Lesson Recap

 The weather outside has been stunning and very unlike normal weather here in the frozen tundra in November.

I have been trying to take advantage and riding outside. The only negative is with daylights savings time and the fact it is now dark at 4:30.

Friday, I left work about an hour earlier than my typical end time. I've accrued a bit of overtime just from normal "everyday" crisis things occurring now. The great thing about leaving is that I made it out just in time to squeeze in a ride before pm chores. Chili is still easily distracted and can be kind of an idiot if there is too much going on for her little peon brain to handle at one time. Show environments, she can be better if she doesn't go over the threshold, but at home, she has a particular routine and she doesn't care for it to be adjusted.

I lunged her in the outdoor arena for a few minutes. We have sometimes had trouble in the outside arena with sticking and worrying about horses running in turnouts right adjacent to the outdoor. However, she seemed pretty quiet about the whole affair so we had a pretty nice ride.

I have been super tight, tense, and sore, so our usual routine starts with a bit of two point, since that's about the only thing that doesn't make my tight hip clamp against her in the saddle which just quite frankly, irritates Chili and causes her to jig and be annoyed.

After our usual warm-up routine, we just did some basic walk, trot, and canter work and then trying to work on leg yields on the spiral.

Saturday, I had a lesson. The weather was once again very nice and warm, but quite windy. I couldn't decide if I wanted a jacket and risk overheating and dying or just a polo shirt. I ended up with unzipped jacket, but that's how it goes.

We started off the lesson with my usual warm-up routine of two point and variations on that to try and regain some mobility in my left hip. Once I was feeling a little more comfortable and Chili let me know that she was ok with my status, we moved into work. She was feeling rather lazy, which is often quite unusual for her, especially with sometimes strong wind occurring.

My instructor had me working on keeping my body straight on the rail with minor jaw flexions left and right until it felt Chili would take both reins evenly. She has such a flexible neck that she can often evade and resist taking one rein.

Once the flexions felt better and we had a little more power at the trot and quit jog trotting, we did some spiral leg yields. I have often struggled with nagging her. One thing I can often do is turn my heel into the horse which annoys her. My instructor wanted to play around with some concepts to see what Chili would respond best to in the current circumstances. While going counter-clockwise, my weak and tight hip was on the inside. Instead of just putting my leg on and trying to send her over, I played around with the idea of almost picking up and "bouncing" my inside seat bone while sending my energy from the inside seat bone to the outside oblique muscles. I had also dropped my left stirrup and kept my right one to try and see if gravity could help correct some of my muscle memory and postural issues.

The difference in Chili's ability to comply and understand was pretty profound. We practiced this on the quarter-line a few times too and had some very nice crossing over front and back. Historically I had always struggled with her being so crooked, but now looking back, I wonder if I never really gave her back enough space to swing up, through, and over.

The other direction, going to the rail left, means that my hip is now tight on the outside. I have usually been much better on spiral circles this direction, but as always, struggle on the quarter-line.

What we ended up finding that worked better was to have my bad hip just a little bit forward that what is ideal. Too far back and my hip locked and Chili was resistant to moving over and neutral was a fairly similar effect. It's hard for my brain to process sometimes what is proper equitation isn't going to work for myself as a rider and secondly, what feels correct usually isn't anyway!

We had some really nice leg yields with good power and it seemed like such a strange feeling on her. Her rideability and my ability to sit comfortably just improved as soon as I could tweak it to have her accept the outside rein, not block her with that seat bone, and to try and not pick at her.

We finished out our ride with some canter work. My instructor wanted us to begin exploring the idea of balance in the counter-canter so while on the rail and on the circle, asked to flex her to the outside, straighten, and bring her back on the correct bend. Baby steps. Chili wanted to break to the trot if I was changing bend a little too quickly as I was also disrupting her balance. I practiced a little more today with the concept and she seems to be catching on. 

All elementary things, but to be honest, it's nice to have her be so willing and sound so that I can work on having instruction to keep filling in some of these gaps.

I rode with a couple other people in the arena the past few days which was also excellent exposure. Chili has been a little too coddled at times with not always having riding companions and in our past, we almost always rode alone so she gets frazzled when other horses are doing things. Plus, it was nice to hear from the other riders on what a nice moving horse she is. 😁

Hopefully work will keep itself in check and I'll be able to schedule another lesson shortly. Here's to hoping! :)