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Oct. 26th, 2017 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickPunch and day 6 of the streak. I had to find my riding gloves (I typically ride naked-handed in the warmer months because they’re arabs. If you need gloves b/c of the amount of rein pulling… look, that is not an Arab problem but maybe your horse should listen better to your rein aids and not hang on your hands so much? If you LIKE gloves, then by all means wear them.) because it is for real getting cool out there and my middle-aged hands stiffen up in the cold.
Down into the holler, halfway up (still archery season), down, halfway up again, and then back out. All of that was in a sedate walk, with lots of halt-n-stand or halt-n-back efforts, also some leg yields and an introduction to half-halting. (Act like maybe you’re gonna halt but not really, get that weight-hesitation, then cue for something. Right now it’s “ask for leg yield” or “ask for walk to trot transition” because those are the only things we have that work well and unstressfully. The goal here is to get Punch thinking that a half-halt aid frequently means Something Is About To Happen so that she takes them seriously as the Thing before the Thing. We’ll see how this goes.)
On the flat we did trot circles and trot figures of eight and trot serpentines and trot over the ground pole and walk-trot-walk-trot stuff. There was a lot of trotting. A lot. Some of it was pretty good. She still gets tense in more-extensive trot efforts (like, more than ten steps as a time, not “extended” or anything) and it’s not super easy to bring her back without a transition or do-over. Some of it is exposure. Some is strength. Some is figuring out what the hell is up with the contact thing. I’m working on it and trying to give her the best feel that I can for how to be not-worried.
Overall, relaxation continues to improve. Trot departures are getting better. Brakes are getting better. The halt is way better. We are making forward progress.
I also asked her for canter today, both directions. It’s a little early, fitness-wise, but I was just asking and not planning on being upset or nasty about any effort in the cantering department no matter how craptacular it was. There was cantering in both directions, like three or four steps each before she broke back to trot. She pinned her ears and snaked her neck out and sped up a lot before the canter steps, which tells me she doesn’t feel good about that yet. I told her she was good anyway and we relaxed right away back down into walking on a looser rein.
Punch needs fitness and muscle to be able to canter well with me. She needs to feel balanced with a rider. And also she needs to feel OK that I’m not going to hang on her face or get tight or be a bad partner in our cantering even if it sucks. So, beginner canter efforts are graded on a sliding scale where anything that includes any amount of non-bucking canter steps is a win, GOOD JOB, with a gradual and soft downward to walk transition. The kid got real tight and hung on her face and it was just ugly. I have to undo that by not-doing-that and by giving her peace and comfort so that she can slow down. Spirals, relaxed seat, not bracing, not balancing on reins, elastic contact that talks and not rigid contact that pulls. But, we have to start somewhere and here is where we started.
Down into the holler, halfway up (still archery season), down, halfway up again, and then back out. All of that was in a sedate walk, with lots of halt-n-stand or halt-n-back efforts, also some leg yields and an introduction to half-halting. (Act like maybe you’re gonna halt but not really, get that weight-hesitation, then cue for something. Right now it’s “ask for leg yield” or “ask for walk to trot transition” because those are the only things we have that work well and unstressfully. The goal here is to get Punch thinking that a half-halt aid frequently means Something Is About To Happen so that she takes them seriously as the Thing before the Thing. We’ll see how this goes.)
On the flat we did trot circles and trot figures of eight and trot serpentines and trot over the ground pole and walk-trot-walk-trot stuff. There was a lot of trotting. A lot. Some of it was pretty good. She still gets tense in more-extensive trot efforts (like, more than ten steps as a time, not “extended” or anything) and it’s not super easy to bring her back without a transition or do-over. Some of it is exposure. Some is strength. Some is figuring out what the hell is up with the contact thing. I’m working on it and trying to give her the best feel that I can for how to be not-worried.
Overall, relaxation continues to improve. Trot departures are getting better. Brakes are getting better. The halt is way better. We are making forward progress.
I also asked her for canter today, both directions. It’s a little early, fitness-wise, but I was just asking and not planning on being upset or nasty about any effort in the cantering department no matter how craptacular it was. There was cantering in both directions, like three or four steps each before she broke back to trot. She pinned her ears and snaked her neck out and sped up a lot before the canter steps, which tells me she doesn’t feel good about that yet. I told her she was good anyway and we relaxed right away back down into walking on a looser rein.
Punch needs fitness and muscle to be able to canter well with me. She needs to feel balanced with a rider. And also she needs to feel OK that I’m not going to hang on her face or get tight or be a bad partner in our cantering even if it sucks. So, beginner canter efforts are graded on a sliding scale where anything that includes any amount of non-bucking canter steps is a win, GOOD JOB, with a gradual and soft downward to walk transition. The kid got real tight and hung on her face and it was just ugly. I have to undo that by not-doing-that and by giving her peace and comfort so that she can slow down. Spirals, relaxed seat, not bracing, not balancing on reins, elastic contact that talks and not rigid contact that pulls. But, we have to start somewhere and here is where we started.
