Lesson Takeaways

On Thursdays, Factor and I are now taking lessons!

It's really nice to be in a consistent program, even though we are only just starting out. Rider position is one of those things that I don't think you ever get done working on, and when you take time off from paying attention to it, the good habits are easy to fall into disrepair. I've been trying to catalog all of them as I go, including making use of this blog as a way to keep track on certain habits, but having another person keep eyes on you really does allow for outside observations on what you are doing.

In our first lesson, our trainer pretty much nailed all of my bad habits in an instant. That's great news though! It means means we immediately have a hit list to get started on. Equally important, our current facility is particularly skilled with off-track horses, so they are quick to remind me of things I learned some time ago when I started working with them with my uncle. Long story short, it seems like the right community for what I'm doing with my horse.

Now, back to this lesson!

Yesterday we had a bit of a ‘come to Jesus’ moment regarding our disinterest in yielding off of the right leg. It took both my trainer and me managing the hijinks Factor wanted to pull. At one point he tried to tell us he simply didn't know how to go forward if he had to look to the right while he traveled to the left, and there was not enough leg muscle on my calf to convince him I was serious. (I will note, Factor moves beautifully away from me in exactly the yielding manner asked when I do exercises in-hand.) Well, we were not going to have that. With a little from-the-ground help, and significantly shorter reins, we managed to achieve the asked movement…and once he got it, he became soft and gushy, happy to move his shoulders between my knees.

By the end of our lesson, we had a few general position reminders, and the thought that I might need to carry a whip or consider spurs. Having already experimented with the carrying a stick idea, there was no real option there. We also discussed swapping him back to the loose ring over the eggbutt, which seemed to produce a lighter interaction with the contact and reduced his desire to brace.

Our ride the following day was, truly, fabulous.

I found some 20mm spurs at the local Dover branch with a soft round end, figuring that my sensitive guy needs so little encouragement and…as a rider and a person I really do struggle with firmness where I can see that “too much” is outride abuse. The reality is, all of our aids as riders can be a weapon if we choose to make them into one, and spurs are no different. Anyway, I found baby spurs, swapped bits into our loose ring snaffle, and wandered into the indoor.

Two other horses were in the ring, one of whom was a turn out buddy of Factor’s. He has not, so far, gotten used to the indoor, and this was noticeably his calmest ride. I was immediately more aware of my rider position with the small spurs on, and made extra effort to keep my feet parallel to the direction of our movement.

He paused on the concept of contact when I initially started to ask after a few walking laps, and started to try to hold on the bit the way he’s learned will cause me to hold to avoid pain in my shoulder (ah, yes, old injuries). The loose ring foiled this attempt, and I was happy to find the motion of our connection was stable from elbow to bit, where before there’s been a lot of lock in the wrist and little flexibility in the shoulder. When we started into figure eights and serpentines in our trot work, I asked him to move off the right leg and got no response. Two strides, ask again, this time with a small touch of spur. He responded as asked, and stepped under himself, lifting his ribcage all in one beautiful stride. I released my leg instantly, and carefully angled the spur away, then gave just my calf the next stride to support. He moved beautifully on his circle, stretching into contact and swinging through his back for a few strides while I worked on keeping my collarbones open.

The rest of the ride was brilliant.

I desperately wish that I had recorded it…