At A, halt and catch fire.
Aug. 10th, 2023 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickDLB comes back next week. I've happily gotten some rides in (better air quality, better fitness, less brutality in the heat department) and I feel like I'm in a better place for that than last time.
I mean, the horse trailer is paid off for right now and baby horse is paid off and the money is just sitting there...
If not now, when?
So at lesson last night, Mystic (the normal lesson pony) was busy with her other usual rider (In August, the kiddos can smell the onset of the school year and are busily riding all the damn time as the remainder of summer dwindles). Instead of Mystic I got Tara. I don't ride Tara often, and usually when I do it is for #reasons that I only ever suspect and do not actually have proof of.
(If you are suspiciously giving the side eye like the side eye monkey meme, why are you still lessoning at this barn and with this instructor?
Good question! Because (a) I learn things anyway, in spite of the side eye factor and (b) there are not a ton of other options in Greater Rednecklandia and (c) this is the least shitty of the available options and (d) we are not letting the perfect be the enemy of the "good enough" over here.)
So there is Tara. Tara is fine, if heavy in the hand. My ring fingers got blisters. (I do not wear gloves. I do not think that there should be enough... weight in my hands for me to need to wear gloves. Like, I don't think I should have to haul and/or hold enough to cause wear-n-tear on my damn finger skin during a 45 minute ride. If that's your day-to-day ride experience, effing learn to do better.) I get that she's a Tb/Clyde cross. She is a chonk. But that doesn't mean she can't learn to be lighter in the hand. I... yeah, there's that side eye again.
All the lesson kids are sitting at the picnic table in the shade on the hill above the ring, watching, because of course they are. I really enjoy failing in front of skinny tweenagers. It's my favorite.
Tara and I warm up with some basic laterals. They are fine. Tara laterals and I have ridden her before (see link) so we're all on the same page here. Leg yields, shoulder-ins, haunches-ins, transitions through movement (being in shoulder-in in walk, pick up trot without losing shoulder-in), etc. Once warmed up, which takes a while because Tara is 25 and starts off stiff on the driver's side hind, we do a few extended-ish trots which start off not-great but do shape up once I figure out what I'm doing.
And then we go to play walk-canter. That is lovely. Instructor comments that it is lovely. Specifically lovely. Wow, she says.
Look. To have lovely walk-canter you need two things. First thing is you need a "go canter" cue that the horse understands without confusion. Second thing is you need a legit decent walk. You cannot be there slopping along in a shit walk and expect your horse to hand over a light, prompt canter departure from the shit walk. That's not even remotely fair. Buff the walk. Gather up the walk.
It needs energy, needs abs engaged, needs horse attentive and ready. Organize the walk, get your ducks in a row. As soon as the walk is "good enough" your canter will be right there for the taking.
The primary difficulty for students learning walk-canter is figuring out how much organization the walk needs, learning how to organize the walk, and learning how to TELL/FEEL when the walk is "a walk that can be cantered from". Like that's the hard part. It's not "put your leg here, lift with inside seatbone, slight bend, blah blah". It's get the walk that can be cantered from and be able to tell when you have it that is the hard part.
Anyway, the walk-canters are delightful and instructor is pleased about this. Nice.
Now we are supposed to canter-walk. Ooh, yeah, that's ... that's... that's not happening. I understand the IDEA of canter-walk but I can't shape the canter enough to make it possible. Tara can DO canter-walk, but I can't get it out of her. I just don't have enough... clue? Skills? I feel like a short person trying to reach the high cupboard shelf. I can see it, but I can't get there. We're about to the last ten minutes or so of lesson. I don't wear a watch, but I have a pretty good head clock and we're getting on in the lesson.
So then instructor is... "Right, so now walk, canter, keep the canter tidy and organized, and "be ready" as you come around the short side." I'm... "Ready for what?" but by then we are at K and instructor is "Okay, at A pirouette."
I have like five strides of canter, maybe (Tara is pretty good-sized and even packaged up, she doesn't take forever to make that corner) to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do at A.
Now, we had not previously discussed pirouette. This just came out of nowhere. There was no discussion of aids. I didn't get a list of do's and don't's. No "As you know, Bob, pirouette is a further development of lateral work blah blah blah". No theory, no previewing, no how-to advice.
"At A, pirouette." I've got maybe five strides to come up with a plan for pirouette, like, how you'd ask for one and what all is needed and etc. That went about as well as you might expect, which is to say "lolnope".
Having never pirouetted before and having no idea of how on earth one is supposed to pirouette and with five strides to develop a plan for maybe-pirouetting, I DID NOT (shocker!!) pirouette very well. I mean, I did sit Tara back a bit more on her butt and we did manage a 90 degree turn onto centerline with not a whole lot of forward movement. It was an effort that I'd call on the road to a pirouette or in the general direction of a pirouette but also a thing that was in no way at all an actual pirouette.
At this point you might reasonably expect some instructor input to take place. "Okay, well, that was a good try. I wanted to see what your thinking and riding were like in your approach to this movement and you have the right idea here, but... (do thing) and (do other thing) and (blah blah). Try it again, same lead."
You might very well expect that.
I got "Okay, try it again, same lead." (In my mind I am going "Where is the instruction part? Don't I get instructions?") Because I knew what the plan was before K, this time was slightly less shitshow. Still not a pirouette, but a tidier failure. We repeated this a couple of times on various leads, with tidier failures and not-quite-the-things but still not any actual directions. And then Tara was out of abs and kinda deflated, which was totally fair, and we were out of time anyway.
Anyway, so why was I riding Tara in front of all the lesson tweens?
First, Mystic shouldn't have to run two back to back lessons. That's fair.
Second, instructor wanted to see how "confirmed" Tara was on the pirouette issue. Tara does them (sorta, they flatten as they go, but this is an issue for many many riders with the pirouette) for Instructor, but does she do them for other riders? Let's see!
Third, tweens were incidental. It's just the time of year for them to be excessively present before school starts up. It's not always about me.
Fourth, I think instructor was maybe going for "try pirouette to see if rider can rack canter back enough, get a feel for the amount of hold in the canter needed for canter-walk". Be a lot more helpful if she'd say that, though.
There is going to be some independent study here. Sorry, Birb. It's gonna suck for a while, dude. We might not be able to canter pirouette but we are for damn fucking sure going to figure out how to do it in walk and trot. Apparently I am going to have to independent study my way to clarity on this shit. *sigh*
I mean, the horse trailer is paid off for right now and baby horse is paid off and the money is just sitting there...
If not now, when?
So at lesson last night, Mystic (the normal lesson pony) was busy with her other usual rider (In August, the kiddos can smell the onset of the school year and are busily riding all the damn time as the remainder of summer dwindles). Instead of Mystic I got Tara. I don't ride Tara often, and usually when I do it is for #reasons that I only ever suspect and do not actually have proof of.
(If you are suspiciously giving the side eye like the side eye monkey meme, why are you still lessoning at this barn and with this instructor?
Good question! Because (a) I learn things anyway, in spite of the side eye factor and (b) there are not a ton of other options in Greater Rednecklandia and (c) this is the least shitty of the available options and (d) we are not letting the perfect be the enemy of the "good enough" over here.)
So there is Tara. Tara is fine, if heavy in the hand. My ring fingers got blisters. (I do not wear gloves. I do not think that there should be enough... weight in my hands for me to need to wear gloves. Like, I don't think I should have to haul and/or hold enough to cause wear-n-tear on my damn finger skin during a 45 minute ride. If that's your day-to-day ride experience, effing learn to do better.) I get that she's a Tb/Clyde cross. She is a chonk. But that doesn't mean she can't learn to be lighter in the hand. I... yeah, there's that side eye again.
All the lesson kids are sitting at the picnic table in the shade on the hill above the ring, watching, because of course they are. I really enjoy failing in front of skinny tweenagers. It's my favorite.
Tara and I warm up with some basic laterals. They are fine. Tara laterals and I have ridden her before (see link) so we're all on the same page here. Leg yields, shoulder-ins, haunches-ins, transitions through movement (being in shoulder-in in walk, pick up trot without losing shoulder-in), etc. Once warmed up, which takes a while because Tara is 25 and starts off stiff on the driver's side hind, we do a few extended-ish trots which start off not-great but do shape up once I figure out what I'm doing.
And then we go to play walk-canter. That is lovely. Instructor comments that it is lovely. Specifically lovely. Wow, she says.
Look. To have lovely walk-canter you need two things. First thing is you need a "go canter" cue that the horse understands without confusion. Second thing is you need a legit decent walk. You cannot be there slopping along in a shit walk and expect your horse to hand over a light, prompt canter departure from the shit walk. That's not even remotely fair. Buff the walk. Gather up the walk.
It needs energy, needs abs engaged, needs horse attentive and ready. Organize the walk, get your ducks in a row. As soon as the walk is "good enough" your canter will be right there for the taking.
The primary difficulty for students learning walk-canter is figuring out how much organization the walk needs, learning how to organize the walk, and learning how to TELL/FEEL when the walk is "a walk that can be cantered from". Like that's the hard part. It's not "put your leg here, lift with inside seatbone, slight bend, blah blah". It's get the walk that can be cantered from and be able to tell when you have it that is the hard part.
Anyway, the walk-canters are delightful and instructor is pleased about this. Nice.
Now we are supposed to canter-walk. Ooh, yeah, that's ... that's... that's not happening. I understand the IDEA of canter-walk but I can't shape the canter enough to make it possible. Tara can DO canter-walk, but I can't get it out of her. I just don't have enough... clue? Skills? I feel like a short person trying to reach the high cupboard shelf. I can see it, but I can't get there. We're about to the last ten minutes or so of lesson. I don't wear a watch, but I have a pretty good head clock and we're getting on in the lesson.
So then instructor is... "Right, so now walk, canter, keep the canter tidy and organized, and "be ready" as you come around the short side." I'm... "Ready for what?" but by then we are at K and instructor is "Okay, at A pirouette."
I have like five strides of canter, maybe (Tara is pretty good-sized and even packaged up, she doesn't take forever to make that corner) to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do at A.
Now, we had not previously discussed pirouette. This just came out of nowhere. There was no discussion of aids. I didn't get a list of do's and don't's. No "As you know, Bob, pirouette is a further development of lateral work blah blah blah". No theory, no previewing, no how-to advice.
"At A, pirouette." I've got maybe five strides to come up with a plan for pirouette, like, how you'd ask for one and what all is needed and etc. That went about as well as you might expect, which is to say "lolnope".
Having never pirouetted before and having no idea of how on earth one is supposed to pirouette and with five strides to develop a plan for maybe-pirouetting, I DID NOT (shocker!!) pirouette very well. I mean, I did sit Tara back a bit more on her butt and we did manage a 90 degree turn onto centerline with not a whole lot of forward movement. It was an effort that I'd call on the road to a pirouette or in the general direction of a pirouette but also a thing that was in no way at all an actual pirouette.
At this point you might reasonably expect some instructor input to take place. "Okay, well, that was a good try. I wanted to see what your thinking and riding were like in your approach to this movement and you have the right idea here, but... (do thing) and (do other thing) and (blah blah). Try it again, same lead."
You might very well expect that.
I got "Okay, try it again, same lead." (In my mind I am going "Where is the instruction part? Don't I get instructions?") Because I knew what the plan was before K, this time was slightly less shitshow. Still not a pirouette, but a tidier failure. We repeated this a couple of times on various leads, with tidier failures and not-quite-the-things but still not any actual directions. And then Tara was out of abs and kinda deflated, which was totally fair, and we were out of time anyway.
Anyway, so why was I riding Tara in front of all the lesson tweens?
First, Mystic shouldn't have to run two back to back lessons. That's fair.
Second, instructor wanted to see how "confirmed" Tara was on the pirouette issue. Tara does them (sorta, they flatten as they go, but this is an issue for many many riders with the pirouette) for Instructor, but does she do them for other riders? Let's see!
Third, tweens were incidental. It's just the time of year for them to be excessively present before school starts up. It's not always about me.
Fourth, I think instructor was maybe going for "try pirouette to see if rider can rack canter back enough, get a feel for the amount of hold in the canter needed for canter-walk". Be a lot more helpful if she'd say that, though.
There is going to be some independent study here. Sorry, Birb. It's gonna suck for a while, dude. We might not be able to canter pirouette but we are for damn fucking sure going to figure out how to do it in walk and trot. Apparently I am going to have to independent study my way to clarity on this shit. *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2023-08-11 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-12 12:13 am (UTC)She doesn't do super-beginner lessons... you have to be able to put stuff together a bit to ride Tara. You gotta have your diagonals, be able to ask for and get leads, some idea of how to assemble the horse to Do Things, etc. But if you're halfway competent, she's not gonna do you dirty.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-12 02:28 am (UTC)