Riding lesson and the ensuing wisdom

So in my last post I mentioned that got a lesson after quite a long time off, two months I think. Funny how when I go that long I find a way to create opposite problem that I had previously worked on!

Here’s the example. My first lesson after being gone for the summer, we worked on me sitting vertical, and keeping my head above my heels. SO basic, right? Except that I have always had a tendency to hover just in front of the center of balance, not sure why, I just have always fallen into that bad habit while spending too long riding alone. Then I wonder why I have a hard time sitting a refusal at a fence! Well, expectedly, I was leaning forward a bit after a summer of no lessons, and letting Lola poke around with all her weight on the forhand because I was trying to reward her for putting her head down and keeping a balanced even trot. At that end of summer lesson we worked on me keeping my center of balance back to keep her balanced. Well since then I’ve managed to work on it SO hard that I created a new problem! I have found the back of the saddle and decided to stay there!

So my last lesson was all about coming back forward again. I am pendulum swinging! As my trainer said, “A deep seat is not a heavy seat.” In my effort to sit up and get in the center of balance I found the behind the vertical balance point and started to really sit my butt in the back of the saddle. So she really nit-picked my equitation to get me sitting on the front of my pelvis and riding with the front-inside part of my thighs more in contact. Of course to sit more forward in my hips without leaning forward I had to bring my shoulders back more… also a bad habit I’ve had for years. These few simple things made my riding SO much more effective. It was great to actually FEEL the difference in Lola’s trot. By sitting back on her back muscles so much I was actually inhibiting the action and push from the hindquarters and swing through the back that I’m trying to get. Eye opening for sure.

I also had an eye opening lesson about the walk. I try to hard to be generous to Lola when she is being good. So I end up riding on a too-long rein hoping to reward her, when really I’m just providing an unstable connection. I let her walk out as she pleases because she marches along so happily, when really I’m allowing an impure walk that is more quick than marching, and Lola is taking quick choppy steps instead of long swinging steps. These were basically the two things we worked in lesson. Crazy simple. We spent most of the lesson trying to walk as slow as possible with a really short reined contact while doing some circles and halts (all while I tried to remember not to regress to the back of the saddle while turning) then picked up the trot. Because of the walk exercises the trot was 10 times better.

She then had me think about asking Lola to try with her back legs first. To be honest, I still don’t think I fully get how to ask for that or feel for that, but I used it as a mental image and it worked fairly well. I think I want to work more on that later because I have never been great about riding by feel.

Over all, the lesson was great. Lola was sensible and worked hard. I didn’t expect that based on her attitude warming up. She got pretty amped up about being out and about again and was just being distracted and reactive.

One FULL week and two days later, I finally got out to see Lola again. The barn is good about turning her out, but she really does best with regular work. So I was expecting to have a bit of a handful. I let her out in the arena to let some buck out before tacking up; then did my usual lunge with Vienna reins. She was calm and responsive and gave me a great relaxed canter both ways. That’s always a good indicator of a good ride to come, but I still wasn’t expecting much after a full week off. I got on and tried to simply recreate our lesson. She was fantastic! All that same work carried over, and when we got to the canter I could feel a difference there as well!

So the moral of the story: she doesn’t really have a problem with being ridden only once a week, I have a problem getting the most out of her! Good to know… now I can work on it!