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Mar. 1st, 2009 03:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI took the red idiot out for a spin this morning. The weater wasn't too bad -- still and cold but nothing arctic. She does not come out of the field exactly ready-to-work so I ran her through some rope tricks (Omg, rope tricks are such damn review for her.) before I hopped aboard and went across the field to see what I could get done in the hayfield. Even with that little warmup, she takes about ten, fifteen minutes of riding to get on board with the whole work-for-a-living thing. The first ten minutes are spent rushing and not listening very well and being tight and stuff. I don't address any new material or review any tough stuff until she can do "known" material easily and smoothly. There's no point trying to teach new if she can't do old without a hassle but when she's ready to work, she learns new stuff pretty quickly.
Even so, it was a pretty good day. I worked on bending left and right, on connection and contact with the bit. I worked on left bend and right bend, on as much lateral work as we have, on spiralling out a small circle to a bigger one (and vice-versa), on back-up-and-trot-off, on extending to a bigger trot without falling onto the forehand, on transitions (an ongoing issue upward or downward is that she gets head-high and tight. I need to work on pre-cues and staying relaxed and she did show some improvement today.), on 180-turns on the hq. It was a good outing with some pretty impressive progress in spots and no major blowups or arguments. I felt good about what I covered and about how she was working for me.
Nick settled down after the first bit (expected -- this is how she rolls) and gave me a solid and useful effort without much difficulty for the next half hour. (It's still winter and cold. She's furry, I'm out of shape. We don't do tons in the wintertime.) On the equitation front (legs and stuff), I did pretty well at staying in position. At least I can now feel my legs sliding forward and going into Bad User position. Sometimes I can even stop them from doing that before they get truly wrong. My hands managed to hash out something resembling a useful contact for more than half of the ride but I do want a ground-watching person to help me with that. I'd also like some damn video of me to see what things look like from the ground. (When the weather gets better, I'll see if I can convince Bethy to make with the videoing.)
One thing that I noticed, sort of chagrined, was that now that my horse's lateral mojo is coming online in a nearly-useful and semi-pro sort of way, she cares rather a lot if I am riding straight or not. If I'm not straight (Bad User!), she is now crooked because I have explained to her that my straightness or lack thereof has *meaning*. (Holy Law of Unintended Consequences, Batman!) To get her straight, I now have to be pretty close to straight myself... but on the plus side, I can correct her easily by putting weight on both seatbones (I'm soft to the left, almost all the time) and touching the "out" part of her (left barrel, usually) with a calf muscle. It's pretty subtle and a lot finer granularity of control than I used to have.
Even so, it was a pretty good day. I worked on bending left and right, on connection and contact with the bit. I worked on left bend and right bend, on as much lateral work as we have, on spiralling out a small circle to a bigger one (and vice-versa), on back-up-and-trot-off, on extending to a bigger trot without falling onto the forehand, on transitions (an ongoing issue upward or downward is that she gets head-high and tight. I need to work on pre-cues and staying relaxed and she did show some improvement today.), on 180-turns on the hq. It was a good outing with some pretty impressive progress in spots and no major blowups or arguments. I felt good about what I covered and about how she was working for me.
Nick settled down after the first bit (expected -- this is how she rolls) and gave me a solid and useful effort without much difficulty for the next half hour. (It's still winter and cold. She's furry, I'm out of shape. We don't do tons in the wintertime.) On the equitation front (legs and stuff), I did pretty well at staying in position. At least I can now feel my legs sliding forward and going into Bad User position. Sometimes I can even stop them from doing that before they get truly wrong. My hands managed to hash out something resembling a useful contact for more than half of the ride but I do want a ground-watching person to help me with that. I'd also like some damn video of me to see what things look like from the ground. (When the weather gets better, I'll see if I can convince Bethy to make with the videoing.)
One thing that I noticed, sort of chagrined, was that now that my horse's lateral mojo is coming online in a nearly-useful and semi-pro sort of way, she cares rather a lot if I am riding straight or not. If I'm not straight (Bad User!), she is now crooked because I have explained to her that my straightness or lack thereof has *meaning*. (Holy Law of Unintended Consequences, Batman!) To get her straight, I now have to be pretty close to straight myself... but on the plus side, I can correct her easily by putting weight on both seatbones (I'm soft to the left, almost all the time) and touching the "out" part of her (left barrel, usually) with a calf muscle. It's pretty subtle and a lot finer granularity of control than I used to have.
