Cob Jockey

I have no media from my second National Drive lesson since Mary couldn't be there, but fortunately for you all I had a near duplicate of that lesson this week at home, so we're going to combine the two.

Home instructor looking over my work. All photos courtesy of Leah.

There's a driver's meeting every morning at 8:30am, so when I saw an 8am slot open on Joanna's schedule, I grabbed it. I guessed that there'd be no other horses out to distract Disco during the meeting, and, having already had a "working through getting his focus" lesson, I really wanted a different kind of productivity for the second.

I was right, and Disco was SO good. We had his focus from the very beginning, and Joanna was able to cover so much ground with me.

We spent more than half the lesson at the trot on the driving equivalent of a 20m circle, which was the first time I had really trotted him for a continuous amount of time in the cart. 

She was also able to drop some wisdom about how my cart fits me (as good as anything off the rack will, but I need some seat adjustments), how to use the whip (never for going forward if you can help it, only for bending, and never on the horse's back) and inside rein vs outside rein in turning (juuuuuuust like in Dressage).

It just worked out that my home trainer was also able to give me a lesson a couple weeks after The Drive. Last time she saw me before Christmas, I was in the wooden cart, my lessons were mostly at the walk, and I still felt overwhelmed by driving.

This time? 

We leveled up the work significantly and ended up doing trot serpentines! 

For whatever reason these videos' frame rates aren't playing nice with the GIF editor, but just imagine it at normal speed.

Things feel like they come up very fast in the cart and the indoor, so the trot serpentines felt like they were a lot to manage at first. Just like in riding, you can't just yank them from one turn to the next, you have to have clear aids and at least a couple of straight strides in the middle before you change the bend.

We also worked on pace and obedience. He's getting a LOT less sticky about up transitions than when this instructor last saw us, but of course now she wants more. 

We did a lot of transitions - a LOT of transitions - including starting to ask for transitions within the gaits. For the first time, I pushed him for a very big trot, and started to feel a glimmer of that big swing I've started to feel under saddle. With him, his default is this low-energy mincing pony trot, but you know there's more in there when you see it.

She pointed out, as did Joanna, that he's educated enough in the contact to start learning that the reins are for more than turning and stopping. I would ask for a half halt, for example, or for him to soften to the bit, and he would stop. 

This is something I need to start working on under saddle too, but I've been erring on the side of caution given my complicated relationship with contact over the years.

For the first time ever, I felt totally comfortable driving, even at speed. I enjoyed the heck out of that lesson, and was smiling most of the time. It's such a hard challenge to be a complete beginner at something that feels so foreign, but I feel like I'm getting there with it. 

This lesson was a great roadmap for the next few months and gave me lots of things to work on, although I hope to have her back out sooner than that!