It's becoming more and more apparent that I have little to no control over my left hand. I'm starting to become concerned that one day it's going to commit a felony and I'll be blissfully unaware of why I'm schlepped off to prison.
The last couple of days have not been as positive as the days before them. It all started with a ride on Friday where my left hand made it impossible for my horse to connect to the left rein, so he barged out the right side and I was quite frustrated, having no idea what was possessing him to do such a thing. The lack of connection and serious heaviness on the left rein continued through the weekend and on Monday I gave up keeping him on the bit so that I could stop all the pony wrestling and have a nice ride.
So I went to my lesson with Tracey and told her that I was having problems with heaviness and crookedness again. He's leaning right, he's pulling on the left rein, he's not responding to my right leg... It turns out that only one of those is Rico's fault. Of course he leans right and feels heavy on the left rein, she said, you would be too if someone was pulling on the left rein. Damnit! My vow to never have a lesson working on the same thing twice has been broken. I've already had this lesson.
Luckily Tracey had a plethora of new exercises to address these recurring problems so I didn't have to have a repeat of exercises. Most of these exercises were aimed at addressing the underlying problem of Rico being unresponsive to my right leg which is what leads me to feel that pulling on the left rein is a good correction (surprise! It's not).
To address the straightness issue, we tracked to the left on a large circle that I kept making smaller. Even after this lesson, I still don't understand a hundred percent what exactly I'm doing and how to fix it. All I know is that I'm pulling on my left rein. So I threw my left hand forward and dropped the connection. That was wrong, obviously. Tracey said to keep the connection and move him forward into it.
What... If I didn't know Tracey well, I'd think she was nuts. She wants my horse, who felt more like a burlap sack of bricks that I was lugging around that day than a dressage horse, to connect to a rein that he is pulling on? Oh wait, who's doing the pulling? Hmmm.
Once as I kind of figured out what to do with my left hand to avoid being scolded (still unsure, need more lessons), we did some walk-trot transitions and then worked on shoulder-in on the circle to the left. From the shoulder-in, which perpetually needs less bend because I pull on the goddamn left rein like it's a rope at the end of which my family is dangling off a cliff, we rode into renvers. Wow is renvers difficult on a circle. To the left, Rico needed to really connect to the left rein without me pulling on the right rein or crossing the right rein over his neck to get him to do it.
After the left, we tracked right which I thought was going to be easier. I was wrong. It turns out that because I pull on my left rein like it's a door that says push ends up really screwing up the bend to the right, causing my horse to lean inward. When he leans inward, my first response is to pull more on the left rein because pfft that fixes everything. We rode shoulder-in, which was a challenge in itself since Rico is a little unresponsive to my right leg. Once as we got an acceptable shoulder-in, we transitioned to renvers. All hell broke loose, I essentially did it by yanking on the left rein like I was trying to start a chainsaw which then threw him onto his right shoulder and in on the circle which Tracey said was not renvers, despite how much I wished it was.
After doing this exercise on the circle, we did the second level movement on the straight line where you transition from shoulder-in to renvers. I struggled with not creating the renvers by leaning back and hauling on the left rein, which was my answer in both directions.
Stepping into canter, I was immediately told to let go of the left rein, in response to which I invited Tracey to follow me around for two weeks and yell the same phrase at me over and over again as I rode various horses. The canter seemed to go okay to the right, I was able to ride a pretty decent half pass in that direction as long as Rico stayed off my right leg and into my left rein. To the left, however, I could barely ride in a straight line.
I had to go back to walk several times to get the feel of it, but by the end of the lesson, I was quite a bit more coordinated to the left!
After my lesson I loosened Rico's noseband and girth, then sat down on the mounting block to watch the next lesson. I was only planning on staying for the first few minutes of the lesson but Rico is the most patient horse ever so he snoozed in the corner the whole time without moving. What a good pony!
I was walking back to the trailer and chatting with the rider who rode after me when Rico reached around to itch his side and then started yanking me toward the trailer. I didn't think anything of it and pulled back on him but realized quickly that something was very wrong. It turns out that he got his curb chain hook stuck on his girth! He didn't panic, but kind of just turned in circles slowly, obviously confused. I tried to pull the girth away from the hook but that didn't work and Rico started to lay down. I knew that if he laid down, he'd probably break his neck, so I ran to the other side and undid the girth, pushing the saddle toward his face.
Thankfully everything ended up okay, except that his curb chain hook is totally destroyed and his neck is sore. My project before the weekend is to go get another one and figure out how to make it a breakaway one...
