Friday, February 19, 2016

After the best ride ever…

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- We are no longer in the dark! -

Yes, there have been many other rides after that amazing, epic, lesson of awesomeness. After all, it has been a month since that ride!

But for the first week I didn’t ride at all because I was petrified I would stuff up everything Copper learned about giving to the aids, and that I’d ruin him forever!

It’s the first time I’ve felt that, and it kept me off his back for five days…. Then I gathered up my courage and tried it by myself. Except I was sort of cheating, because my instructor was back giving lessons, and I got to share the arena with him and his pupil, so he did actually keep an eye on me. Though I think he probably thought I was a bit silly for not riding my horse for a week because I was scared to wreck him!

He did say at the end of my ride that we had thoroughly grasped the concepts we’d been working on, and that he was pleased with the quality of Copper’s walk and trot work. He thought it was good! Which sent me into silent squeals of excitement - naturally….

Since then, I don’t know if we’ve progressed much - it’s hard to tell as we are trying to find a new balance for the both of us. Where do I carry my hands? Too high - very messy, too low - Copper will dump a shoulder, or both, and lose his balance.

Though once or twice when that’s happened, I’ve actually been able to gently lift my rein and pick his shoulder back up with it, which is just… (O_______o)!!   

I have never been able to do that before!

The finding-a-new-balance thing also translating to odd moments in the trot. Yes, it is way better than it’s ever been - Copper is actually legitimately lifting and working over his back; which is a HUGE deal for an ex-trotter.

But it’s also… odd. Sometimes he feels very heavy in the contact, and I have to get used to how bouncy his stride has become! Dare I say it – he might actually be learning how to get some suspension in his gait!

The canter has also been better, but at the same time, it has been weaker because it is much harder to maintain the balance and the lift through the gait.

It’s all been a very interesting learning curve – and funny when Copper discovered that a counter-shoulder in exercise preformed correctly was HARD.

He just stopped at the wall and tossed his head like “Nope. No. No. No, Nope…” He actually tossed his head so much he bonked his nose and startled himself, the daft wee ninny.

I had to get off and remind him that over was over, and he had to go sidewise if I asked him to. He gave in, and we did regain the sideways movement again, but yeesh. He is definitely not happy about doing those exercises for too long!

I’ve sort of backed off – we used to do them all the way down the long side, but now I’m being nice and only asking for them about two-thirds of the way down the long side, so that he only preforms the movement for approximately one third of the arena.

I’m doing this until I can talk to my instructor again as I really don’t want to get into a battle when I’m not sure of the best way to go about getting the results I need to. I don’t wear spurs, and perhaps I need to, but I’ll ask about that as well at my next lesson.

I also have to be sure that I’m not asking for them incorrectly. Which I don’t think I am, as he will do them for the one-third length of the long side, but refuses for the full length of the long side. So there’s that, but I still want to check anyway.

This is all very new, and I’m uncertain half the time if I’m getting it right, but I do know that help is now available, and slowly but surely, I believe we will get it together.

At least we are no longer in the dark!

See ya,

bonita

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