Shifting the Balance Back

I somewhat unexpectedly had a lesson yesterday! At my own barn! 

So, unfortunately, my remote lesson setup isn't working well, so I'm stuck fighting with it in between lessons with Tanya once a month. Tanya says she's going to bring her setup down next week so we can play with it and see whether my setup is just garbage or whether it's the signal. 

I got a text from Tracey, who I've ridden with on and off for years, saying that she'd be in the area and asking if I wanted a lesson. I guess she's starting to travel to teach again and wants to come back! I hemmed and hawed because TC just adores Tanya and while Tracey is absolutely fabulous, Tanya just GETS this horse in a way no other trainer has, you know?

I responded and said yes, I'd try a lesson but that TC and I are out of shape, just playing with working gaits.

She did a good job with us in 2019

Up until the day before, I wasn't sure the lesson was happening because it just kind of seemed too good to be true that I'd get two lessons so close together. Is that just me? But she confirmed and then showed up mostly on time! Excellent!

There was a minor issue in that I forgot my headphones at home from my conversation with Tanya and Tracey didn't have headphones, so my barn owner got me some (thanks BO! She's awesome). So the lesson started a little late, which was fine because 45 minutes of work was too much anyway. 

He's much more forward at home now

The lesson was great! All my work since Tanya and I chatted has made TC much better in the contact and she really had nothing to say in that department. I told her about him getting btv sometimes and she said that, while that's obviously not desirable in the long term, it was more important for me to keep the connection than to throw the reins away hoping he'd stay in front of the vertical. What we mostly worked on because of the connection being so good was the balance shift from the working gaits to the collected gaits. That was super helpful!

In both walk and trot, I'm very comfortable sending him forward but not always comfortable bringing him back from the forward. This leads to me wanting forward, getting forward, and then just... doing nothing else. So she wanted me to school a wider range of trots, but especially the smaller ones, and insist that he stay on the contact the entire time. I think I ride him forward and over the ground because that's where he feels best in the contact and in front of my leg. But this also leads to him rolling over his shoulder, leaving his feet on the ground for too long, and being a little out behind. 

This really matches what Tanya has me do and is a huge step forward in my understanding of why I can't replicate Tanya's work at home. In lessons with Tanya, we do ride a wide spectrum of trots, and in my work at home, I only ride maybe three quarters of the spectrum (on the bigger side). So it was great to hear all that from a different source. 

He was so dark and cute last year

While that was the main part of the lesson, we also worked on a few other things:

- I am not allowing him to reach around to the left rein when tracking right, my left hand holds him back too much and he just leans in. Wow, that's a shocker, seriously. I've been feeling like he needs to stand up more on that side but didn't realize that my solution was the reason why he couldn't stand up straight. So we worked on getting his left ear to push forward and to get my left side to be a little more elastic. 

- When tracking left, he isn't nearly bending enough and she says that's because he's a little out on the right shoulder. She had me put him into a slight counter flexion, which was a little different than the renvers I normally school to get him more even in the contact, but still worked well and helped him step more into the left rein. 

- Walk pirouettes were good but the left one needs more bend, I tend to fall off the outside on that side. I told her they get 8s and 9s when they don't stick (and that was a fluke) and she said "I believe it, they're very good" but that I also didn't feel like they were entirely rideable and she said "I'd believe that too" 

- In the right lead canter, my shoulders move too much, I need more stability in them to help him stay up in front. She said that the canter (both sides) was quite good though! She wanted him more collected but then I reminded her that he'd cantered like four times in the last month. 

- She wanted me to school more half steps in the transition from trot to walk. I could feel the exact moment he dropped his back (thank you equibands, more on that below) in the transition and that's the trot he's weak on. So she had me ask him to come back to walk, then push him forward when I felt him start to drop his back. 

- She was very happy with how much he went to the bridle that she encouraged me to push his nose out a little more! He first needs to connect and be stretched to the contact, but then, and only when that is reliable and remains reliable, I should push his nose out and reestablish the connection a little lighter. It still needs to feel good and be rideable, because a lot of the time when I go to establish a lighter connection, he retracts the neck or curls, but that's a good goal to have as we start some of the higher level work. 

The right lead has always been tricky

Another thing to note about this lesson is that it was my first ride without the equibands since I got them. And HOLY SHIT. He's a different horse. I have always struggled to sit his trot because of how enormous and bouncy it is and now I can, even though I'm painfully out of shape (I mean, my abs were burning, but I wasn't struggling nearly as much as I expected). Turns out that it was hard to sit because his core wasn't engaged nearly enough. His canter is also totally different, way easier to collect, way easier to maneuver. Just a few weeks of mostly light work in the bands completely changed my horse. Ridiculous. Best couple hundred dollars I've ever spent, I think!

In addition, like I said above, it's given me a whole new feel for when his core is engaged and when it isn't. I was first introduced to this when I had a lesson with Anne and she asked me if I had both long back muscles, I said I wasn't sure. Then she asked me if I had his core. And then I realized that I didn't know what that even felt like but I knew I didn't have them. Now, with the equibands, his core is always engaged, so I can feel the difference very clearly now when he does drop out from under me.

He's always been SUCH a hard horse to feel things on and it's taken me a long time to influence him. He only just this year gave me access to his hind legs. Now I have access to his core. For the longest time, I thought it was just me, until I would get on other horses and be able to pick out exactly where every body part was at any given moment. It's taken a long time but I finally have access to/influence over most of his body! Thank you equibands. 

Back before I could feel his hind legs or his core

Generally it was a fabulous lesson, I wish I had video but that's okay. I think she is going to try to come out twice a month, so that plus my monthly Tanya lessons should hold me over while I'm figuring out my remote setup!