Despite the lingering freezing temps and the few and far between days of sun and above 40 temps, I am trying to make the best of it and not be obsessed with when the spring weather will finally decide to make a more than one day appearance.
It rained like mad on Friday, including some great lightning and thunder, which made for a sloppy mess all around the barn on Saturday. And while it didn't really rain on Saturday, the heavy clouds were present and the chill was in the air, making it pretty miserable. But I had a great lesson in spite of it! Shelley felt that it was time to take our last lesson a bit further- we had been asking him to speed up the hind end when going forward, but now we wanted him to speed up the hind end while doing lateral work, AND keep a straight and long neck. J was still not happy with the initial work, so I thought it would be interesting to see what he thought of the added pieces. And he didn't disappoint when he decided that he had to get all four feet off the ground, in a very quick manner, while Shelley was on him. Thankfully he is inherently lazy, so while he was resistant nonetheless, it wasn't out of control crazy. But he eventually got with the program, much to my relief.
When I got on J, Shelley wanted me to confirm that the quick forward response was there, but this time more from small movements of my feet than tappings from my whip and confirm that the half halts were present. Then she had me work on the quarterline (which is mostly what we do anyway) and ask him for a quick half halt and then a quick leg yield, only two or three steps of really "scooting over" quickly (that was the official term- LOL!) and then back straight again. All the while trying to keep a very straight neck and long neck. J was very convinced that it was not possible to do all of this at once and would either respond too slowly when his neck was correct or overbend and shorten his neck when his response to move over was quick. But Shelley instructed me to keep at it, not changing the program and not changing the way I request what I want for he will eventually figure it out. And little by little, he did start figuring it out! We went to the left first and we got it down pretty nicely as his shoulder was really easy to keep straight onto the outside rein, but when we changed rein, everything changed. J inherently likes to keep his left shoulder to the right and not fill up my left rein. So Shelley had me think of a haunches in and basically keep his shoulder on the wall and his head pointing towards the wall while keeping his haunches to the inside by maintaining my seat. Once he was more reliable about keeping his shoulder on the wall, we started to straighten him out, a little at a time, until he was going straight but correctly. Then we did a few leg yields, but only from that correct positioning. He got very tired by then, so we did just a few and then let him cool out. It was a very good lesson and I feel like I am understanding the "bigger picture" in a much better way. Those pathways are really opening up and I can move back and forth between the exercises, depending on what I need to accomplish and what J is giving me to work with. I feel more and more confident in my ability to feel what is going on and have the tools to fix it, which is a big part of the battle!
I went to the barn on Sunday with the entire afternoon to putz around, which is a great feeling. And the sun was out, which definitely helped the day feel a little better then the actual 32 degrees that it was. The horses were able to get turned out after being inside for a couple of days, so that was really nice as well. J was very content and mellow when I brought him back into the barn, I could just feel that his mind was very relaxed after being able to get outside. I gave J a good grooming (he is still shedding out enough hair to cover a hairless cat with each grooming!) and tacked him up. He felt a little sore from yesterday- his back was a bit stiffer and he wasn't bending his hocks as well. I took my time to warm him up and then got to work. He got very fluid, soft and swinging after that. I worked on all of the work we did the past two lessons- asking him to quicken his hind feet to go forward and quicken his hind feet to move laterally, changing it up regularly so he never knew what I was going to ask and couldn't anticipate anything. He had a couple of mini-tantrums but nothing too serious and by the end he was doing some real quality work. We finished up with some decent working canter- canter lengthen- working canter transitions, which is tough for the both of us. I have figured out that I am holding him up too much in the transition back to the working canter and I'm holding the half halt too long. I have to ask for the transition and release with the confidence in him that he will respond. And if he does not respond, I have to address that issue. But if I hold the half halt too long and wait for a response too long, he will ultimately hang on my rein and either get on the forehand or break to the trot. So that was my big light bulb moment of the day yesterday!
There is a wonderful barn worker at White Spring by the name of Megan. She is around 17 years old and the must trustworthy, hardworking and appreciative teenager I know. A few weeks ago I had asked her if she rode horses and she said that she wanted to but it never worked out for her to learn. So I offered to teach her on J and she quickly accepted. So yesterday was her second ride and I have her on the lunge so she could focus on her body position while learning to post the trot and to canter. J was a little lazy, as I had worked him pretty hard, but Megan did a great job and was able to get the posting pretty quickly! She also cantered him quite a bit and her seat improved with each time she tried. She is such a great girl and I was happy that she had such a great time on J!
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