Knowledge Dump

On Saturday, I had my first lesson in two full months! Tracey normally comes to my barn once a week in the evenings, so I don't typically need to wait until weekends for lessons, but unfortunately she's been injured so hasn't been able to drive all the way out to my barn. So I had been going to see her on weekends, but then in September, the only weekend I had available, she didn't. Boo. Now she's feeling better and can travel to my barn, but I still can't see her on the weekdays because she can't yet drive at night.

So finally, FINALLY, she had a weekend open where I was in town and I got to go ride with her. Unfortunately I couldn't bribe anyone to come get me any media, but I still got a lot out of it (is that even possible? If you take a lesson with no video, did you even learn something?). The very next day, Kate came out and took some video though, so yay!

Love the clouds after it rained last week

The first thing we tackled was my crooked position. I have had a lot of trouble sitting on my right seat bone for the last six or seven years since my SI injury. It doesn't hurt if I have my pelvis tipped off my right side, so I've sort of calibrated myself to feel like that's straight. It's not. But I can't feel it. I can't even see it in the mirror! And since I've been the only one training TC for so so long, we've worked out how to deal with it where I've even convinced myself that tracking right is the better side.

The position problem is so bad that it completely ruins my feel and ability to sit the trot. I essentially have my right seat bone on his spine and my left seatbone dropping off the side of his back. In order to be able to feel what he is doing, when he is about to do things (like run off), and to be able to have any semblance of sitting trot, I prooooobably should be sitting on his back muscles. It really explains why I've been struggling very randomly to sit the trot. Some days I sit it just fine, other days I just freaking can't sit it at all. Of course I can't sit it if I'm literally like... on his spine. That shit doesn't have any give.

My hands are also more rogue than Tracey wants. I got the usual "he's more trained than you give him credit for" lecture about keeping my hands more together. Yeah yeah yeah, it's just hard when I've been riding him since he was a widdle baby horse and he's also tricking me with his dark color. No excuses. Keep the hands together.

My right hand also apparently lives by my ear given how often I was told to keep it down. I know where this is from- she had me ride him much more into the bridle and I tend to bring my hands up when horses lean on me. He's not leaning... but I am sensitized to any pressure in the reins since I'm just not used to it. More on that later.

Figuring it out

So all of that position stuff has me convinced that the right feels great! Despite it being a bit of a hot mess. So once as she got me sitting where I needed to sit, I was to put him into the right (inside) rein. She wanted him a lot heavier in the bridle than I usually have him, and said that it was okay if he retracted a little bit. He really needs to embrace stepping IN to the bridle from my leg, rather than now where he happily connects lightly but doesn't really take me with the bridle. Well, I felt like he was taking me. Not nearly enough though.

At the same time as straightening him on the outside rein to get him to step into the inside rein, TC needs to be a bit lighter off of my inside leg. His tendency is to lean into my leg with his ribcage, rather than engaging his inside hind leg and stifle under him. This leg is definitely not as flexible as his other one, it's for sure the one that likes to get stiff when he has time off.

Once as we had him pushed into the bridle evenly, TC was not about that. He didn't do anything wrong, but he did get really reluctant to push through. I told Tracey that when I feel him hesitate to go forward, I primarily determine that there's too much contact on the reins and then I soften to him, which allows him to go forward and reach into the bridle. But he needs to be taught to push through despite the pressure. He needs to be taught to take my hands forward rather than wait for me to make room for him. My calibration was way off, because what I felt like was heavy was where he needed to be. And I've said it a million times to clients but refuse to believe it myself!

It took a while in the walk, and then longer in the trot to get this on the twenty meter circle. We did it in both directions and then did some ten meter trot circles to prepare for the show. They were not good. I mean to the left, which is the direction I dread, they were fine. I just needed to make sure that his right shoulder kept tracking around. But to the right, they were awful at first. Apparently I slow him down too much in them, which was made more dramatic by him struggling to step into the bridle in the way she wanted. I also need to push him off my right leg in the last half of the circle, since I kind of let him fall in. Basically at all times he has to come off my right leg.

All seems to be going okay... 

We touched on one trot lengthening, which Tracey said was great. She warned me not to push for too much. I need to keep his confidence up in them and keep them contained so that he doesn't learn to go wide behind. Where she wanted it didn't feel like that much of a lengthening, but this horse has GAITS so while he was probably at about 50% of where he could have been, it was plenty plenty plenty for First level. Apparently. I don't know.

After that, it was time for canter work. The canter has been feeling so much better recently. And Tracey kiiind of confirmed that by not working on the same things we were last time, so that was nice. But man, this shit is hard.

She wanted the same level of connection and push through at the canter as at the trot, but TC is definitely not as comfortable in canter with that. He responded by kind of diving downward in the canter and putting me at the front of the saddle. So I had to fight that and pull him back with my seat. That tipped me forward and Tracey and I went through a three bears moment trying to get me to sit where she wanted me to sit- not too far forward but not too far back.

Nevermind

Once as I was in the right place, I had to keep my leg present but not as much ON as I keep it. That was new because again, TC is slower off my leg when leg means go INTO the bridle vs go forward. So he kept breaking. So I'd swat him with the whip. So I got told not to do that. So I stopped and he broke more. So I used my spurs. But I used them too much, so stop doing that. So I just kind of accepted my fate. And I got told to keep him going. I just kept pressing through though, and soon we were doing canter lengthenings and shortenings off of my seat in the better connection and I got a couple of "good"s which seemed like they'd never come.

She definitely wanted his neck down and out a bit more in the canter, which is where Jeremy said not to have it. But honestly the canter felt a lot more pure where she wanted it, and that's a big thing for him. So sorry, Jeremy.

At the end of the lesson I was exhausted, nearly crying, and very frustrated. But this is what happens when I don't ride with her enough. Tracey isn't mean (well, we've had our problems but she's not mean on purpose) but she is the most demanding and most detailed trainer I've ever ridden with. Ignorance really is bliss.

The new work in the connection retracts him a bit

We got to talking about TC. Why is this so hard? I kept asking. Why am I not feeling these things? But Tracey stopped me and confirmed that TC was out of a friesian mare and by Ideal before explaining her ideas. Apparently those two things make him a VERY tricky horse in the bridle. I've always felt he was straightforward since he doesn't lean on me or refuse to connect. But she said no, he's very tricky. She said that she's only seen one horse by Ideal who connected really well, and that horse was ridden by one of the top trainers in the area (Tracey's mentor who died a few years ago).

She said all of the Ideal horses that she has seen seem to disconnect in the same way. And I was like wait... connect? She said no, disconnect. You really have to TEACH these horses to go to the bridle in a way you don't have to teach a lot of horses. That coupled with the fact that TC is half friesian, a breed known for not wanting to connect over the back, and I'm basically fucked.

He's beautiful and he goes to the contact... but he only just goes there

Tracey made it clear that what I was doing up until now wasn't bad. I'm not so far off the path. She said we could go a long way on the path I'm on. But then there will be a time in the distant future where I'm going to need him to be INTO the bridle and he won't know what that is and he'll be incapable of certain movements.

Passage. Extensions. One-tempis. All of those require the horse to really push through into the bridle, to reach through the bridle while maintaining the engagement in the hind legs. And TC will be fine for a long while without true extensions (I mean how many people showing at Third+ have a true extension? Not me until I was riding at like I1 or I2). He can easily make it rather far in the place he's in. But I don't want to just go far. I want to go all the way. So this is the utmost priority.

So is getting more lessons with her. Because the longer I wait, the more likely I am to cry in a lesson (but I didn't! Yay!). Fingers crossed the show goes well this weekend. And then we're in for a long winter of learning.