Cob Jockey

I continue to visit Connor once a week, for a lesson if CGP is in town or just to ride if she isn't. Last weekend she and her horse traveled several hours to her trainer's farm for some kind of developing FEI young horse thing, so I was on my own when I arrived on a cool, rainy Sunday yesterday.

He looks like a draft horse after my eye got used to Aeres

It was the first time in a couple of weeks I stopped to appreciate his condition. This horse is ROUND everywhere now, but in a muscular way, not a fat way.

I didn't get a good picture of this, but in particular his SI and hindquarter region is stronger than ever with obvious muscle development, which is probably part of the reason why his free walk caught my eye in the mirrors yesterday - it looks SO different. Usually his free walk looks like his front end pulling his hind end along, but in the mirrors yesterday, the hind end was moving with a purpose I had not seen before. He seemed more aware of his hindquarters and was just moving differently than I was used to, hence my desire to film it:

I realize the change that caught my eye won't be super obvious in a shaky GIF, but it's all I got.

During my ride, I realized that I'm finally starting to feel like I could bring him home and not screw him up, at least at the walk and trot. Now that his relationship with the contact is so supple and flexible, it makes it easier to be aware of when I'm pulling and to focus on myself rather than managing every little detail for him.

The canter, something about my biomechanics made us both revert to a lesser quality of work, so I just left that alone for the day and made a note of it to CGP for my next lesson. But the walk and trot, I'm starting to be able to get the same quality of work on my own that I can in lessons, which means one or both of us are internalizing the changes she's making to him, and I'm excited about that.