Learning

 If there's one thing I've enjoyed all my life it's learning. I truly do enjoy it and it has been a huge part of everything I do. And of course this applies to horses. Which is why I continue to seek to increase my understanding and skills. 

I've had a bit of an unplanned in being able to take lessons. No one reason- one week it was torrential rain and flooding, another time a horse was lame (not mine) and then Ed and I went on a short trip to Prince Edward Island to visit Karen and Jim. If you have a chance to go to PEI you should jump at it. It really is a lovely province. Karen and I fit in some time at the beach. The waves were up and in the water were a bunch of children and us laughing and being bowled over by the waves. It was glorious. 

I love this beach

Karen also told me that she was having a local coach come and give her a lesson on Sunday and did I want to have a lesson on one of her horses? That answer was easy- YES. She didn't care who I rode so I asked for Kalimo. He's advanced in his training and I thought it would be good to ride a 'school master'. I really wanted to learn about asking for flying changes. Yes, true confession- I have never trained or asked a horse for a change. In my hunter days the horses just did it (or not). I really wanted to get a sense of how to move my body. 

Kalimo did not disappoint and neither did Dawn. It was such a fun lesson. The first change was easy because we were riding a counter canter and then Dawn just asked me to change and I didn't have time to think about it. After that I got in my head (shocking I know) and kept overthinking. I would get my legs right but drop him and let him choose where to go rather than keep him straight. Or I would hesitate and be late in my timing. But we got there in the end and I loved every minute of it. 

Kalimo: you are most welcome Señora. 
Perhaps it is time for cookies? 

When I got home, Carmen was off and after finding nothing on her legs I figured it was an abscess. Turns out it was- 2 days later it popped out of her frog and she's been fine ever since. Carmen may have a lot of issues but she doesn't fool around with weeks of unsoundness- just 'pop' and we're done.  Which was good because I had a lesson booked for Sunday. To be honest, I was going to keep the lesson regardless, just swap in Quaid for a different sort of lesson (he deserves his own update so we'll save that). 

I have been working in my rides to keep Carmen straight and aligned and it's paying off. Not that it's easy. To be fair I've changed the contract again and she's not so happy that she can't just move all her weight to the inside and keep her head tilted out to look around.  She has been especially spooky up by H and I found out why when I was trying to paint the fence. I started getting stung- there was a hornet nest somewhere in the brush. It took me forever to find it. Interestingly when I found out that there was a nest her spookiness level dropped measurably. I finally located the nest last week by going up during a rain storm and poking about the brush. It was low to the ground under a bush. I went back the next night and took care of it (I would have liked to have peacefully co-existed but they were getting more aggressive and territorial).  Guinness backed me up by sitting way back and watching (he also was stung during the fence painting incident).  

The lesson was the next day so I figured we'd have some issues because Carmen wouldn't know yet that it was gone. I was right but really it was such a good lesson. Jane had us work on getting and maintaining flexion in all three gaits. It turns out that both of us think that flexion falls into the 'nice to have' category but, as Jane pointed out, it was pretty essential for everything. 

Nice warm up trot, no softness in the poll and zero
flexion.  But, hey, she's straight! 

Carmen, it turns out will do all sorts of contortions to fake flexing while still being able to look outside the ring. It was much easier on the side closer to the barn and much harder on the side by the brush (and ex-hornet nest). So it wasn't physical so much as mental.  

Ideally we'd get the flexion by using the inside leg to outside hand and maybe a gentle squeeze with the inside hand. 

We were not ideal. But it was coming. As with most things we'd get it, lose it, get it, lose it. When we have it everything feels soft. But I had to be careful because sometimes I thought we had it but she was just bending her neck and/or tilting her head. Other times she would barge through trying to get me off her back (perhaps literally but I think it was more metaphorical). Some favourite Jane statements this lesson: 

'Get control and get back here' (when my 10 metre canter circle moved from K to A)

'get the outside rein or she's going to have her way with you' (when she got strong going by H)

This work really pays off though. We did some work on medium canter and rather then thinking 'oh god, I'm going to die' or 'I wonder if we can turn at the corner or will we careen through the fence and over the horizon?'  I was thinking 'wheeee'. 

uphill

And it helps with the walk pirouettes (or turn on the haunches): 

We also did shoulder in to haunches in. That was hard but when Jane said 'maintain the curve going from one to the other' it really helped. I'll play with that this week. 

When the lesson was over I was exhausted. So was Carmen. But she was sweaty in all the right spots. I don't know if I was sweaty in the right spots because basically everything was sweaty. But it felt good. 

I am sure that some of my friends (and definitely Ed) wonder when I'll stop taking lessons. I don't know that I ever will- it's so much fun to learn and push my boundaries. Even having a few weeks off I could feel myself letting things go in my rides. 

I guess I'll stop when I know it all.