This week things got changed up a bit. A friend of mine leases a horse at AH and has been trying to figure out a way to join my lesson time. She made it work this week! I was a little...I don't know...nervous isn't really the right word but...apprehensive maybe??...anyway...I was a little something about it as I have never ridden Leonard in a group scenario before. I wasn't sure how his focus would be and if he would take to the start stop pattern that a group tends to be.
One thing Leonard is going to teach me come Hell or high water is to start trusting him and quit being so me about riding.
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Someone was not in the mood |
We warmed up solo as friend was running a bit late. Leonard keeps showing up better than the previous time even after having an entire week off as I was out of town. He seems to do really well with some time to digest between rides and he does not forget things. He was so so so fun to ride at the trot. His lateral suppleness is improving immensely. This week all it took was for me to weight my outside seat bone to get him him to do haunches in and the leg yields are getting easier each week too. I find that I have the ability to dedicate brain cells to making active riding choices to keep him straight or side in a turn. It’s really cool.
Things got complicated fast after the warm up with four really cool exercises that I think I can replicate at home fairly easily in terms of setting it up. Performing it without eyes on the ground? That is a different story. The whole focus this week was bend. She really wanted to see a significant change in how we rode through the change in direction with proper set up, reestablishing the new outside aids, and for me specifically, not stalling out.
Exercise 1:
Two ground poles set as a bounce across the middle of the arena at one far side. This was done at the canter which is a gait I am still trying to acclimate to on Leonard. Well, on any horse really. It is my worst gait.
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Behold my professional level paint skills. You get the point though. |
We started going left which is Leonard's harder direction and really we didn't do too shabby. The biggest take away for me is that I need way more leg than I thought coming around the corner to keep him cantering through it. It is a reoccurring issue. I am so used to my turn on a dime pocket rockets that I tend to forget he is 17.1H. He doesn't stuff around turns as well so when I don't support him like I need to with my leg, he will stall out and drop back to a trot. Which for me is 100% amazing as a response. I'll go for a slow down and think response than plow through like a bowling ball like some big chestnut doofus I know.
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I adore the world view between these grey ears |
Exercise 2:
This one was much harder and we stuck to a trot for it. She had two crossrails set up angled towards each other at the opposite end of the arena. She then piled some poles next to them to create a very narrow chute to the outside of each. We were to start on the rail, turn down centerline, make a left circle around the left hand crossrail using the chute, come back up center line, make a right circle around the right crossrail using that chute. It was a tiny target to hit.
It was hard. Really hard as I needed to ride up the centerline between the jumps perfectly straight then make my turn and still hit that chute. I had to do a lot of mental gymnastics to get him through it. Leonard is very wiggly still in this stage of his learning, so it can be challenging to keep him off my inside leg (he LOVES to lean on my inside leg), keep the proper bend and still make it along our path.
Exercise 3:
EN had a really neat ground pole grid set up leading from the side of the arena with the bounce poles exercise. It was 3 trot poles, a bigger gap, then 2 more. This led to the 2 cross rail jumps we had been circling around. The exercise was to turn off the rail, through the pole grid, then out over the right hand crossrail, pick up a left lead canter and canter back along the long side to the ground poles, back to a trot, over the poles, out over the left crossrail, pick up the right lead canter and canter back to the start.
Ho boy. Have I mentioned that cantering is not my strong suit?!
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Start by that light pole come through the poles then behind me are those two angled cross rails. You can see the bounce poles here too from exercise 1. |
So we came around the first time and Leonard was a wiggly worm through the grid and I think he just about stepped on or tripped over every single pole. When we got to the cross rail we were strung out so we mostly just clambered over the jump still in the trot. on the back side I was all discombobulated when I asked for the canter which resulted in getting the wrong lead. It was a hot mess express.
The second time through he was more careful with his feet. We were in a much better position when we exited the grid so we actually jumped the crossrail and landed in the correct canter lead to canter around. We played with this exercise quite a bit. It was so so so good for both us us. For Leonard it really made him pay attention to his feet and you know actually listen to my directions. For me, it made me ride every stride which let me forget the jump even existed.
Exercise 4:
This was the only exercise the two of us did something different on. Friend came through the pole grid, exited out the right crossrail, circled back to the left crossrail and came over that in a lightbulb type shape.
EN was worried that short of a turn would frazzle Leonard who was already running out of steam and letting me know this work stuff was BS. Instead we did the pole grid, out over the right hand cross rail, cantered left to about half way down then turned left to hit the bounce poles from the first exercise then keep the canter left to the left hand crossrail we hadn't jumped.
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So much fun! |
IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!
Leonard was a bit sulky at having to still be working at this point. He really took to the whole hurry and wait format. At one point he cocked a hind leg, lowered his nose to the ground and closed his eyes. EN warned me he might fall over if he truly fell asleep.
The pole grid went super well as he had finally figured that out. The crossrail came up the best it had all night. We got our left lead straight away then headed to the bounce. He tried to return to the trot, but I was all over him on that so while we still sorta stumbled through the bounce, we stayed in the canter. Then we came around to the short turn off the short side rail to make it over the cross rail and I completely took my leg off. Instead of using my leg to guide him through the turn while maintaining forward momentum, I took my leg off and yanked on the inside rein.
Ugh.
But the worst thing that happened was that he stalled out and dropped to a trot. We still made it over the jump, landing in canter to canter a full lap around before we ended the day there.
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While friend did her exercise Leonard cocked a hind leg and took a nap |
These complex courses are amazing for my brain. If I ever find the time I want to write all about EN's program and why I think it is working so well for me. Maybe someday. For now though, I am loving these lesson nights!