New Number, Who Dis?

 I had a lesson booked with Quaid right after the saddle fit appointment. I was curious to see if if made a difference but also I was just happy to moving things ahead with him. It was booked for mid afternoon and it was a lovely day. 

I'm not going to lie, it was a hard lesson. I worked my tail off. After it was done I thought it was awful.  Or, more accurately, that I was awful. Then, when I watched the video I realised that the first half was really good, the middle really hard and the end good again. Which is why video is so useful because it's easy to believe something was terrible because it felt hard. 

He usually halts square. 

Jane started with getting me to ask him to step under but not take bigger strides in front. Or go faster. The idea is to have him step under and into a receiving hand. I could feel it working but it was hard. And he found it hard. I'm pretty sure Quaid was thinking 'but WHY can't I just fling my front legs or go faster. You are sooooo picky'. 

Jane has also identified that Quaid is not so keen to step into the right rein. He wants to drop his shoulder and fall in. I'm pretty sure that this is my fault. I'm left handed and it tends to over power the right.  

But I need to not just hold the right rein, and I need to half-halt. But it was going well. Like I could feel things coming together. Then Jane asked us to canter, starting with the right lead. While keeping a flexion to the right.  With this the hamster totally fell off the wheel and things fell right apart. 

He would canter a couple strides, switch behind, get pissed off and start balking on the front legs.  I was to sit up and keep him going and not pull him to stop. Jane is pretty sure that because I always used to back off then that he thinks this is what gets him to rest.  So even if we didn't canter I was to keep him trotting. So then this happened: 

this is short clip of a much longer sequence. He's thrown his hips at the fence before. This time he managed to break it and then freak himself out. Jane was great, she just spoke in a soothing voice as she put the board back up and gave us time to get our breath back. 

But after that  he had a vendetta against the fence. It was like he was Inigo Montoya and it killed his father. 

yay for being able to include a Princess Bride reference

We would trot a little, then ask for the canter. Even when I asked everything correctly it was a total shit show. 

Quaid: "I hate the world"

 I especially hate this fence! 

Finally I started riding him in off the rail so he couldn't kick at it. It's really hard to ride with a soft seat, sitting up and a quiet hand when your horse is flinging themselves around.  After we got a little canter we went back to the trot and walk and just worked on getting bend and breathing (for me anyway). 

not hating the world so much

I was exhausted.  I realised that Quaid had my number and when Jane wouldn't let the evasions work he ramped up. Jane also said that he needs to understand the right rein/flexion.  So my homework was to keep working on it. 

Since he had my number I needed to change it. I gave myself a talking to. Along the lines that I know how to ride and I can work through this. I do not have to be intimidated by 5 year old tantrums. 

I gave him a day off on Saturday (I actually tested for my Orange belt in karate and passed. It was fun). On Sunday I lunged him in side reins so that he could have contact. There were a few bobbles but he settled in to WTC with them on. Horses definitely know when they are pulling on themselves vs a rider. 

On Monday I worked a lot on him keeping the flexion through walkt-trot-walk transitions on both sides. We did lots of figures (serpentines, bending lines, 10 metre circles), leg yields etc. with the focus on forward. When I felt things were good with the bend and flexion I then cantered him on the left rein. It was easy. We did the whole ring doing circles, going straight, another circle.  Brought him back, changed reins and asked for a right lead. He picked up the lead, gave a huge buck and switched leads. I kept him going down the long side and brought him back to trot before the corner. We regrouped and I asked again.  He picked it right up and we did a circle. He tried to pull the right rein out of my hand and threw a mini tantrum when he couldn't. I kept the rein, asked for him to trot forward (and away from the fence), picked up the canter again and circled again. It was a bit wild and wooly but we did it. I left the canter and worked on other things. 

On Tuesday it was very similar. Left canter was easy. the first time we picked up the right he gave a little buck, cantered a few strides, dropped to trot and got emotional. I just regrouped with him, asked again and we had 3-4 lovely canter circles. Again, I left it after that and we worked on other things. 

Today we repeated the work again. This time when I asked him for right lead I made sure I asked really softly out of a forward trot. He rolled right into it and cantered a few circles. This time I stopped and dismounted. I was so proud of both of us. 

Tomorrow we head off property for a clinic (riding friday and Sunday). I'm going to (to quote Jane) ride the horse I have and see where we are. I get that he gets unnerved away from home. I'm going to do my best to be the calm in the eye of the storm. That is my goal. If we canter that would be great but I'm okay if we don't. 

Cordelia: forget the horses. Just stay and snuggle with me