whoa damnit!

I recently took the stirrups off my saddle because I am apparently retarded at sitting the trot if my feet are in stirrups. I tried lowering them, raising, them, and then gave up and got rid of them. Since Lily is so hot, she does not require a lot of leg, and because I lunge her before getting on (to let her back loosen), I generally just sit while riding other than stretchy circles. However, also because she is a hot horse, this can make things very interesting when she decides to be explosive in her canter transitions, and hop up and down (not bucking, just tiny super bouncy strides), in the canter. Due to all these factors, I decided to pick a fairly slow-paced goal for the day: I wanted to feel like I could halt at any moment when I was riding; and not because I could just haul on the reins.

Lily was pretty good when I lunged her, for some reason she is always a little more silly going to the right. She does little things such as pretending she doesn't know what the word, "out" with the lunge whip pointed at her shoulder means even though she listened perfectly going the other way. But, I got a nice canter both ways, and she was starting to stretch down in the trot, so I got on. From driving Lily got an excellent base in her voice commands, which I try to always reinforce. So, while walking I tightened my back, braced a little against her, and said, "whoa". I then followed with a small rein cue to help enforce the idea. I praised her and backed her up a few steps, which she was not happy about. Well, 10min later she had finally caught onto the idea and I could get a nice square halt just using my seat and back. I also continued to ask for a rein-back if the halt was not responsive enough.

When I went to ask for the trot, it was amazing. The other person in the ring looked over and said, "that's the most relaxed I've ever seen her, and she's really using her hind-end" bingo! I did the same thing in the trot: I tightened my back, braced against her motion, and said, "whoa" with a rein cue to help with any confusion. It was bliss. She was totally on my aides, not running, relaxed in her back and poll. We then had a near disaster. As I was in the middle of the ring on a 20meter circle, the other person in the ring started clucking at their horse. Lily latched on to it, put her head straight in the air and pretended like I asked her to canter. While doing so she tightened her back so much she almost popped me straight up and out of the saddle. I brought her back to halt stroked her neck, and waited for her head to drop thus telling me she was relaxed. We never really got it all the way back.

I attempted a canter, but with out stirrups I cling a little too much with my leg because she gets so stiff and a bit hard to stay with, which means she is not at all comfortable with the amount of leg I use. I got a stride or two of a decent, round canter, but lost it and decided we were better off working on the trot. Of course since she had gotten to canter she was completely revved-up: jiggy, tight, and wanting nothing to do with bending. Back to the walk it was. We did some leg-yielding (with-out running), spiral-in and spiral out, and then one of the best exercises my trainer M has given me: shoulder-in on a circle.

Now, I consider myself a fairly coordinated person while on a horse. The first time I tried to do this I couldn't figure out which way was up. M had to break it down to super baby steps for me: bend the horse to the inside, ask the haunches to step out, and half-halt with your outside hand. Once Lily figured out what I was asking her body to do, I was able to start asking her shoulders to come in and keep her haunches on their track. Because this exercise keeps you going in a few different directions at once Lily is thinking so much she forgets to fight my half-halts, it's wonderful! It also really engages her inside hind leg and gets her stepping through her back more. And once you can coordinate this, shoulder-in down the long side in a piece of cake!

So, after a good 15 minutes of trying to relax after cantering, I finally got a decent trot back. She was listening to my aides, bending, and really on my back. I got a beautiful shoulder-in down the long side, and asked for a halt. For some reason Lily thought the halt might be optional. So we did a rein-back, picked the trot up and tried again, it was perfect. She was listening, quiet, kept a good connection, and didn't just fall onto her forehand. I dropped the reins and called it quits. I had accomplished the three most important things while working a horse: 1. keep yourself safe, 2. keep the horse safe, and 3. end with the horse more relaxed then when you started.