No More Hangovers

A few lessons ago, I wrote about how I've been having lesson hangovers ever since I started riding with my new trainer. I think it takes a little bit of time for me to adjust to a new trainer's way of doing things, so I often flail a bit in the beginning. This is why I'm pretty strict about riding solely with a new trainer for a while before I start feeling comfortable branching out. I want them to be able to put their framework up so that I can operate within it when I ride in clinics.

The days after lessons always feel like I'm making up ground. Like I got pivoted quite a lot in the lesson and now I have to go clean it up.

After this lesson though, I felt like TC and I were on the right track and I was almost able to get the same work out of him as I did in the lesson. I couldn't ride Sunday or Monday due to my saddle needing a repair, but the rest of the week, he was brilliant.

I started off by making him really march in the walk with the idea that I want to start developing the extended walk fairly soon. He came to me having, I assume, just won an award for being the World's Slowest Walker, so it's been a long long road teaching him to actually get going. He's always had a great walk, but the tempo just gets super super slow and he moseys around. Then if you ask him to add more energy, he offers trot. He's so much better now, but is still figuring it out.

The one screenshot I managed to pull from the very short and
very terrible fence video I took on Thursday. 

From there we picked up the trot and he was super game to be in front of my leg. We did a bunch of circles and serpentines, mostly to just give us time adjusting to the more energized trot. I'm a big fan of doing easy work like this to stabilize new work. Like just hanging out there for a while so that he can develop, not always pushing for bigger and more. I don't want him thinking he can never win.

On Wednesday's ride, which went similarly, I did add the shoulder-in, haunches-in, and leg yield at the trot. They weren't as good as with Tanya, but I've learned quickly that none of our work will ever be as good as it is when we're with her. But it was still miles better than a few weeks ago. He even maintained his trot in the haunches-in, where before he'd get real shuffle-y. I really want to have all lateral work confirmed in trot by the end of the year, and haunches-in is the last big push!

The trot continues to plague me with it's enormity. Every time I feel like I've got it, Tanya adds more power and I lose it again. The consequence of this is that he starts leading with his chest a bit, like in the screenshot above. I need to hold his body back and get his nose out but I just can't. I CAN'T. He is so powerful it's just enough for me to stay on him when he's in this trot. And the most frustrating is that seeing it on my crappy fence video, it's not even CLOSE to what he's capable of. Oh well, to the gym I go. And he needs to go to his pony gym too so that I don't lose his hocks so much (which is also why it's hard to sit), and that means half steps.

Previous lesson views, I really need new media

Half steps from trot seem to be harder for him than from walk, which is good to know. I think it's the aforementioned pranciness that he used to get in walk that makes him happy to do it then. But we had our third school in the half steps Tuesday and they felt really good!

We did it in both directions in trot, where I'd wait for him to lift his shoulder in it and then let him out of it. I really need to think passage transition, which is a more up and collected transition than shooting him out of it like a slingshot. I tend to want to do the latter because I get claustrophobic in collected gaits. Starting this idea early is really important for TC because I don't want to make him claustrophobic. He seems to have a lot of talent and willingness to sit, so I don't really have to worry. He has never given me the feeling of wanting to stop in the half steps!

The walk to half steps is coming along super well too, this was his second schooling of it. The first schooling we just went from not doing it, to doing it badly. This time I kept him in it until he sat back a bit more and then let him walk. It feels AMAZING. He is doing a good job staying out to the bridle in it and again, he doesn't feel like he wants to stop at all in it! That's a very new feeling for me. I guess I've only really piaffed lazy horses...?

I'm beyond stoked about the half steps on this horse. I think I'm going to try to keep them to 1-2x per week for this year while he's developing, then next year expect to be regularly schooling the piaffe. The piaffe really improves the canter, so I'm excited to see how it helps us as we stare down Second level. Just in case anyone is wondering, you don't put the passage on before the piaffe, so he will be getting passage training once as he has a piaffe on him. Probably next year, maybe starting it a bit in the fall for funzies.

What I wouldn't give to be a 15 minute drive from this place...

Back to the normal gaits- the canter was... a little out of control this week, but I'm here for that (also because it takes less muscle to ride, just more mental strength to not slow it down when it gets scary). I wanted to really make sure I got a good depth to his inside hind leg before really balancing him back, and I probably didn't balance him back enough. Wednesday I really worked on the half halt and return to the medium canter and it was feeling really good.

I still feel like we lack rideability in the canter in comparison to the trot, but I've always felt that way and the difference is becoming much smaller. I think once as we have a true collected canter, it will be much better. I just can't cheat and kill the inside hind leg to get a more rideable canter, which is kind of what I was doing and what was causing the bucking.

Speaking of, one of the amazing things that happened this week is that we had exactly ONE buck (other than him bucking when I was bareback) when I asked him to go forward in canter and he didn't. I've been working really hard to install the leg = forward button rather than leg = buck and then go forward when in trouble button. And it's totally working!

I like my current barn though, this is TC and I (and Peony and
Spot!) at it a year ago, before I realized we'd be boarding there...

Our next lesson is TOMORROW. That's craziness. I'm really excited though, and not nearly as nervous about driving over to the barn this time since I've been there before.