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Jan. 21st, 2010 08:35 amI thought it might be really cold last night, but aside from numb fingers by the time I went home (while wearing winter riding gloves, sigh- I don't seem to have the greatest circulation) it wasn't bad- I actually just rode in my fleece. Trudi was good early on, and the trot is feeling more forward but more controlled, at least most of the time. I could actually go "POSTING-SLOWLY-HALFHALT-STILL-SLOWLY-POSTING" and have it go through from time to time. She makes me laugh because of course she is totally dramatic about it and will suddenly sit a little and go slow-mo but the movement is still big... like from boing, boing to booooooooiiiiiinnnnnggggg....boooooooiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggg. I played around a little with the idea of pushing the base of the neck into one hand or the other (thanks ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
greyskyridge ), and mentally I think this is a good visualiztion/concept for me. It gives me a smaller area to focus on and helps me make adjustments a bit quicker instead of letting the entire long red neck hypnotize me. Canter transitions were nice and through, but still far too exciting for her. She was a brat about coming through at the walk to the left when we were finishing up. A car drove by and we could hear it, so of course she was like "OMG DISTRACTION I COULD NOT POSSIBLY CONCENTRATE OR RELAX BECAUSE THERE IS A CAR OUT THERE." Beyond that, it was tension and a little tiredness, and just kind of stubbornly wanting to pace instead of reach out, and part of it seemed to be me blocking her somewhere, though it wasn't clear to me where. We did a lot of bending and some laterals untill she finally let go and stretched out, but it took a lot longer than I would have liked. I hate when she does the hollow hurry, and I have to finesse her out of it. The way to fix it and the amount of time it takes seems to vary from day to day. At least the work to fix it was apparantly very good, because when she was feeling better I asked for a little bit of haunches-in left, and it felt much more like haunches in left than it has before. She felt much stronger in it and more capable, stepping up under in it instead of fighting against me to even have an indication of left bend, much less bringing the left hind in and under.
The most satisfying thing for me was that I felt like I had an easier time sitting up and looking forward instead of down, and I could still easily feel when a hind leg was trailing and ask it to come back under her. So general yay for last night.
Amusing aside- A few nights ago I decided to hand-walk her some to cool out, and I decided that walking on the inside is the way to go since it's a shorter distance to travel. To the right, fine. To the left "OMG WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU YOU DO NOT LEAD ME FROM THE RIGHT SIDE." She eventually gave in but kept stopping and having a brain fart and starting to freak out again. I was just like, no, it's cool, we're doing this, come on. Anyway, for now she is happy enough to have me on the right side so long as I stay close and nothing scary comes along. She wants her nose right at my arm though and she totally looks like a foal with its nose at mommy's flank. Big baby.
greyskyridge ), and mentally I think this is a good visualiztion/concept for me. It gives me a smaller area to focus on and helps me make adjustments a bit quicker instead of letting the entire long red neck hypnotize me. Canter transitions were nice and through, but still far too exciting for her. She was a brat about coming through at the walk to the left when we were finishing up. A car drove by and we could hear it, so of course she was like "OMG DISTRACTION I COULD NOT POSSIBLY CONCENTRATE OR RELAX BECAUSE THERE IS A CAR OUT THERE." Beyond that, it was tension and a little tiredness, and just kind of stubbornly wanting to pace instead of reach out, and part of it seemed to be me blocking her somewhere, though it wasn't clear to me where. We did a lot of bending and some laterals untill she finally let go and stretched out, but it took a lot longer than I would have liked. I hate when she does the hollow hurry, and I have to finesse her out of it. The way to fix it and the amount of time it takes seems to vary from day to day. At least the work to fix it was apparantly very good, because when she was feeling better I asked for a little bit of haunches-in left, and it felt much more like haunches in left than it has before. She felt much stronger in it and more capable, stepping up under in it instead of fighting against me to even have an indication of left bend, much less bringing the left hind in and under. The most satisfying thing for me was that I felt like I had an easier time sitting up and looking forward instead of down, and I could still easily feel when a hind leg was trailing and ask it to come back under her. So general yay for last night.
Amusing aside- A few nights ago I decided to hand-walk her some to cool out, and I decided that walking on the inside is the way to go since it's a shorter distance to travel. To the right, fine. To the left "OMG WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU YOU DO NOT LEAD ME FROM THE RIGHT SIDE." She eventually gave in but kept stopping and having a brain fart and starting to freak out again. I was just like, no, it's cool, we're doing this, come on. Anyway, for now she is happy enough to have me on the right side so long as I stay close and nothing scary comes along. She wants her nose right at my arm though and she totally looks like a foal with its nose at mommy's flank. Big baby.
