Oh fun day!!!
Jacel is back and teachiing (limited) and we were able to sneak in for a lesson today! She's teaching at Barbara's because it's only 15 minutes from her house and the kids school. Ashland is over an hour for her. But that works great for me because Barbara's is only 30 minutes from me too! Just the opposite direction from Ashland. And Barbara is so sweet. So I jumped at the chance!
And.. side note... the timing is kind of falling into place! I was supposed to have the saddle fitter today but she tried to come last night instead, but then I got stuck longer at work so instead of today, she asked about Saturday. Which, great! Because that meant I could lesson today with Jacel. And then Liz and I are doing Friday. And then next Tuesday I'm going to XC school and Jacel is teaching at Barbara's, but when i mentioned being sad about missing it, she told me she could teach me Friday next week instead. Which is perfect because I have Patrick in the morning and then Liz is out of town. So sweet! And then I have the show the next day. And then I can go back to Tuesdays with Jacel and Fridays with Liz and just play around with things. Liz probably can't do every Friday and in the summer, she's not going to be able to do all three. So I'll rotate through. But anyways.. things seem to be falling into place! Now I just have to see about getting in a lesson at Linda's for the obstacles with Dan, which was supposed to be Saturday but I can probably bump that up a bit. And then figure out getting Dan's saddle! Because that's going to be a big priority!
Anyways... we hauled to Barbaras and it was so good to see Jacel and give her a big ol' hug! Oh how I've missed her. Funny did too I think! She was finishing up teaching Barbara so I helped set up some poles and cavalettis. (Side note, those correct connect pylon things are awesome!). Then I tacked up and then Jacel got Smarty tacked up and we walked around the arena a bit chatting and catching up. Then we trotted and cantered and then she put us to work!
It was a perfect exercise and exactly what we needed. Not super fun, ha! Because it was hard. BUT soooo productive and really what we needed. She had set up a set of three trot poles at noon, a cavaletti jump with placing poles at 3 pm and 9 pm, and a small flower box pole at 6 pm. Then across the diagonals she had one line of a single pole to two cavalettis and then a single pole to a single cavaletti. The plan was to start over the trot poles, then canter the diagonal line, then trot the flower box, then canter the diaonal line and continue on multiple times. And oh my! Funny was pumped! She was charging everything and wouldn't hardly trot. It took multiple trips but essentially she did become much more riable by the end. It meant I had to ride her body. I had to steer and ride the inside bend and use my outside reins and outside aids and my seat aids and my leg aids, and lastly.. my rein aids. I had to ask for downwards with my thighs (without pinching with my knees, which is really hard) and one rein half halts (not just hanging on her face). I had to "get in and get out". Jacel explained that if we just nagged them the entire time, they tuned us out and never relaxed. If we insisted on the downward, and then relaxed and softened, we started to teach them to relax and soften. Ooof... okay... if you say so! Ha ha. But it did work. Not at first. At first iti was ugly. They were rushing, inverted, mad, fighting us, etc. And then Funny starting flinging body parts at me and I just... gave up. Like... I didn't fight her on it but I also just became passive. It was almost like sensory overload... too many body parts and I knew if I tried to correct them all, she would feel trapped and explode and richochet back around and over-correct. Fine... except... I still had to ride. When I ignored her flailings, I also quit riding and... then nothing happened. So instead, I had to ignore the flailings and just.... keep riding and keep asking for the task at hand. One step at a time. Build it and they will come! AHHHHH... I JUST put that together right now! Ha. I'll have to tell Liz. :) Anyways... focus on the task at hand, ignore the theatricis, and continue with the job. If I do my part, she'll do hers. Aha... and sure enough.. when I wasn't fighting, but was still "there" and asking her to "come her with me"... she did. It got better. Still not great, but... actually... it kinda was great. She started to come back down to the trot off my seat and leg aids (admittedly I still had to use my hands, but at least it was a one rein half halt vs a "whoa dammit" teeth flossing). And then she was more balanced in her canter. It got quick and there plenty of moments that got wildy and wooly again! But overall, she was more ridable!
Then we did the outer circle... trot to canter to trot to canter. And that was hard too. But again, when I rode off my thighs, one rein half halts, and asked kindly until I got a response, it worked! I did have one moment of an argument. She was ignoring me so I really asked hard! And probably didn't leave an out for her... I shut all the doors. And she stopped and then reared straight up and almost tipped backwards. I guess I probably held too long... but she caught us and then she and I both apologized for being dramatic and we carried on and we were both much more respectful of each other. :)
So yay! Super fun and super educational. And I worked on my low hands. And we had some really nice work. After that Jacel had to ride Finn, so she couldn't join me, but I took Funny out to Barbara's XC field and walked around in the field and woods for a bit. She was brave!
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