like in the trot, I would swing right then left then right, etc. In the canter, on the right lead, it was swing right, swing right, swing right, unless I needed a left swing here and there to rebalance her. Cool! And I have to quiet my asks. Even quieter. Just when I think I'm being quiet, I have to go quieter. Like, don't even ask.. just think Canter.. and she canters! And sometimes, I have to be quieter with my positioning too. I don't always have to move her right shoulder around... sometimes I just have to open my left thigh to allow her left shoulder to move over, which allows her right shoulder to then follow. Ohhhh... She's a mare.. it's not always telling her what to do and where to put things.. it's inviting her to bring things over... opening up space for her to fill in to. 

 

   

It was a fun ride. That was probably the bounciest and most up her back has felt! Like she almost felt like she was bucking (and sometimes she was! Ha) but it was because her back was so up and round! And that trot didn't feel small either. It felt powerful. So fancy and powerful!! She's really going to teach me how to be soft and kind and to stay in the moment. I can't get ahead of her. If I'm at A and thinking that I need to canter at F, she's going to canter at A! She can read my brain! ;) And then Liz and I talked about how she doesn't like the phrase "Get behind the motion" because that's not exactly it... she likes "Let her energy lead" better. But ultimately, I can't get ahead of the energy because then Funny tries to catch up. But if I hold back just a hair, then I allow Funny's energy to lead and it becomes much smoother and softer.