Lesson with Henrik July 18, 2008
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Today I had my lesson with Henrik. It was interesting…
I will fully admit that he told me what I wanted to hear, but I was a little disappointed we hadn’t made more progress since my last lesson with him in March. Then again, I didn’t exactly ride much between now and then. 
What I was most proud of was how well Tigger travelled. He was a superstar. He was no more tense in the arena then he is at home. I was quite thrilled.
My lesson revolved around being the one who makes decisions about where we are going and what the tempo is. I tend to ride reactively on Tigger. It’s now time to ride proactively. I need to have a plan and execute. One of the things he said that sticks in my mind is, “He gets nervous when you leave the decisions up to him. Let’s take that burden away from him.” By the end of the ride Tigger was listening quite well to my changes in direction and tempo. My ultimate goal is a harmonious relationship with Tigger. I believe this is yet another step toward that goal.
I was also super proud of Sherene. She had a decent fall last week — the kind where your confidence is not quite the same afterward. To bounce back and ride her horse in a strange place so soon after the event is very brave. She had a good ride and it showed.
Not to mention it’s always fun to do a road trip with Sherene.
Lesson on Thursday July 17, 2008
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My old trainer, Paige, is picking up lessons right now so Sherene and I had her out for a session. It was kind of like settling into an old comfy chair. It felt so right and familiar. Even though I haven’t had a lesson from her in over a year, it was if she was never gone. We just kind of jumped back into things as if she had been teaching me the whole time. It was nice.
We worked on Tigger’s rushing, which is something I have been struggling with for a long time. Her analysis was that when Tigger isn’t sure what’s being asked of him, he inverts. When he inverts, his back disengages and I loose all communication with him via my seat. I was thinking that he wasn’t listening. The truth was he couldn’t hear me. So her solution was to apply and inside leg to help him find the outside rein and in the process, engage his back. Applying leg to a horse that’s going 90mph is like hitting the gas while going downhill in your car toward a hairpin turn. It sounds ludicrous. But in the horse scenario, it works.
So we practiced this in both directions at walk, trot, and canter. By the end, I had a much better sense of what I was doing. I’m excited to keep working at it to see what long-term results there might be.
Tomorrow I have a lesson with Henrik Johansen. Whee!
5 rides in 8 days… July 13, 2008
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It’s probably more like 4 1/2 rides in 8 days. Today was a pretty short ride.
In today’s ride there was a marked difference in Tigger. He’s so much more relaxed, affectionate, and just good. He had been snapping & nipping in May and June, and now that has stopped. I am distinctly getting the feeling that this horse enjoys having a job and being in regular work.
Today it was toasty hot again, so we kept the ride short. We focused on bending at the walk, then did a short amount of trot work (also working on bending) before I melted in the saddle. Even with a roofing project going on next door, he stood completely still for mounting. Ahhhh…
He did rush when some equipment started up. Instead of pulling back on his face I put him on a 10m circle to put his mind back in the game. When he realzied that he needed to balance himself or this would get really hard, we yielded out of the circle. We had to repeat this about three times. By the third time, he figured out that he probably should pay attention to mommy a little.
I am really enjoying our relationship right now. It’s not tense, it’s not a fight. We still have tons to work on, but I feel like we can get there together. I can’t wait to ride again!
Tomorrow I will be going back to the gym. I have 3 weeks to prepare for the 10k. Hmmmm… Not exactly a whole lot of time…
I’m Smiling July 11, 2008
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I’m smiling. I’m happy. I had a great week with my horse. I haven’t had a great week with him in quite a while. I’m enjoying riding again.
Don’t get me wrong, I always look forward to riding, but lately it hadn’t been fun. With our mounting problems I was incredibly stressed out just trying to get on. Was he going to bolt? Would he get freaked out? How long until he calmed down?
This week we had four consecutive rides of him NOT freaking out. And as a result, I’m not freaking out. Or at least I didn’t freak out today. Today was the first day that my knees didn’t shake and my heartrate stayed under 180. For the first time since my show in April I had a RELAXING ride. I’m thrilled.
Today in our ride we focused again on my hands and keeping them quiet. It is getting much easier not to pull on the inside rein (although it’s far from automatic), but consequently I have to use my body more in the turns. I don’t rotate my shoulders nearly enough and I can forget to weight the inside seatbone. So while sometimes I don’t make a pretty turn, I at least have the awareness that I need to adjust other things in my body rather than grabbing that (evil) rein.
So we worked on an exercise called “The Needle”. It’s a great suppling exercise and would be perfect to try my “new hands” on. You basically head around the arena at a trot, then at a corner after a long side, do a half-volte, riding a 10m teardrop and change directions. You head back through two more corners then at the third corner (after your next long side) do another half-volte into a 10m teardrop and change direction again. It’s like a giant “U” with loops on the end. I was moderately successful with the hands, and he seemed to enjoy the easy, predictable exercise. By the end he was relatively light and soft. We didn’t have much impulsion (80 degrees at 2pm is a tough time to ride) but he was being obedient and listening.
The focus on my hands really paid off today when he spooked in one of the corners with the “killer tire” in it (Sherene and I both know this corner well). Nevermind the fact that the tire has been there for over a year. It’s still terrifying. He took one look at the tire as we were going by and stopped dead, then jumped sideways. Twice. Because I had my hands soft and my body was relaxed, I just went with him. There was no yanking on his mouth, no trying to claw my way back into the center of the saddle. It was eerie. Almost as if it was planned… (Yeah, that’s the ticket.) Almost as soon as it happened we were trotting again. Before we hit the next corner he was soft and round again. He never shied again the rest of the ride. What a good boy.
So even though it took a few months to work out the kinks, I finally succeeded in turning out a product week riding. Now we shall see if we can turn it into two…
Of course when I succeed in one thing in life, I fail in another. My running has sadly been neglected this week and I have a 10k on August 2nd. Guess I had better get crackin’ on that.
Whoa! July 9, 2008
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more cat pictures
As in, WOW! I rode three times this week and it’s only WEDNESDAY! This has not happened for a few/several months now. It was nice to build off the previous ride while it was still fresh in my memory. More often it’s usually, “Now what was I working on last time?…”
We continued our work on “conversing”. Me, trying not to be too loud with my hands. Him, listening to my seat. I’ll be darned that it’s starting to really come together. It’s getting easier to resist the urge to pull his nose to the inside. The releases are feeling solid, meaning he’s taking the release forward, instead of the rein just going all loopy on me.
It was a great ride and I’m super happy with how things are going right now. He even stood still at the mounting block. Not one little twitch. Good boy.
