Rebranding

First of all, thank you everyone for the kind words about Quaid. He's responding really well to the medication and seems like his old (young) self. He's perky and hungry and wants me to do things with him again. It's a nice thing to see. 

 Longtime readers of this blog know that Carmen and I have come a long way. They also know that there is always a certain amount of tension between us when she's being ridden. It is rare that I don't feel a need to manage her emotions or direct her feet. 

To be honest, I have accepted that as part of our relationship. It's not even that the tension is necessarily a bad thing. Sure, sometimes she's agitated or reactive. Other times she's forward and just wants to go.  But it always feels like there's a certain level of push and pull between us and that is how we find our balance. 

In our last lesson I was blown away by how relaxed she was by the end. I think she was too. When I have been able to ride I've been trying to recreate it by following what we were doing in the last lesson. I've been asking her to flex but softly and slowly and then releasing the same way. I can feel it working and it's neat to add this our sessions.  

I had a lesson last Sunday and we picked up from where we left off. Jane had me suppling her by getting her to move her body through various gymnastic exercises: leg yield across the arena, shoulder in to straight, shoulder in to renvers, shoulder in to haunches in, shortening the walk and then letting her out again. Jane would call me on every time I held too much because Carmen's mouth would gape. I had to have my legs on but not hard. 

shoulder in

Doing all this took a lot of focus on both our parts. It felt like I was making adjustments every stride (or half-stride). But man did it pay off. Jane noted that I was much better at keeping her rhythm steady and fixing it before (or at the same time) she had to tell me. I wasn't always aware that I was doing it so that's good. 

As we worked I would give her opportunities to stretch out her neck, rebalance if she fell on her forehand and sped up and then repeat. The goal was for it to all just be smooth. No sharp aids. A couple times I had to bring her down to halt because she wasn't listening to my half-halt but it wasn't harsh. 

offering a softening of the rein to invite her to stretch a bit

Without going into mind numbing detail, it was a bit of a mind-blowing experience for both of us. There was this one moment when her shoulder-in felt so effortless that I was just in the moment and totally forgot to listen to Jane. 

Jane: did you hear what I said?

Me: oops, no, sorry I was just enjoying this so much. It's not that I didn't hear you, I just wasn't listening. 

Fortunately for me, Jane has a sense of humour and was not annoyed.  At another point Carmen and I did a circle and then headed up the long side. It felt like moving anything on my body a millimetre was telling her to do something. She was soft and forward and 100% balanced. 

We both freaked out. 

Carmen: what is happening, this feels so weird. 

Me: I know! 

So I halted her and just let us breathe for a second. And I'm not making it up that that's how she was feeling. I swear. It was like we were totally communicating.  We took a beat and then carried on.  There were times when she fell behind the vertical, but not to avoid contact, and I was trying hard to help her reach to the contact but not drive. 

behind, but also reaching?

I don't even know if I'm explaining it right.  It's not even that I was perfect. I really was not. But all the work we've been doing seems to be coming together. There was another moment when I said to Jane I can't hear you. 

That's because I didn't say anything, I'm just watching. Do you know how rare it is for Jane to not have a correction/suggestion/advice? Like this is the first time ever. 

flow-y canter, 10/10 stars

We finished with a lovely, balanced counter canter. We stopped and discussed and then Jane said 'we do more but look at her, I just want to leave her here. Like how much more could she give us? 

I was in total agreement. I think our ride was around 50 minutes, it felt like forever and also five minutes. Jane thinks that this is getting unlocked because of the focus I've (finally) put on keeping her rhythm. That makes sense to me. 

How cool is it that we can change our pattern from balance through tension to balance through softness?  I'm sure we'll be tempted to fall back into old patterns but that's horse training for you. If riding/training was easy then everyone would want to do it, lol.  

balanced counter canter