November 18, 2016

Lesson Wrap-Up: Full Training Starting to Pay Dividends

Connor's been in full training now for almost three weeks.  I've only ridden once a week during this time - for my weekly lesson - on purpose.
#badselfies

The first two lessons were...just okay.  But last night, now that he's three weeks into being ridden by my trainer 5x a week, made me realize why I'm paying the extra $$$ this month.

He's getting stronger.  He's getting suppler.  He's getting used to being ridden the right way, which means when I ride him the wrong way, he sends telepathic signals to my trainer that she can read like a billboard, and she calls me out on it.

I literally got to the barn for my lesson, went "...it's animal cruelty to ride him in 70 degree weather with that much hair," and gave him an Irish clip on the spot.  Took about 30 minutes.

The whole way she teaches me is different too.  She's way quicker with her commands and way quicker to call me out both on the good things I'm doing and when I'm doing something she doesn't want me to do.  She almost becomes possessive with training horses, wanting to see them ridden correctly.  Her training style has always been to teach as if she's the one riding, but it's like that times a thousand right now.

Aaaaaand it wasn't enough.  Although it IS 70 degrees.  In November.  In Indiana.  When it was snowing this time last year.  I'm not complaining...kinda.

It's not a bad thing: he was amazing last night.  I am noticing that he's a lot more aware of my aids, and it takes less time to get him in "work mode".  We were switching back and forth between half pass bend/direction in the sitting trot last night, which is amazing, although the right is still our worst direction just like leg yield.  We even made progress in that, though.

So far, so good!

11 comments:

  1. Awesome! And, wow, 70 in November in the Midwest??

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  2. Sounds like you made a great call! So exciting.

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  3. I have been wondering how the full training is going - sounds fantastic!

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  4. So glad the training is working out so well!

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  5. Love this!! C is only in half training, but I definitely think it's helpful for the trainer to have ridden the horse so she knows what is going on under the saddle.

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  6. I really thinks it helps when they can ride the horse!

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  7. Full training opens SUCH doors when you have a good trainer. Yay for awesome progress!

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  8. So jealous of how little hair he has! My pony is SUCH a furry yak right now. I've clipped and where I clipped is already longer than what his hair looks like in those pictures 0-0

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  9. That's great! I'm saving up for some training rides in the spring/summer for Henry :)

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