Shoulder-in For Days

On Wednesday, we had another lesson! The last couple of lessons have been a bit like whiplash, with one being very focused on the basics and the second going over flying changes and canter half pass. In the last two weeks, TC and I have been focusing on getting the flying changes back to normal (aka something we do on a regular basis) and continuing work with the connection. 

Tracey asked me what I wanted to work on and I said the trot. I find his canter much easier and while I know the canter work needs to be stronger as well, at the end of the day, the trot is where I struggle the most. I told her that I could feel the collection in the canter fairly easily and I knew what I needed to do to get him more collected in canter, but that I felt like I kind of mistook tightness in the back for collection in the trot because he can get real lofty and then I see it on video and I realize he's not at all engaged. 

Reaching for contact, that's a tough one for us

And that's how I got an entire lesson in trot. An entire lesson. In the sitting trot. After the lesson I vowed to up my workout game, I need to be fitter, much fitter. 

We began by working on the connection on a large circle. Tracey wanted my hands to be more still, which I swear they are but every time I come to a lesson she's harping on me about it so I guess I need them to be even more still. She says I keep giving away the inside rein and I know I've been that trainer yelling at a client to stop giving away the contact and they get that "huh??" look on their face, but seriously, I don't feel like I'm giving away the contact. Whatever, she's probably right. 

So much sitting trot

In trot, she still wants his neck lower. I get what she means now though. He retracts at the base of his neck and so while his poll is at a good place, she wants him to let go of the base of his neck a bit more and drape it into my hand vs pushing back and up at me. So we worked to figure out a way for me to push his neck longer without "throwing the contact at him" because that is apparently unacceptable. TC and I are happy to have that dynamic though, we aren't fun haters. 

A lot of it was to get off the outside rein. Apparently I've been riding him way way way too constrained on the outside rein and especially tracking left, I also cross the outside rein over his neck. The moment she pointed that out, I was like OHHHH FUCK OKAY and we had a few circles of me trying to keep my right hand away from his neck but also keep him into my left rein but also keep his right shoulder tracking and also keep his left hind under him and it was just chaos for a bit there. But then he did feel much better. I've learned long ago to just trust Tracey and ride through what feels like the wrong set of aids/alignment until BAM my horse unkinks and steps into both reins evenly. 

We did not canter in our lesson but here's a shot
from the day before!

From there, she had us ride shoulder-in on the circle. I felt slightly proud when she said she only likes to use this exercise for upper level riders and then laughed to myself because I use it for everyone. It's a good exercise though and I felt like it showed some of our holes. TC doesn't love to let me on both sides of him, he's happy if I kind of hang off one side or let one side of him slide out or even just let him get soggy on one side (usually the inside unless we are doing shoulder-in). 

The shoulder-in on the circle was only good if I had both sides of him and it was quite bad if I didn't have him. TC resisted a little bit when I went to put my outside aids on him (but not restricting on the outside rein, it was tricky to get the balance), getting stacked up and pushing back at me. I was to push him into my hand more and then push his neck out and get access to the base of his neck while insisting that the shoulder-in remain a shoulder-in. It was tough! 

I could really feel him sitting better though, and Tracey had me bring him back to straight and add energy/power from my core, which was a new one for me. It immediately made sense though. If you add power with this horse by putting leg on, he often pushes himself off his hindquarters and bumps into the contact, shortening his neck in the process. When I had him on both sides, I could take my core (which was very sad and tired at this point of the lesson) and add more power within the circle of aids instead of just pushing him off the hind legs with my leg. I KNEW this horse was going to be fucking weird in this way. Leg aids with TC are not always helpful, I mostly ride with my leg off of him so it'd make sense that adding power to his gaits is not going to come from my leg. 

So much shoulder-in

To end, we did some shoulder-in down the long sides and up centerline heading right at Tracey. We started with too much angle and me not being able to lengthen his neck and by the end, holy shit. This horse is SO COOL. 

At the end, I stopped and we chatted about how he changed over the course of the lesson. I told her that I felt like normally, I don't find that the lateral work helps him all that much. Like he can do all the lateral work and it looks nice and scores okay, but it doesn't improve the gaits. I told her that with THAT shoulder-in, the one we ended on, I could feel the trot getting better and better and better. The trot became more uphill, he got more on my aids, and best of all, I could feel him SITTING in the trot. That's probably a first, honestly. I was so happy with it.

Best pony, we both got Thursday off

Overall it was a great lesson! Despite not cantering, which I realized after the lesson ended and I looked at my equisense. 

I'm SO glad we are taking this year to work on the basics and stick with Third level. I really want to feel like we own the level and we just didn't get to that point last year. I'm excited to get him feeling really good at this level and to lay the foundation for Fourth level. More on that later though!