All of a sudden there's so many things to do! This weekend I got to do a clinic AND take in not one but TWO performances of Frozen Jr. Yes. Jr. It was cute. My nieces were both performing, but they didn't have speaking parts in the same show (there were two full casts) so I had to go twice. Aunty duties!
But you're not here for children's theater, you're here for horses. And probably you're most interested in the clinic from this weekend. So let's start there!
I was really hoping we'd get to be outside for the clinic, but alas, it was a rain day. So we were stuck indoors. And while Al is like a million times more rideable in this indoor than the old one, he still doesn't thrive in it. Plus, this one is pretty small. Or rather, narrow. The length isn't bad, but it's only a few strides across. So it invites a big horse to be a little backwards. Especially if it's one who likes to spin his tires anyway.
With Al, you don't always know which horse you'll have until you actually get on and start asking for things. And unfortunately, the Al that showed up to the clinic was Ignore-My-Leg-Al. Which is definitely more preferential versus Spook-At-Everything-Al. But still, not quite ideal.
I really liked the clinician. I was able to watch a dressage rider's lesson before I had to get on, and the clinician pretty much said everything I was thinking while watching the horse and rider do their thing. So that was validating. After being someplace that made me question everything I thought I knew, it's nice to be reminded that I do know some things. Obviously there's TONS I don't know (especially as it pertains to my own horse...) but I'm not a total stupid amateur. Phew.
As for my lesson? I would have liked to have a little bit different horse under me so we could have done more fun things, but honestly, it's probably better that Al didn't bring his best self because that's where I need help with him. I know how to ride Al when he's in the mood to play. But when he's NOT in the mood? That's where we struggle.
He was a little spooky (not terrible, but it was in there) and VERY behind my leg. Which was the first thing our clinician picked up on. She said, "just watching you warm up it's clear he's not on the aids." I don't try to put my horse together in the first laps generally. I usually let them be loose for the first few minutes of trot and canter, and THEN start to put the pieces together and get some connection. So I told her that, just that I hadn't tried to put him on them yet. But she clarified and said, right, but he's not moving off your leg either. Ah. Yes. Busted. Ha! She's definitely not wrong!
So this is where I got the first piece of helpful advice. When he's in that sort of mood, I should kind of skip ahead to getting just a soft connection earlier in the ride. I've often told people that I need to "close the circuit" with Al. Like, he can't seem to hear the aids unless they're all on at the same time. So I need to have some connection with the front end to get the back end going. Somewhere along the way I had forgotten about this with Al. Probably from last year when he couldn't handle being boxed in like that. But we're past that now. (Thank goodness.) Unfortunately, some days, just closing the circuit isn't enough. And this was one of those days.
We did talk a bit about him before starting so she understood that he's not the type of horse you can bully into doing what you want. And when we were having our closing talks, she agreed that he's the type of horse you kind of have to trick into getting what you want. I need to figure out what he thinks is fun and use that to get him moving forward. And hopefully the more we do that and he has lots of fun all the time, the less I should see of Ignore-My-Leg-Al. She also kept saying that she thinks once he's going forward and is less shut down the spook will go away. This is where I think she's wrong because the spook is always there. Even on days when he's moving off my leg and traveling nicely forward. He still spooks.
Even when I was a kid I've had trainers that insist horses don't do naughty things if they're moving forward. But experience has told me this is 100% NOT true. And I won't drink that Kool Aid. Every time I sample it, I get launched through the air. I've seen this horse in turnout run full tilt down the long side and then spook and spin without missing a beat. I'm not sure who these horses are that can only spook or buck when they're slow, but it isn't any of mine! Heck, the times Shiny's nearly bucked me off it comes after she's tucked her butt and galloped off.
But I digress. Even if I think she's wrong about that, she still had some good tips and tricks. She suggested having cavalletti and/or small jumps around for all of our rides so I can find something he finds interesting for him to focus on. Some days that works better than others. Today for example, he was moving pretty nicely off my leg, but he was a little more spooky. (See what I'm saying?!) And ended up just trotting over the obstacles because the canter he was very out to lunch. But at least he was forward!
The other interesting thing she kept saying to me was to keep my reins longer. No one ever tells me this. My reins are ALWAYS a foot too long. But her reasoning was that Al was so sucked back, I needed to give him someplace to go. So that's something I need to work on. It's tricky trying to find that connection but also keep the reins long. When I lose his attention, the first thing that happens is the head comes up which shortens his neck and leaves my reins WAAAYYYY long. And with my reins long, I've got nothing! So that's just something I need to get more comfortable with.
We didn't end up jumping anything at all substantial. I think we hopped over a couple 2' verticals at the end, but otherwise it was mostly cross rails. But the point of this lesson wasn't the jumping. It was trying to get a rideable horse. We all know he can jump. It's all the in between stuff we need to work on. So while it can feel pretty defeating to have a cross rail lesson on my 1.3m horse, sometimes that's the lesson you need. And it certainly was what I needed right now. And THAT my friends, is why riding is hard.
I have a few clips here to watch. My videographer had the phone on portrait so there's a lot of us not in frame. But any media is better than no media!But that's why I just did clips. His one naughty spook is at the beginning and then you can see me trying to get him moving over the little jumps.
When we were talking at the end, she validated me once again by saying it was important to work on all the things we did in the lesson, but finding ways to do them within my comfort/safety zone. As in, I don't need to do things that terrify me all the time. Take small steps at a time that keep both Al and I feeling confident and eventually the scary things shouldn't be anymore. She mentioned how as the pro at her barn, all the naughty behaviors become her problem. And she's learned over the years that there's no shame in grabbing mane! Or a neck strap. Or BOTH! Ha! It's nice to have a trainer understand that fear is a real thing and sometimes it's a thick wall to try to break through. But it can be done safely. And I appreciated that. I wouldn't say I'm scared of Al. But some things are just scary to do on a given day. And that's okay. Which I didn't believe was okay before. So while I didn't really come away from this lesson with brand new information, or a magically fixed horse, I did come away with things to do and try to work towards that fixed horse. And that's all you can really ask for.
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