Cob Jockey

Warning: I had a hard time processing last night's lesson, so this is unusually wordy and devoid of pictures.  This is my brain on paper.  TL;DR: Rode from my core without stirrups and cool things happened.

Connor started out flat and lethargic for my lesson.  My trainer asked to see a few trot-walk-trot transitions, and mentioned that it looked like he was moving off my leg fine, but his hind end wasn't connected to the front end, or my core.  So the rest of the lesson was about core control, because (we've heard this before) he needs to be very in tune with my core so that the other aids are free to do other things besides keep him from getting flat and runny.

I've talked before about how I do/my trainer asks for very little no-stirrups work, and when we do drop our stirrups, it's always as a means to an end.  Almost all of last night's lesson was no stirrups work so that I was sitting more evenly and not bracing with that right leg, since weight and core were the focus.

Early morning chores from a few weeks ago

"We need to set the tone of the trot from the transition.  I feel like he gets out in front of you most of the time and races off."

To work on that, we asked for walk-trot transitions by lifting my hips and core up and forward.  As I understood what she said, in the walk, the rider's hips are sliding back and forth, but when you ask for the trot like this, suddenly that motion changes because you lengthen the muscles on the front of your body and lift both hips forward.  I was to "just keep the leg there" and if he didn't respond to the hip/core change, to bump him gently with my legs to be like "Hey, you were supposed to do something there!"

It took many many tries, and we had to gradually lessen the leg aids, but finally we got one transition where it almost felt like he sat down and then hesitated as he moved into this beautiful compressed trot.  The next one after that went back to being mediocre, but hey!  I felt what it was supposed to feel like.

Next up was canter transitions using my core.  I was to slide my inside hip forward and lengthen my inside ribcage (or "lift the inside boob!") to ask for the canter.  It was interesting to feel what else happened when I slid my inside hip forward, and why that gets translated into "outside leg".  The transition was a lot more "up" when I asked with the sliding inside hip.

Finally, we did figure 8's at the sitting trot, no stirrups.  By this point I was getting more relaxed through my body with the no stirrups work (or was that fatigue?!)  and I was really sitting with his motion.  The most interesting "new feeling" of the day was when she told me to push the new inside hip forward as we changed the bend and moved onto the new direction's circle in the middle of the figure 8.  He was so smooth with the bend change when I did that, and more balanced/less motorcycley with his body.  She explained why that happened when I was doing it, but I was so distracted with the feeling that I can't remember what she said.

At my lesson tonight, my trainer asked how my practice rides went this weekend.  I told her about riding bareback in order to feel myself using my body unequally, cantering bareback and how much that helped me when I went back to riding in a saddle on Sunday.  Intrigued, she had me drop my stirrups at the very beginning of the lesson and I ended up never picking them back up during another spectacular lesson.

Connor pre-lesson, untethered and falling asleep in the wash rack.

This wasn't a physical fitness challenge.  Taking my stirrups away took away my ability to brace against something and contort my body into strange shapes while asking for the lateral stuff.  It also made it very obvious that I brace in both stirrups when doing a downward transition, causing him to fall out from under me rather than rise up under me. She had me keep my calves on him, and to do that I had to hold my legs where they normally would be in stirrups. This revealed that I like to keep my leg off of him, as a result of him liking to shoot forward when I try to put a different leg aid on him (lateral or holding).  When I kept my inside leg on him while I had the outside rein, boom, instant connection.  I would never have realized that in stirrups.

She also had me work on being "lazier" with my body.  She asked me to sit longer on him at the trot, and he responded by sitting down and really engaging with his hind end.  We got the same quality of trot that we got out in the field in the indoor, and then some.  "He is really moving totally differently!" my trainer said.  I focused on engaging my core, but relaxing my lower back, and also letting my elbows feel heavy so that my hands could raise and encourage him to stay up with me.

Yes, that is a curved line that should be straight.  Can I call it 'art'?

I also had a revelatory moment with trot transitions, in which she pointed out that I was...busy...with my upper body during the upward transition, causing him to shoot forward.  When I stilled my upper body (I still don't know how I was active, though I definitely felt a difference when I thought "still") he moved off quietly and roundly into a trot with magnificent impulsion.

Finally, we ended at the canter, and he was so on the bit at this point that he made my job easy.  I asked for a leg yield just before the transition, and had him so well packaged that several times he stepped into a wonderful canter.  He then promptly lost it within a few strides, but hey, that's the first step, right?  He would also get it back right at the end when I first thought about bringing him back to the walk.  Note to self, for future lessons: think walk, continue cantering.

I feel giddy.  I love this pony so much!  The best part, honestly, is that he is so happy doing the work and he's willingly offering everything to me.  He's got that sparkle back.