Cob Jockey

My plan for Thursday was to do my warmup, get him soft, balanced and listening, and quit.  Oh, and walk past everything that could possibly scare him the next day:

Ring familiarization: we do that. Photo credit for all photos in this post: Lisa Brezina (Connor's breeder)

(If you're wondering why it looks like I dressed in the dark, I was supposed to be wearing a white Smartpak shirt, but it was raining almost all day and I didn't want to turn my ride into a wet t-shirt contest.)

Not that our tests were bad, but Thursday was hands down the best ride of the weekend.  I patiently waited for him to relax, and rode as well as I can right now position-wise.  You can tell we're both relaxed in the photos.  He walked down to the Dressage complex a bit up, but he walked back on the buckle - and if you know the KHP, you know that's no small feat for a nervous pony.

I felt like I was wandering into a confessional as Connor and I walked toward my trainer in the open jump field across the road for our first lesson in two weeks.

"So...I feel like I have completely forgotten how to ride since I got back.  Tuesday's ride was not good."

"ME TOO!" my trainer said.  "My first few rides back were weird.  It gets better quickly, though."

Phew.  So I'm not the only one!

Open field jumping from nearly three years ago,.

 
She's moved tons of the stadium jumps out into the open field, so we had lots to play with.  We focused on two things: staying relaxed, and staying balanced. 

Regarding staying relaxed, I noticed that I was tensing up a few strides out from the jump, which made him gain speed and rush it.  I exhaled audibly on the approach and felt like I was hovering above him in a half seat as he took me to fence...and he didn't change his pace, or stutter step.  It felt great!

Happy pony getting some post-ride grazing.

She also had me think about "not letting his head bob so much."  And she commented later that she didn't have to tell me how to do it, she just told me what to do, and I did the right thing through feel. When left to his own devices, every canter stride ends with him REALLY on his forehand, and it feels like riding a dolphin.  If I encourage him to keep his withers more level, he stays balanced...

Not balanced.

...which was the second part of our lesson.  She had me really think about preparing him well in advance of and during turns (on slippery grass), and had me think about "putting our Dressage to work for us" before transitions and during the ride.


Between me staying quiet and also focusing on balance, we had some of the nicest jumping rounds ever.  Smooth, with no hesitation, no wiggling, and only a couple of wonky distances - on a downhill line where the first jump was set diagonally and the second one was straight on.  I mean...I feel like that would get the best of us, right?

Now to get that kind of ride in the ring too!

My trainer said I was one of her most perplexing students last night.  Achievement unlocked!

Perplexing is as perplexing does.

Connor was awesome last Thursday and Saturday (both Dressage rides), and then a complete rat for Tuesday's Dressage ride because Sunday's ride in between there had been a conditioning ride.  It was an honest temper tantrum that I didn't know how to handle, I mean, eventers have to be able to switch gears like that, right?

When Thursday's lesson started out like Tuesday's ride, my trainer correctly diagnosed that I had let him go on his forehand for the conditioning ride, and the temper tantrum (head tossing, turning his entire head and neck to look outside the arena, overreacting to aids, generally being anti-submissive, a horsey 'No, I don't wanna') was in response to being asked to carry himself in a Dressage manner again.

I want my horse to be a willing partner and all, but sometimes you just have to stamp your foot and yell, "CONNOR, YOU'RE GOING TO CLEAN YOUR ROOM NOW!"  Which my trainer helped me achieve through quiet, relaxed 10m circles until the gerbils returned, and he was focused and relaxed from there on.

I let him out for some post-ride rolling afterward.

It was then that she slowly and tactfully (like she could possibly offend me after 3.5 years!) said I was one of her most perplexing students.  On to the lesson!  She said she has a hard time figuring me out, because it would appear that I'm doing everything right, all the right exercises, but there's something holding me back on Connor that doesn't hold her back, so there must be something in my position, and she thought she knew what that was now.

Looking at the trot, she says she thinks I do two things

1) I work too hard.  My fitness works against me, because I am strong enough to do the wrong things easily, where most people would relax.  So when I post, I do a lot of the work for Connor and do not relax my joints and lower back, rather than sitting deeply on Connor and letting him toss me up.  "He's got off easy for too long," she semi-joked.

2) The first direction of my post is actually slightly backward, because I do what my CrossFit trainer would call a "booty wink" or duck butt.  The first motion of my post is my hips tilting forward and going slightly back, before going forward.  I never would have noticed it if she didn't say something.  I'm conducting Connor's energy from his hind feet in the wrong direction by doing this.

She had me halt and post at the halt, and made some major position changes in my post.  It felt like my glutes were firing more, but my lower back was more relaxed.  When we got back to trotting and she corrected me every time I went back to my old ways, Connor moved in a brand new way.  More suspension, less jarring of a motion, and I was able to sit the trot easily.  It was really good, and she was just as delighted with herself for cracking the code as she was with me for getting it.

Who knew, you sit on your horse and your horse sits more too?

Gratuitous adorable tiny Husky picture

From the first fence we jumped in our lesson on Thursday, I felt a difference in the way Connor was leaving the ground.  Mary's lessons had given him the confidence to plant his front feet and take off.

But I had a coming-to-Jesus moment of my own in my lesson which, combined with Mary's "confident man" training for Connor all week, made just as much of a difference.

 It was like my tense seat and legs had been preventing some necessary piece of approach communication before that was now flowing freely between the two of us.  I've never felt him jump so confidently and quietly before.  I focused on staying relaxed all the way to the base of the fence, and it really worked.

This fence flowed like silk.  It was an incredible feeling.

Mary has left, but hopefully her Connor lessons and the relaxed canter feeling will stay with us for a long time to come.

And now, after getting ridden five days in a row for probably the first time since I've had him, Connor is getting a well deserved Saturday off and Sunday hack!