A Talented Worm. A Lesson Story.

Much wet, much miserable.

True to my fashion of lessoning, I haven't had a lesson for a few months. I tend to get in the lesson line when I am stuck or just need new ideas. Obviously at Solo's age there are lots of ideas and explaining them take a couple rides. No lack of content here.

Sunday rolled around and there was a slot open on lesson day with my old dressage coach S. I find S to be really perceptive of what the young horses are thinking and how to explain in ABC's rather than skipping to lmnop....etc. She also has a talent for picking up on underlying issues rather than ignoring and keep pushing on. Ie. She is very technical like I am.

Though, sometimes she leaves me in the dust when she rants on and it takes me more time than the horse to get it lol.

Anyhow. I started the lesson with a rundown of what has been going on with So, what we work on, what I have been feeling, what I think etc etc.

S watched us do our usual warmup. Loose and stretchy work, getting So to move out while winding our way about the arena.

Today the wind was howling, the rain was pouring and everything was getting the dirty baby horse eyeball. Even as he kicked up some sand and it hit the mounting block he blamed me.

I have developed techniques with So. As long as he is wondering what the heck I am doing, he won't spook. Now I carry a whip with me and give it a jiggle on the opposite side of the fear factor.

So much for my explanation of my cool cucumber three year old. Haha.

S quickly discovered what I was feeling. I just couldn't feel the connection coming through. It came and went, mostly went and felt like it would come from the hind and fly out the shoulder.

S watched and blurted, So is a very talented worm. He is tracking straight, tracking up and has quite a nice swing BUT he is riding in haunches in to the left and shoulder in to the right.

Straightness issues are hard.... Sigh.

We worked most of the lesson explaining how to move your barrel away from the leg without surging forward or getting tense. Doing shallow serpentines on the quarter line, asking for two steps moving over our barrel left then right and so on. It took quite awhile but I could feel his hind legs begin to stride deeper and lift.  We tried this in the trot too, but with only leg, no rein so he didn't dive and only rein to catch the jog as he mixed the signals up.

Then we proceeded on a 30m circle in trot. Thinking not more forward, we have lots of that but haunches out a bit, so every time we 'wormed' he had to bring his haunches in line rather than bring shoulder in line. S explained that both have a straightening effect and neither are wrong but this is to help So build strength behind and get thinking more of his inside hind.

This was very hard. As I did the tiniest bump with my inside leg to move his haunches, So automatically jumped forward. Good but not what I am asking. We struggled with the mixed signals for much of the ride until I got very good at catching the forward with my outside rein before he even knew it was happening, but then softened quickly so he didn't bulge his shoulder and take too much outside rein, leaning on me.

However when I felt the correction it was amazing. The swing and flow that came through picked me up softly in every post and it felt like floating.... For like three strides.... Humph!

Overall it was a great lesson. So wasn't overly tired but more brain fried by the end so he's getting a few days to horse now....while I hibernate from the rain.