March 17, 2015

A Not-Great Lesson and a Great Ride

I had my third of three lessons on Friday, and I don't know if it was the endless rain on the roof, the other horses in the ring, soreness from his amazing lesson the day before, or just being over the whole boot camp thing, but he was, well, over it.


He just flat out was not interested in any of it.  Despite our best team effort, he wouldn't bend, he wouldn't listen to my seat.  Knowing that that week was a lot for him and he had been so good the day before, my trainer and I gave him the benefit of a doubt and we got to a good place and finished.

Rainy day, spent indoors.

I also had a complete mental breakdown in that lesson.  She asked me to establish shoulder in, then do a walk pirouette into a canter transition, and I just could not figure out how to do it, even though I've done that exact exercise before. Like, I couldn't figure out where to go in the arena, or remember what a walk pirouette was even.  I blame it on not eating enough carbs that day, and it being the end of a very long week of learning the ins and outs of Exchange Server 2013 in class.  At any rate, it wasn't productive.

So he got Saturday off entirely, I purposely didn't even go to the barn.  Instead, I did this (which I usually do anyway):
None of those people are me, for the record.
And this:
I can park in the garage again thanks to my awesome husband!  Also, that's my horse laundry hamper in the background.

 And then Sunday was great!  I focused a lot on shoulder in at the trot as well as my own position, but at the end, I combined two exercises and did the "halt from your seat on a diamond shape with your shopping bag elbows" exercise, and in between I asked for the slow walk in shoulder in.

Outdoor! Love it!

A few of those had him really listening to my seat, and shifting his weight back, and suddenly I got "that feeling" of self-carriage and self-responsibility from him for the entire diamond.  His back felt like a table instead of two sides that drop my hip bones alternately with each step, and my feet felt like they were on the ground, like I was standing still.  I didn't do a thing except ask him for it, and he kept it.

It was a very cool feeling, and I quit shortly after that.  Good pony!

He got to go naked for the afternoon as a reward.  We are finally having some gorgeous weather here!

17 comments:

  1. I need to take your advice and just let go of my "meh" rides too. I think we're all just in a weird place right now!

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    1. Yeah, sometimes you just have to let it go and try again the next day!

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    1. The last one ended up being a bit of a tail glamour shot, I'll admit...

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  3. I've had a couple of those rides recently. I'm learning to just take a walking hack instead of try to push it on those days.

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    1. Yeah. I definitely would have if it weren't raining and it wasn't a lesson. We will probably never have the chance for three lessons in a row again, and rarely even get three rides in a row, so I'm not too concerned about it.

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  4. Sounds like you and Connor had something of an epiphany on Sunday- totally makes up for a less than great ride on Friday!

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  5. An off day happens to the best of us! Totally worth it when it's followed up by an amazing ride.

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  6. I just had a ride like that - here's hoping a couple of days off will give me the same happy pony results you got :)

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  7. aww...glad you had a better ride the next time!

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  8. He's so adorable. It is hard to go from a great lesson to blah.

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  9. Horse laundry hamper in the garage....HOLY GENIUS WHY HAVE I NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS BEFORE?!?!?????

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    1. I wish I had a garage though

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    2. I just want you to know that I laughed SO HARD when I read these two comments. They were perfect together. :) I hope someday you have a garage in which you can put a horse laundry hamper!

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  10. yay riding outdoors!!! definitely the perfect antidote to a ride where everything feels impossible...

    that feeling of his back being like a table instead of dropping side to side with each step sounds really cool - hopefully we'll get there one day too haha

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  11. He's so adorable. It is hard to go from a great lesson to blah.

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  12. Woop sounds fab!
    Must remember that table.image and see if i can work towards feeling something similar!

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