No whip for you!
I’ve been mighty lax in scribing (ha) my horsely doings since Kingsbury. It seems like I’ve come so far mentally since this past winter, but then I get thinking again and I’m thrown for a loop. But overall, if my big problem of the day is that I can’t get Clover off the left rein, then that’s a hell of a lot better than all the doubt and woe I put myself through over the last couple of years.
The lessons with Michele are going along steadily, I told Tony last night that the Tuesday night lessons were the first thing I’ve committed to in a long time (unlike yoga, which I keep thinking I’ll get back to) (I will). We’ve made a lot of progress, but now I have to really buckle down and ride more conscientiously, instead of back off like I have in the past when things start to go well. Each lesson gives me at least one concept or exercise to work on, usually more. Last week it was knowing when to ask more, and when to ease up. For example, I now know how to tactfully ask for more forward when Clover starts sucking back when she thinks she’s done being ridden, but elsewhere maybe I need to not ask for so much angle in the leg yield up the long side when I’m trying to get Clover to use her hind end.
Today I needed to be reminded to ride with my hands quieter and together, while riding a shallow serpentine from quarterline to quarterline (with a circle in the middle). That exercise really forces me to be organized and correct, refine the aids and ask for the right amount of bend/straight/forward/fluid at the right time. But not get too stressed out over the geometry of the figure.
Also, I still use the whip too much, going to it before the leg aids. So there’s a moratorium on whip use for the week. No wonder Clover’s so defensive, she’s waiting for me to clench up and tappity-whack with the whip. Oops. It was a tough ride today, but it turned out pretty well. A lot of the forward and bend issues of the past week were created by me, overfocusing on one thing and getting all worked up about it. Michele reminded me that I really needed to keep things fresh when we get stuck, for example, instead of riding leg yields on the circle that weren’t working, I could have got out some trot poles in a circle and got Clover stretched out and forward that way. But hey! The canter work is getting better!
So it remains a mental game. I still doubt my ability to think outside of the box, but that’s why I’m taking lessons. No one teaches independent thinking on horseback, at least, they didn’t seem to be when I was learning the basics.
The lessons with Michele are going along steadily, I told Tony last night that the Tuesday night lessons were the first thing I’ve committed to in a long time (unlike yoga, which I keep thinking I’ll get back to) (I will). We’ve made a lot of progress, but now I have to really buckle down and ride more conscientiously, instead of back off like I have in the past when things start to go well. Each lesson gives me at least one concept or exercise to work on, usually more. Last week it was knowing when to ask more, and when to ease up. For example, I now know how to tactfully ask for more forward when Clover starts sucking back when she thinks she’s done being ridden, but elsewhere maybe I need to not ask for so much angle in the leg yield up the long side when I’m trying to get Clover to use her hind end.
Today I needed to be reminded to ride with my hands quieter and together, while riding a shallow serpentine from quarterline to quarterline (with a circle in the middle). That exercise really forces me to be organized and correct, refine the aids and ask for the right amount of bend/straight/forward/fluid at the right time. But not get too stressed out over the geometry of the figure.
Also, I still use the whip too much, going to it before the leg aids. So there’s a moratorium on whip use for the week. No wonder Clover’s so defensive, she’s waiting for me to clench up and tappity-whack with the whip. Oops. It was a tough ride today, but it turned out pretty well. A lot of the forward and bend issues of the past week were created by me, overfocusing on one thing and getting all worked up about it. Michele reminded me that I really needed to keep things fresh when we get stuck, for example, instead of riding leg yields on the circle that weren’t working, I could have got out some trot poles in a circle and got Clover stretched out and forward that way. But hey! The canter work is getting better!
So it remains a mental game. I still doubt my ability to think outside of the box, but that’s why I’m taking lessons. No one teaches independent thinking on horseback, at least, they didn’t seem to be when I was learning the basics.
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