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It's started raining here, which is good for all the plants, but it's cool and damp, and we have to ride inside. I don't love riding indoors (I used to when it was a novelty), and I hate when riding is a chore. Last night Phoebus was less tractable than usual. He's suddenly transformed into a giant welsh pony- he suddenly got a big belly, he's acting stubborn, and his winter coat is coming in dense and fuzzy (and full of dirt). Every time you pat or brush him it raises a cloud of dust.
I got him tacked up and stretched us both out, but he was just not in a cooperative mood. I was somewhat stiff, and we did a lot of resisting against one another in spite of my best efforts. He hung on the inside rein a lot, and whenever I would bump him forward he would rush and run through my hands. I tried not to hold him and failed miserably. I was holding a ton of tension in my seat, back, arms, wrists, legs, and even my ankles. It was a lot more obvious how clever he can be at jostling me out of position- he's good at traveling crooked and sort of dodging sideways, but this time I realized that every time I sent him forward, the burst of energy was throwing me back and I ended up being left behind. This isn't uncommon, but usually I'm not fighting to stay in position every stride. When we made downward transitions, my back hollowed and I knew my tenseness was lifting me out of the saddle instead of dropping my weight down where I could put it to use. I knew I was working too hard and that he was taking advantage of me, but I simply couldn't figure out how to get my body to do what I needed to. Horses are supposed to be dumb, so it's a blow to your ego when they're being more clever than you. In the end I did the only thing I could, figuring if I couldn't outsmart him I'd outlast him. So we ended up going for about an hour and a half.
I did get some good work out of him in spite of our troubles. I have been trying hard to ride him into my outside rein, which he really dislikes because it means he has to carry his whole self and use his back and his abs. During our last lesson I had finally discovered that pushing him over with my inside leg forced him to bend his body which put him into the outside rein, and, to my great joy, also made him softer on the inside rein. But it's very tricky and difficult. I found that to get any consistancy I had to bump with the inside leg, hold the connection with the outside rein, and immediately follow up with a bump from the outside leg, or else he would simply step under with the inside hind but NOT with the outside hind. And I pretty much had to do it within the stride, for EVERY stride. And I had to be careful not to goose him too much and have him shoot forward. At the same time, if he didn't move over from my leg enough, he would keep hanging on the inside rein and moving crookedly. As if all this weren't enough, once I had him going into the outside rein, I still had to ask softly for a little flexion on the inside rein or he would stick his nose to the outside. Good God riding is hard sometimes. I was thinking so hard I could hear it. Outside rein, OUTSIDE REIN, OUTSIDE REIN! Give on the inside rein. Why are you pulling back on the inside rein?! Give on the inside--URRGG GRRR GIVE ON THE INSIDE REIN....
I'm sore today, and I hope he's a lot sorer, the jerk. ^_^ Lots of reminders of past lessons.
1. You can't force it. You can ask, coax, cajole, entice, beg, trick, bother, and threaten, but you can't force it. I think this is actually a life lesson.
2. Just because your brain knows what to do, doesn't mean your body will do it. Even when you tell yourself in your outside voice. This is why we have trainers.
3. There are two main reasons my horse doesn't do what I want him to:
A. He's resisting- and most of the time it's because he's not moving off my leg. (I see now why Peggy likes horses that have "fire"- beyond presence, there's the advantage of having the energy more readily available. Of course the downside is horses like that tend to runaway now and again *cough Salinero cough*). The rest of the time it's because he's not giving to the rein, either because he's not bending, he wants me to hold him, or because again, he's not moving off my leg.
B. My body is in the wrong position. This is always the one where you fix something and go "Oh, that was it, geez why didn't I do that before?" Because it's not that easy dummy, that's why.
I got him tacked up and stretched us both out, but he was just not in a cooperative mood. I was somewhat stiff, and we did a lot of resisting against one another in spite of my best efforts. He hung on the inside rein a lot, and whenever I would bump him forward he would rush and run through my hands. I tried not to hold him and failed miserably. I was holding a ton of tension in my seat, back, arms, wrists, legs, and even my ankles. It was a lot more obvious how clever he can be at jostling me out of position- he's good at traveling crooked and sort of dodging sideways, but this time I realized that every time I sent him forward, the burst of energy was throwing me back and I ended up being left behind. This isn't uncommon, but usually I'm not fighting to stay in position every stride. When we made downward transitions, my back hollowed and I knew my tenseness was lifting me out of the saddle instead of dropping my weight down where I could put it to use. I knew I was working too hard and that he was taking advantage of me, but I simply couldn't figure out how to get my body to do what I needed to. Horses are supposed to be dumb, so it's a blow to your ego when they're being more clever than you. In the end I did the only thing I could, figuring if I couldn't outsmart him I'd outlast him. So we ended up going for about an hour and a half.
I did get some good work out of him in spite of our troubles. I have been trying hard to ride him into my outside rein, which he really dislikes because it means he has to carry his whole self and use his back and his abs. During our last lesson I had finally discovered that pushing him over with my inside leg forced him to bend his body which put him into the outside rein, and, to my great joy, also made him softer on the inside rein. But it's very tricky and difficult. I found that to get any consistancy I had to bump with the inside leg, hold the connection with the outside rein, and immediately follow up with a bump from the outside leg, or else he would simply step under with the inside hind but NOT with the outside hind. And I pretty much had to do it within the stride, for EVERY stride. And I had to be careful not to goose him too much and have him shoot forward. At the same time, if he didn't move over from my leg enough, he would keep hanging on the inside rein and moving crookedly. As if all this weren't enough, once I had him going into the outside rein, I still had to ask softly for a little flexion on the inside rein or he would stick his nose to the outside. Good God riding is hard sometimes. I was thinking so hard I could hear it. Outside rein, OUTSIDE REIN, OUTSIDE REIN! Give on the inside rein. Why are you pulling back on the inside rein?! Give on the inside--URRGG GRRR GIVE ON THE INSIDE REIN....
I'm sore today, and I hope he's a lot sorer, the jerk. ^_^ Lots of reminders of past lessons.
1. You can't force it. You can ask, coax, cajole, entice, beg, trick, bother, and threaten, but you can't force it. I think this is actually a life lesson.
2. Just because your brain knows what to do, doesn't mean your body will do it. Even when you tell yourself in your outside voice. This is why we have trainers.
3. There are two main reasons my horse doesn't do what I want him to:
A. He's resisting- and most of the time it's because he's not moving off my leg. (I see now why Peggy likes horses that have "fire"- beyond presence, there's the advantage of having the energy more readily available. Of course the downside is horses like that tend to runaway now and again *cough Salinero cough*). The rest of the time it's because he's not giving to the rein, either because he's not bending, he wants me to hold him, or because again, he's not moving off my leg.
B. My body is in the wrong position. This is always the one where you fix something and go "Oh, that was it, geez why didn't I do that before?" Because it's not that easy dummy, that's why.
