Never beg a horse or a man

A very good boi

One of my favorite instructors from Indiana came down for a weekend of lessons. 

It is a ... fun ... challenge for me to work until 8:30 pm on Saturday evening and be on my horse for a 9 p.m. lesson. Plus do stalls sometime in that time frame so that my Sunday morning would be smooth. So yes I had my little office set up outside a stall on my trunk. lol. You do what you gotta do #AmIRight

But, I pulled it off and had great lessons!

on Sunday we wore purple and grey

This instructor is outstanding, but she teaches in a very stream of consciousness way. Every second of your ride she is riding with you and there is very little time to prepare or think. Therefore, you have to ride ALWAYS prepared to do anything at any time. It will kick your ass and I love every second.

Here are tips that I wrote down both from my lessons and a few others that I watched:

• "turn around the middle" ... push the hind end out and turn shoulders in at the same time. Tracking right, send the haunches left and take the shoulders right. Do not use the outside leg. This was hard for me to get the hang of since we are so often told NOT to do a turn around the middle. 

Training is not always pretty. Notice my utter confusion on getting this turn around
the middle exercise. Hamp trying very hard. lol
Photo by K. Young

• Ride your horse to a shape (like Shoulder In). The shape will slow the horse down, so you don't have to hit the hand break so much.
• Horses are pulling animals, it's not their fault. So we are working against that.
• Commit to a reaction! (working with a horse behind the aids)
• Canter pirouette to opposite turn on the haunches. This is what really got Hampton's attention. So, say we are doing a canter pirouette left. Walk, immediately send him right into a turn on the haunches. Then directly back into left canter piro. Pretty soon he was thinking quick with his feet, his legs got closer together and he got a quick, bouncy piro canter instead of a labored one. Bingo! Hampton simply takes too long of a step behind within the pirouettes. This causes him to get slow, dolphin-y, and then start bobbing his head. He needs to close his legs (ha) and jump with more RPMs. But this exercise really made him think quick, and "worry" about me a little. haha

Sort of a weird moment, but you can see him
bringing his hind legs closer together.
Photo by my dear friend K. Young

• Medium canter on 10m circle, to 8m shoulder in canter, bring it to a piro
• Walk 4 steps to canter, to right away flying change. This was on a horse working on better reactions to the aid for a change. So canter ... walk .. 1 ... 2.... 3... 4.. canter right off and change.
• Shoulder-in in medium trot, straighten into passage
• Shoulder-in in passage, straighten into piaffe
• "Walk" my legs and hip in the passage. This really helped me sit deeper and helped keep the swing. I tend to tighten my hips (shocking) which stops his back.
• No outside leg in the pirouettes. Use thigh, outside rein and inside leg. That way the hips don't lead.
• NEVER BEG A HORSE OR A MAN 
• Just because it's a hot mess, does not mean failure
• If he gets strong in the ones, immediately canter piro - does not matter if its good or bad.
• Ones on a 20m circle. Two two at each open side, and each rail side of circle. Then do four. Keep adding on. If you have things together, go straight on rail. Circle keeps both rider and horse from getting too strong

the covered arena at night

• Tap the slow change (touch with whip for Hampton)
• Hampton pushes back with his front legs in piaffe, needs to left shoulder and settle onto hind end
• Canter to walk shoulder fore
• Shoulder in piro canter on the rail to SI piaffe
• Your leg is either active, passive, or resistant
• If ride is a hot mess, pick a priority for that day. For example, all you want is just sharp off the aids, etc. Some days not everything is going to be good at once. But you chip away.

We had a really nice discussion in which she was talking about how so many people have dogs that just pull and pull on their leashes. How do you fix this? You change direction. If you just let them pull, and pull back, it's just a pulling match.

So if Hampton gets strong in the ones, change something right away. Canter piro, something. Getting strong and losing our balance isn't a failure, because we WERE asking for bigger changes off the ground. So of course he would get strong. He isn't being naughty, but you have to change something up to break that cycle up.

And finally, ... shoulder-in is my friend.