Cob Jockey

My lesson last night pretty much definitively proved that my loose left shoulder has been holding us back.  It was so refreshing to come out, and in my warmup, get him to the place he needed to be for us to do real work.

Also I got out super early and clipped and detangled him.  It's just so nice spending time at the barn in the summer.

My trainer said, "So what was so great about Tuesday's ride?" I told her what I figured out, and she chuckled and said, "So...exactly what I've been telling you for years?"  After six years, she and I have that kind of relationship where she can honestly (and with a smile on her face) tell me something like that, but it's totally true.  I'm a slow learner.  I have learned this before.  It didn't stick.  It will now.

I mean, if we're being honest, I really just figured out the inside leg to the outside rein for probably the 17th time on this blog. Thank goodness for blogging, so I can go back and reference things like the lesson with T.

Freshly detangled.

We spent most of the lesson spiraling in and out on the right.  She noted that my shoulder made a huge difference in the overall picture of me, and that it also solved my wayward left hand problem.  For my part, it's very easy to be aware of now: if he went from going really well to falling apart, 100% of the time (at least last night) I had given that shoulder forward.

He's aaaaalmost done shedding.

When we switched to the left, it was clear things weren't quite so figured out.  When I asked him to soften and follow the left rein, my trainer noted that his whole body went right.  So on a left circle, we counterbent him, and asked him to just follow where his nose went.

It's a work in progress - but we're making progress.