Brain lesson
Stupid weather.... Argh! Lessons got cancelled at Ashland today because the arena's were closed. But luckily Jacel was coming to ride Jean's horses and teach her interns, so... Jacel agreed to teach me. On all 3! Yipee!!
I opted to do Funny first and then Jacel was going to ride/teach so I had time to untack Funny and get the next one tacked up. Whereas, after that, she would just be waiting on me so I would have to hurry it along. So I opted to ride Lyric next because I figured a) she can be a bit tricky to catch sometimes and b) that gave me more time to do her unmounted warm up! So... I caught her (she walked away a little bit but wasn't too bad). And realized she was missing a hind shoe. Darnit girl! Again! Oh well.. it was soft enough with all the rain. As we got closer to the barn I realized she was also missing a front shoe.. diagonally. DANG!!! Again!?! Sigh... So I turned her loose. But then I watched her trot and canter off and she looked good, so I thought.... you know.. maybe we can at least do a walk lesson.... So I went to catch her again. And this time she gave me more trouble. Doh! But I did catch her. She had rolled in the red clay too so I tried my best to dust her off. I got her tacked up and we headed up to the arena. My timing was off and we still had 30 minutes, which would be amazing at Ashland but was... kind of unecessary at home. And because they were in the arena... I didn't want to intrude. So... we walked around the pasture some, doing our pillar work. Then I noticed they were all unmounting so I walked into the arena. But they were just swapping riders. Oops. I told them I wasn't rushing them but wanted to do her warm up routine and would stay out of the way. So we did our in hand lunging and she was stretching good. So then I walked her back out of the arena and tried to get on. And she was a stinker with me trying to get on off the fence. But I did. But that did make me question things... was she just wiggly and confused because we weren't in the arena... or was she trying to say no? Anyways... I got on and we walked around the pasture a bit more. Then I headed into the arena and Jacel still had a few more minutes with the last intern. Oops! I really wasn't trying to rush them! So Lyric and I did our leg yields down the rail.
Then Jacel was ready for us. I told her that we were struggling to get connection in the left rein. (Although I was wrong... it's the left rein she and I both hang on... the right rein is the one she doesn't like to go into). I also mentioned that she was struggling with poles and I wasn't sure if it was just "racetrack" growing up because lack of terrain and she just didn't know how to use her body, or if she was mildly neuro and didn't know where her feet where. I also told her that we were missing two shoes.
So we started off with a single pole on the ground and she had me walk her up to it and then straddle it. Then she had me sidepass it. And it was ugly at first. Lyric was confused and Jacel had to help us. Although going to the left was SOOOO much easier. Going to the right, we needed a lot of help. But, each time we did it, it got better. And by a few repetitions in, she was doing it both ways on her own pretty smoothly! Cool!! I was really impressed actually because... Dan struggles with that in hand! And I was in the saddle!
So then we gave her a little brain break and then came back to it and tried to straddle it straight between her legs (vs straddled between front legs and hind legs). She could do that but couldn't figure out how to walk forward while still straddling it. Fair... that's really hard! So then we carried on. We went off to do some trotting and she was much more in my hand and connected and even in the contact. I had great connection (soft but there) in the left rein and was thrilled until I remembered that was the easy side. Ha ha! But I still managed to have some good soft even connection in the right rein too. Then we trotted the regular trot poles and she was good! She didn't struggle as much. Yahoo!
So then we came back to the single pole and she extended it to be 4 poles long! And had us sidepass the whole way. And Lyric was great! Jacel said that part of why she was so connected in the contact was because she was reaching up and under in her body with the sidepass. And I could feel it. She was lifting and using her back and bending her barrel and stepping up and under. Neat!!
Next up was my cross cross poles in the center of the arena. She arranged them into 3 poles in a fan that made a s curve between them. So I had to trot a small right bend, then circle around and then figure 8 to a sharp left bend, then circle around, figure 8 to a sharp right bend, etc. It was hard and she definitely swings out with her haunches and falls in with her shoulder bending left. But it was helpful and I had to focus on riding her haunches out and her shoulder in. It helped when I moved both hands left and then both hands right. And she didn't scramble or trip over them! So, Jacel pointed out... not neurologic... just needs to learn to use her body more effectively. FUN!!
So then she had us walk the four poles in a serpentine. I was dumb and started out with a figure 8 with 10 meter circles, which... not what she was going for, but... it went pretty well. She wanted me to more slalom it. Like pole bending. So... put her front feet to the right, then bend her body and then put her hind feet on the left, then move the front feet to the left and the hind feet to the right, and carry on. Ohhhhhh. Haha. Gotcha. So we did. And it was a great exercise because it got me riding her body off my body vs just pulling the reins. I had to ride her shoulders with my thighs and her hind end with my legs and her balance with my core. And I could use my hands to guide her head but... it had to be sutble. Then we had to do it at the trot! Ackk!! We did it though! And we didn't always get the same amount of serpentines as we did at the walk but we did pretty well considering. It was a hard exercise but really helped supple her up.
We finished by testing her straddling the pole again. She was able to figure out how to walk up next to it and then sidepass over it so that her left hind and left front were to the left of it and the right hind and right front were to the right of it, but we still couldn't really walk forward without Jacel's help. And even then the hind end wanted to stray. Jacel made the comment that it was pointing out that I (and most riders) was not focusing on riding straight and forward as much as riding each body part and that it was sometimes screwing her up. Just ride straight... But she also admitted it was really hard and tricky. So... we'll work on that part in hand soon and see if that helps her out.
It was a great lesson!! Lots of brain work but it really helped us both put our bodies together and be able to ride for suppleness and flexibility. And I was a lot less handsy and a lot less reactive and more proactive. And Lyric, because I was able to "break her up" became more flexible and was able to lift her back and use her body! How did Jacel say it?? You can't be strong in your core if you aren't flexible first. Like those body builders... they train and train and build up their muscles.. but they they get stiff and can't be bendy and supple. But... if you get supple and loose first, then you can build muscles that will still be supple and loose. Or something like that. She explained it better. But again, it goes back to training strength without tension vs training in tension. So yay! I'm so glad I rode without her shoes.
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