Finding Balance: Quaid Lesson Recap

 It's been a while since my post. I've had a few ideas but didn't actually write them. I'm a bad blogger.  November has been the Novemberest November in a long time. So much rain or cold. I actually gave up on keeping the horses naked this year and put on blankets. Carmen is happy with this development but Quaid doesn't think he needs it. My problem is that there's been so much rain. Even on days that haven't called for it and they end up wet and cold. 

But on Sunday I was able to have the long awaited lesson on Quaid. We started back to some light work once he was almost done with his antibiotics.  He's shown zero complications from his most recent anaplasmosis infection.   Our rides have been sporadic (see November comment above) but Jane understands and she's really good with working with what we present to her.  I just replaced my ancient and failing iPhone 12 with 17 pro and I have to say I love the quality of the video and screen grabs. It also doesn't die half-way through my lesson which is a huge plus. This means I had video for the whole ride! 

*almost* square at the halt. 

Jane right away got after me to not keeping a steady contact and not using my legs effectively. I've fallen into the habit of 'nudge, nudge, nudge rather than squeezing him. I don't even know I do it.  Jane was really after me to stop kicking him!  And stop throwing the rein. Keep it steady, ask for straightness and squeeze with my legs to go forward. 

Quaid had some feelings about this. He was generally happy about the kicking going away but had zero idea of what to do with me squeezing. And why wasn't I giving him free rein through transitions?  Jane was after me to soften but not throw away the contact. Because then he falls on to his front legs and doesn't carry behind. 

my handss are uneven here but not looking too bad

In watching the video of the lesson after I realised that I had been really focussed on riding him forward but not recognising when it was simply fast and falling on his front end.  But on the good side, I didn't have to push him too much for energy. Now it's about balancing it. 

see me kicking here? It's very light but still annoying I'm sure

As to be expected with young horses finding their balance he was would be above the vertical, behind the vertical and perfect. Above was find, behind was not because he was evading contact. The answer, as always, was to half-half and squeeze to get to follow the bit. Also to keep my outside rein steady. 

sometimes I held too much and he was not happy. 
But, can we appreciate my seat in this? lol 
We had our moment, landed, and carried on. 

We did a lot of sitting trot. Far more than I have done on him. It was much easier to sit this time.  We practiced transitions with keeping steady contact and they really improved as the lesson progressed.  

Overall, Quaid was really really good (picture above notwithstanding) but he had a couple moments where he locked his neck and tried to fling his hind end around. Fortunately, it was really short lived and the answer was to bend him, give him a sec and let him find his way back rather than escalate. 

a little BTV but still really nice

I loved how the mini-meltdowns were just blips and we could carry on rather than causing the whole lesson to fall into chaos.  

mini melt down. No fences were harmed lol

The progress from the first part of the lesson to the end was marked. 

First part of lesson:

Near the end: 

 He's going to have a lovely lengthen one day. By the end of the lesson I could feel him getting tired so we quickly found a good spot and called it quits. It was one of our best lessons yet.  I love how mature he's looking and he's really filled out.

I always have a little sadness when the riding time dwindles with the approach of winter.  Rides will get fewer and farther between. But that doesn't mean we can't keep moving forward. 

Cordelia eating for her end of ride treat.