Liz Lesson

Liz lesson day! I rode Funny first. She was great. She warmed up soft and quiet and was quite chill. We started with the walk. We worked on walking from the halt, with connection. Instead of always walking from a loose rein and gradually picking her up. I mean, I did that first, but then we halted.. then walked off. And repeat... and repeat. We also worked on a nice collected walk and then straight to the canter. It surprised her. So much that she didn't even canter for a few seconds. She was confused. Hee hee. But it was a good exercise. 

I had to make sure I wasn't nagging her. Instead of kicking every step.. or even every few steps... just squeeze her. Hug her with my legs. Which... is interesting because she's so sensitive that I feel like I can hardly touch her, but then apparently I'm nagging every step. If I squeeze her like toothpaste though... she isn't too jumpy or tuning me out after a bit. (It works for Dan too!). I also need to put my body in the correct position so that she can go in the correct position. Which, conveniently is to place my body how I want her body. Like.. if I want her shoulder in, then I need to turn my shoulders in. So when she is falling in tracking left.. open my left hand (just... always... always open my left hand), tip my belly button to the inside, open my outside thigh, sit to the right, and invite her to come to the outside via my weight too, so she shifts and gets all four legs underneath her and is straight. If that doesn't work.. but it usually does.. then add my inside leg and squeeze and hold.. not kicking. But that should be a last resort because usually I make it worse when i use my inside leg because I almost always grab the inside rein too. So definitely do not grab the inside rein. Which, duh, but.. muscle memory. But it got easier today. And when I got quiet and stopped nagging and opened my thigh to give her space, she didn't get fussy! 

Of course she did get fussy some. So when she does get fussy and "lateral" in the walk...it's because I'm trapping the energy. SIde note... getting lateral in the walk, technically means going laterally because I have shut the front or back door. Her getting that weird pacy walk that loses rhythm should be called pacing. Not lateral. But semantics. So.. when I'm trying to keep her from trotting or jigging, I tend to get tight and shut her down, hence the pacing and tension. So.. send it forward. Really send it forward.. .swing my hips! Lift my core. Give the energy an out! Her tension is her energy trying to escape and if I close the front door, she can't go forward. Soften my hands and swing my hips and she relaxes and softens into the forward. 

We also played with piaffe. We got her walk small and collected but not blocked. It's hard though. If I lift my hands instead of pulling back... use my core to collect and lift her (instead of stopping the forward).. we can get it. Or at least a very baby version of it. Still cool though!

When we worked on the trot, Liz had me sit between my transitions. Up and downs. Sit a few steps in and out of the gaits. It's a cool tool now! It used to be that I had to really ride and shorten and collect her before I could think about sitting.. but now I can sit and then she responds by shortening and collecting. So cool! Another tool!

At the canter, I had to ride it as if I was riding the sitting trot or the piaffe. Strong core, lifting and slowing but not blocking or shutting down... lifted soft hands.. and we got some really nice canter work. She just can't hold it long. It's hard! For her and me. 

So lots of fun and helpful. Liz suggested that I don't drill the walk to canter or piaffing walk or walk from a halt collected very often. Mostly because.. it'll just piss her off. Ha ha.. And make her anticipate. It's a good tool, but... use it sparingly.