Tonight was fun, if formulaic. The formula:
- "My horse isn't straight!"
- Trainer suggests an exercise, horse slowly gets straighter.
- We do something more challenging with newly straight horse, shit's hard, yo.
- The challenging thing gets easier after I remember how to ride.
- Tired horse.
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| He was standing evenly on all four feet here, but the only angle I got was from above. |
To get him straight and balanced, we started with switching back and forth in the walk between half pass left -> slowly allow him to come straight -> half pass right. At first, it's the entire length of the arena in one bend, but as he got more on my aids, she challenged my to change halfway down, then more often. I need to remember, when I do these things on my own to try to get him straight, that even with my trainer it takes patience and time to get him to come around.
Once he was straight and on my aids, we moved on to doing it at the trot. We can basically summarize this whole exercise like this:
Me: "Sometimes when I put my outside leg on absolutely nothing happens."
Trainer: "When that happens, you don't have enough bend. It means his body is literally not in a position where he can do what you're asking."
And what do you know, I REALLY asked for more bend in the corner before our next attempt, and he moved off my leg! Biomechanics is some black magic, I tell ya.
Although he was a bit heavy tonight, he was moving pretty well. I was grateful for one of those rides that reminds me why I do this whole Dressage thing. A good ride is absolutely therapeutic.
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| February 2, 2017: I am officially so far over winter, it's hard to get out of my warm car. Come on, spring... |
One of my favorite 'trainer-isms' from last summer was "does she look overbent to you? Yes? Okay, well you almost have enough bend."
ReplyDeleteI'm learning the answer is almost always add leg and moar bend 😉