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diaryofariderBleh, work has been stupidly busy but I have also been riding a lot-
Saturday- stiff, lazy pony- after 3 days off I thought she would be hyper. Instead she just felt like she had had some time off and like it was hard for her to come through so we just worked a while till things felt better than when we started. There were unconfirmed reports of the appearance of the right hind leg- at one point I PULLED my right shoulder up, along the wall where she likes to drift away, and I thought "Hey, just because I'm trying to sit right doesn't mean I need to stick my left leg out, nor do I want my left leg ON" and my shoulder kinda came up, and my right hip kinda stopped being collapsed, and I felt the right hind leg, briefly. Yes, crap, I was/am likely blocking it, or at least not helping to encourage it.
Sunday- Awesome pony. I was going to ride her outside. The wind was blowing but she was good walking to the arena- spooked big at a piece of tarpaper and then she GOT OVER IT. We walked some circles and it started to lightening all over the place so I finished her up inside. Our sitting trot got really really amazing for a while. I'm actually a lot better at getting her through when I sit- I start with the posting trot, but then when I sit I feel like I can control the hind legs a lot more. I was even sitting up and feeling her mouth from the back of my arms, and there was no rushing, just slow and smooth and her back up and her hind legs reaching.
Monday- HELL IN A HANDBASKET. Oh, she was 8 kinds of jerk. More wind and threatening clouds (wth, CO?). Was pretty good walking to the arena, kind of annoyed as I arranged poles and cavaletti, then she pulled giraffe/high alert/you don't exist mode. She was like "Get out of your space. Pfffff." *Ignore*.
I climbed on and for about 45 minutes she did nothing but prance. Dropped back, quick teeny tiny steps, snorting, blowing, a ball of tension. I was pretty much seeing red, but I did at least keep a connection, and I TRIED suppling her, and I TRIED giving when I could and I MANAGED NOT TO KILL HER. We did shoulder in, we did some leg yield, we did turn on the forehand, we rode squares- everything helped a little, but none of it helped enough.
I stuck it out. There was no real spooking (though she would have liked to) or bolting or rearing, just the almost completely unrelenting tension. It is so hard to SIT on a horse like that- I end up at the back of the cantle with my legs stuck in front of me, because there is just no horse under there, she just drops away behind the withers. After trying to bend her left (I think it was left? You would think my arm would be more sore) and having her pull my arm almost out of the socket, I set my hand on the bucking strap for a while to give myself a break, and tried using my leg a bit... and then, sad to say, about a half hour later, finally realized she was just leaning away, and giving her the saddle to lean on instead of me was nice for me but not making her DO anything differently- so I took the rein back and said "Contact is ok, leaning is not, so let's stop that." And I began pulsing the rein when she leaned and thus she could no longer lean. Once again, I relearn a lesson I have had to learn many times before.
We finished with about ten minutes of walking that did not suck. We worked a bit on trying to get some straightness which she was not at all keen on. She is going to have to accept that we will still have days where we will walk, and it doesn't matter how hyper she acts, we are going to walk, and untill the walk is good and good for a good while, we will not trot, and we will not canter, so deal, my little firecracker.
Saturday- stiff, lazy pony- after 3 days off I thought she would be hyper. Instead she just felt like she had had some time off and like it was hard for her to come through so we just worked a while till things felt better than when we started. There were unconfirmed reports of the appearance of the right hind leg- at one point I PULLED my right shoulder up, along the wall where she likes to drift away, and I thought "Hey, just because I'm trying to sit right doesn't mean I need to stick my left leg out, nor do I want my left leg ON" and my shoulder kinda came up, and my right hip kinda stopped being collapsed, and I felt the right hind leg, briefly. Yes, crap, I was/am likely blocking it, or at least not helping to encourage it.
Sunday- Awesome pony. I was going to ride her outside. The wind was blowing but she was good walking to the arena- spooked big at a piece of tarpaper and then she GOT OVER IT. We walked some circles and it started to lightening all over the place so I finished her up inside. Our sitting trot got really really amazing for a while. I'm actually a lot better at getting her through when I sit- I start with the posting trot, but then when I sit I feel like I can control the hind legs a lot more. I was even sitting up and feeling her mouth from the back of my arms, and there was no rushing, just slow and smooth and her back up and her hind legs reaching.
Monday- HELL IN A HANDBASKET. Oh, she was 8 kinds of jerk. More wind and threatening clouds (wth, CO?). Was pretty good walking to the arena, kind of annoyed as I arranged poles and cavaletti, then she pulled giraffe/high alert/you don't exist mode. She was like "Get out of your space. Pfffff." *Ignore*.
I climbed on and for about 45 minutes she did nothing but prance. Dropped back, quick teeny tiny steps, snorting, blowing, a ball of tension. I was pretty much seeing red, but I did at least keep a connection, and I TRIED suppling her, and I TRIED giving when I could and I MANAGED NOT TO KILL HER. We did shoulder in, we did some leg yield, we did turn on the forehand, we rode squares- everything helped a little, but none of it helped enough.
I stuck it out. There was no real spooking (though she would have liked to) or bolting or rearing, just the almost completely unrelenting tension. It is so hard to SIT on a horse like that- I end up at the back of the cantle with my legs stuck in front of me, because there is just no horse under there, she just drops away behind the withers. After trying to bend her left (I think it was left? You would think my arm would be more sore) and having her pull my arm almost out of the socket, I set my hand on the bucking strap for a while to give myself a break, and tried using my leg a bit... and then, sad to say, about a half hour later, finally realized she was just leaning away, and giving her the saddle to lean on instead of me was nice for me but not making her DO anything differently- so I took the rein back and said "Contact is ok, leaning is not, so let's stop that." And I began pulsing the rein when she leaned and thus she could no longer lean. Once again, I relearn a lesson I have had to learn many times before.
We finished with about ten minutes of walking that did not suck. We worked a bit on trying to get some straightness which she was not at all keen on. She is going to have to accept that we will still have days where we will walk, and it doesn't matter how hyper she acts, we are going to walk, and untill the walk is good and good for a good while, we will not trot, and we will not canter, so deal, my little firecracker.
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Date: 2009-08-19 02:02 pm (UTC)Ohhhh, it's such a rock-and-a-hard place! It's so easy to sit well on a horse that's going well, and it's so easy for the horse to go well under a good-sitting rider...and so hard to sit well on a horse that's going like crap, and so hard to get a horse to go well when you can't sit properly. Downward spiral...upward spiral...downward spiral again!
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Date: 2009-08-19 05:02 pm (UTC)