Cob Jockey

I mentioned yesterday how the biggest takeaway from the clinic was KPG saying "close your outside hand" to me.  I learned something about Connor and something about myself in that moment.


Look, I know that doesn't seem like earth shattering advice, but the way she said it and the timing of when she said it was a huge lightbulb moment for me.


No one has ever said "close your hand" to me before.  To convey the same thing, they've said "half halt in the outside rein", "close your outside rein", "he's drifting to the outside, straighten him out", things like that.


What all those have in common is that they're trying to convey the same thing to me as "close your outside hand" but they're telling me what to do, not how to do it.  When KPG told me both what to do, how to do it and said it at exactly the right time, in that moment I did it correctly, and I felt a huge difference - Connor went from feeling like "warmup Connor" to "working Connor" immediately.

(Or - once again, Dressage is a series of learning "inside leg to outside rein" in new ways 😂)


Looking back on other situations now, it's clear that the way I learn best is someone telling me both what to do and how to do it - which is why I keep asking various people to explain the aids for bringing Connor from a lengthened canter back to working, and no one has given me an explanation that clicks yet.  I get a lot of "use shoulder in" and "use a circle" and "You're really good at that transition in the trot, do the same thing," and that helps but none of it really clicks.


Since then, I've been using the "close your outside hand," with great success.  Turns out I haven't been doing that - I've probably been pulling instead, knowing me.  Pretty cool to have taken something that useful away, and also learned something about the way I learn.