Cob Jockey

Since my suddenly very busy barn and trainer are short on open lesson times (she typically only teaches private lessons), tonight's makeup lesson involved crashing EquiNovice's weekly lesson!  Thanks for letting me crash!

I took one really blurry picture of her, which she'll probably post to her blog too, because this is what we must do for photos around here.

It was a continuation of and expansion on my last lesson, but now Connor's really getting the message about tempo being set in my core and I can do some serious work on both of our body positions.

Biggest revelations were:
- Putting my outside leg on was instant magic in every direction.
- When she told me to "sit neutrally", it was a good prompt phrase for me to remember to drape my legs around him and check for evenness in both seatbones.  If I expect his back to carry me evenly (this is the point of all this) I have to do my part there too.
- I was bracing with my legs a lot, which made me not really sit in the saddle.  I thought about Sally Swift's "stubby legs" to correct that.  When I did, he slowed down and relaxed.
- When I stopped bracing with my legs, I suddenly understood the whole "asking for the bend from the upper inside of your thigh" thing.  I couldn't apply my thigh to his side with my leg where it normally is.

But let's be real, my biggest accomplishment this week is that his mane is still all on one side 24 hours after being pulled, with no braids or neck cover.  I WIN, MANE!

We moved on to trotting tonight in the same exercise, and it took a while for him to stop being fussy in the bridle and throwing in a hop step every so often, but we got there.

EquiNovice and I also got to bumble through baby half pass together!  It was both Connor and I's first time trying it.  At that same slow but impulsive walk, my trainer had us do shoulder in, ask for half pass, shoulder in, half pass.  I could feel Connor trying to puzzle it out at first.  Surprisingly, he was really good at it in what I consider to be his bad direction, in which I really have to work for good bend.

My crowning achievement.  It's been three years since it all laid on one side!

At the end, my trainer asked me if I had internalized the lesson enough to do things correctly on my own.  I said  "You're seeing me each of the next two days, I don't have an opportunity to do it wrong!"

Boot camp is great!