Lessoning!

Happy Sunday! I had double lessons with Kelly. And Caroline is nice and let us ride in the covered to avoid the heat. Mostly for Kelly's sake but I love that we benefit too! I was doing to be cutting it close and debating parking at the gray barn to save time but I love the nice warm up hack to the covered. Plus then it's easier to hose them off afterwards. I ended up having just enough time that I figured it was worth parking in the regular parking area and hacking up. She would be less fussy too as that's her normal routine. So we did and we made it to our lesson on time. It's a nice hack there, up the hill. 

 

We had a great lesson. We started off with a nice stretchy loose rein trot and Kelly said she looked great! I told her about her hind end falling out some but that it felt more like weakness and stifles catching to me and she agreed. My plan is to take a month (once I get back from the cruise) and do some fitness - hills, bodywork, poles, equiband - and then decide if I need to get her looked at. I'm also going to see if I need to put her back in wedges behind too. I feel like some things are better without them but then she maybe is a little worse with the falling out. But it's hard to tell because she's been so out of work and is so chonky! 

 

Anyways, then we went to work. Kelly mentioned that part of her struggle is straightness. She wanted me to ride her slightly haunches out because she tends to fall haunches in. Which makes total sense.. that's exactly how it feels... like the back half of her body is sloping in. She said to ride like she's on a 20 meter circle in the front and a 21 or 22 meter circle in the hind. Which isn't easy. Especially tracking left. We did a little bit of walk warm up and she had me get her connected and engaged. We started with a nice slow purposeful walk and when that felt more connected and in line, she had me slowly push her out into what would feel like a free walk but without losing the connection. Ahhhh... that's a fun trick! And it created a very nice marchy walk into a nice connection. She did mention that I needed to allow her neck to stay long, but remember that her neck is really long... and that if she opened up her throatlatch too much, it just put her on the forehand. Biomechanically her build is such that she gets a little too long and then that big noggin' of hers tips her onto her forehand. So I had to be mindful that my elbows belong to me and to not let her get too open. I don't want her behind the vertical and I don't want to shorten her neck and make her retreat into her turtle shell, but... it's a fine line of being too open. So then we went back to addressing the haunches falling in. She felt like a true turn on the forehand made Lyric too claustrophobic and anxious and then tense and hollow, so she had me ride a 20 meter circle and then add a 6 meter volte, but try to ride her haunches out during it. So a very beginner "traveling" turn on the forehand. And I had to be mindful to not be too strong in my aids or let her get dull to them. If I had to start asking with more leg, I tapped my boot with my whip. And if anything, she gets a little anxious and starts anticipating but then she gets confused and isn't really doing what I'm asking, just slinging herself around. So we would walk out of it and then try again. And it definitely helped. The goal isn't to create the perfect turn on the forehand; the goal is to encourage her to use her hind end correctly instead of falling in. And it helped! She suddenly started to feel more "square" and upright on all four. Her table legs felt even. Yay

 

So then we went into the trot and focused on the same stuff. I had to ride her haunches out and if she was falling in and not listening to my leg, a little boot tap. Or, the other option was to come down to the walk and do a 6 meter volte again and then go back into the trot. I had to be careful to keep the connection and not allow her throatlatch to be too open in the trot too. But we got some really lovely work! 

 

We didn't make it to the canter but that's okay. This was so helpful and encouraging. Also, it was nice because she felt stronger and straighter as we got farther into our lesson. By the end of my lesson I was pretty convinced it wasn't a lameness so much as a weakness. And Kelly agreed but also pointed out that in her opinion, she didn't look at Lyric and think "kissing spine". She kept saying her posture and muscling doesn't look like a horse that isn't using her back or was guarding her back. Yay!! That's nice to hear. We did a short hack back and called it quits. Mostly because I was getting hungry! And she worked hard.