Cob Jockey

First lesson in three weeks, first time seeing my horse in 7 days.

WOO HOO!

Of course, I was not expecting to see him here when I got to the barn to feed this morning:

Not his stall.

"What is this...tack...I am wearing...?  Riding?  What is that?"

We are one horse over our limit until Tuesday, so Connor is in an area that was at one point a stall, and is now an aisleway.  Totally safe, and same floors as the stalls, just funny to see him there.  I like it!   I also like the Welsh Cob-proof gate latches they drew up: two chains and a lead rope.

After chores, I had a lesson.  She requested jump saddle, even though we spent the whole lesson doing Dressage.  We worked on getting him even in both reins with leg yield, where I needed more half-halts in the outside rein in order to ensure that he didn't get crooked, and to stop "pushing" him with the inside rein.  Next up was shoulder out and turns on the forehand, and during this she had me actually look down at my reins to see how unevenly I was using them.  Oops.

After aiming for crookedness (not really but you know what I mean) in the first half of the lesson, the second half was about straightness.  We went around on the quarter line and first did walk-halt-walk ad nauseum, with an extreme emphasis on straightness.

On the left rein, he liked to bring his shoulder right when we halt and when we walk off again, so it was my job to correct it.  When I tried to correct it using my legs, duh, his hindquarter went where I wanted his shoulder to go, because it's the reins that correct the shoulder, not the legs.

Of course, once I figured out which aids did what, I had to figure out how much aid I needed - sometimes I didn't do enough, sometimes I did too much and his shoulder went the opposite direction of where he was about to put it.  Sometimes I was too early, and most of the time my aids were too late.  Going back to the beginning of the lesson, he needed to be perfectly equal in both reins or else the halt wasn't straight.  Dressage, you are a funny and cruel mistress sometimes.

My trainer basically said that we're seeing a hole here in his very basic training, and that we need to focus on the details - practice, practice, practice until the details are perfect, because things like straightness in transitions make the hard stuff easier later.  500 times, she said.  "Homework!" she said.  This is how you get good.

And after things were going well at the walk, we did the same thing at the trot.  She tells me we'll do this at the canter too...but that's probably down the line a ways.

He wasn't sweaty, but he was completely exhausted afterward, deep down tired.  He napped in the warm sunshine in his field afterward.  Vacation is over, my pony friend!

Happy.