Operation Pop Quiz Begins

 If you read my last post I realised that I needed to be more consistent in my contact, ride less defensively and create opportunities for Quaid to be tested.  And by that, Jane meant that he needed to learn how to deal with different things and maintain his emotional equilibrium. 

In the past I'd have been tempted to throw all but the kitchen sink (well maybe also the kitchen sink) at him and probably  definitely overwhelm him. But that just results in either a wreck or a shut down horse. Quaid is quite sensitive. He also really wants to please but sometimes it all gets a bit much. And I'm guilty of babying him through that and not helping him find his own balance. Then I take him off property and expect him to be fine.  Like I always say 'hope is not a strategy'. 

That look you get when your had 3 intense
days and they see you come out with a halter. 
Also, it's so dry here. We're having some serious
drought conditions. It's awful. 

I gave us all Monday off after the clinic but Tuesday I was excited to get back at it. Since it's been so hot I've just been riding one horse a day in the morning. This is working so far. I decided that it was Quaid's turn. Normally I have a set routine that I follow every time I ride him. I tack him up, we do groundwork, I put on his bridle and we ride. And there's nothing wrong with that routine. But it's not one I can follow when I'm away. So this time I put on his bridle, walked him around the ring and hopped on. I had his halter and lunge line if I needed. But I didn't need it.  So I've been doing that in our rides since. 

In my rides I've been focusing on maintaining a consistent contact no matter where his head is. It takes a lot of awareness. I was also paying a lot of attention to sitting on my seat and not leaning forward. I basically was scrolling through a repeating checklist while I rode: body aligned, elbows following and keeping contact, horse walking forward. 

As the week progressed I became much more aware of when I tipped forward. In the past I might have thought '''yeah but that's not the most important thing right now" . Now I know it is.  I made up this little rhyme for myself: head and shoulders, nose and toes. Which for me meant: am I aligned (head and shoulders over pelvis) and is Quaid aligned (is his toes following his nose)? One thing I noticed on my lesson video at home was that he began to say no at the 30 minute mark. In my rides at home when he first began to say no I looked at my watch and saw it was 31 minutes. Same for the next ride. Interesting.... Instead of stopping like I normally would with the thought that he'd had enough, I asked him to keep going forward. When he was forward and soft, then I stopped. 

I rode Quaid on Saturday and it was quite windy. He was feeling a lot more 'up'. It was breezy and Carmen was in heat. I do notice that he's much more attached to her when she's in heat (not that I've seen any shenanigans thank god).  Anyway he was being spooky at the blowing trees and reluctant to go forward. After a couple big spooks I began to feel quite vulnerable and my frustration was rising. then I stopped and took a breath. I reminded myself that wasn't being like this to get me. He was feeling more frazzled and he needed me to show him how to go and not just get irritated. So I went back to what we've been doing. Riding forward, being aligned, soft but there with my hands. And I felt it working. He began to tune to me. Not usually I wouldn't canter on these sort of rides. But he felt better so I put us on a 20 m circle and we worked on canter-trot-canter transitions. And do you know what ? they were fine. 

It felt like things were coming together. Jane was coming on Sunday to the area to teach and I signed myself up for a lesson. Paulina needed an early morning ride so decided to haul to my place (I'm usually one of the early stops). Then Tanya asked if she could come too. This is great I thought. I was planning to ride Quaid anyway and have Jane help me to do various tests with him so I can make sure I'm not just letting him set the tone. I also know that Carmen, who normally does not care when I take him out, cares very much when there are other horses around. I figured the ruckus of having horses coming and going and Carmen being Carmen would be a perfect test. 

And I was right. Paulina came and rode first. While she was riding Tanya came and unloaded. Neither of them really reacted to the horses coming. I brought in Quaid to tack up because we were after Paulina and before Tanya. I did exactly what I'd been doing all week: saddle, bridle, walk up and get organised. Carmen was pitching her fit. Paulina took her horse away while I was getting organised. I led him up to the mounting block and got on.  

And do you know what? He kept his focus with me. A few times he'd look to Carmen or at something else. But he came right back when asked. 

head, shoulders, nose and toes

Do you know what was even better? Jane never once had to tell me to sit up. I mean she had to tell me lots of other things but not that. So it's win for me. I'm still letting my elbows move too much. I honestly couldn't tell when she was after me about it. But when I watched the video I could see it. It's subtle, not a huge amount but enough to bug his mouth. Sigh. Riding is hard. 

I also need to figure out how to ask him to step under more without letting him get faster. But it's coming. I overheard Jane say at one point 'my god he's a nice horse'.  

he really is nice. Unfortunately his breeder isn't 
selling any of her young horses right now. Otherwise 
I'd send everyone there. 

We did some canter work and it wasn't bad. I really have to focus on sitting up and following with my seat instead of getting all grabby with my thighs and hands. But it's so much better. And he's responding to it too.  Here's a short video from our ride. I'll apologise ahead of time because my pivo was getting confused and stopped following me for a bit. But it comes back. 

Not every moment was great. Or even good. Case in point, here's when I asked for a transition to trot: 

lol, at least I'm not falling on his neck....

But right after he came back and went into a lovely trot.  

We did about 45 minutes and Jane said that was enough. I was talking to her and asking some questions when Tanya came in. Instead of dismounting, I decided to see if I could get him to work and focus back on me so I asked him to walk some 10 metre circles, switch directions etc. And he would look, get distracted and then go 'oh right, sorry. ' which is so much better then before when he'd say 'stop bugging me. I can't possibly listen to you in these conditions'.  

Jane was super impressed. So was I. I was texting Jane later to thank her and she said 'I was just about to say how great you both were. I'm starting to push you guys more....it's hard not to push when it's sitting right there'.   (she was referring to me, Paulina and Tanya who also had amazing lessons). Then I had to laugh because she texted 'notice how he was no flail Quail today'. 

Indeed. It's coming. I'm not so foolish as to think that I've solved all our issues in 4 rides. But it's a good start. I want to haul back to Krista's and ride him again so work on it. 

no flail just flair.