Casanova

Let's kickoff this Monday with a little love, shall we? I'll heap it out in the form of this friendly, somewhat goofy gray guy, Casanova. We had the pleasure of getting to know each other over the course of a lesson. Or at least, try to. It was maybe a bit like speed dating and this guy is kinda an enigma. He was cool tho!

"Well hello there, do you come here often?" - Casanova

Gotta love goofy personable horses too. Or at least horses who are willing to dance a little bit for their carrots lol.

Anyway he was a good lesson mate for me too. He's learned what the trainer M referred to as "fake dressage" - he just gets low and heavy and LOW. The more you fuss the lower and heavier he gets (at one point I let the reins completely out and he just kept going around with his nose on the ground).

can we take a minute to appreciate how pretty this farm is?

Plus he took a LOT of leg omg. In a weird way tho. Like you could tell he had a motor and that he could carry himself up and into the bridle better... But it was almost as if he had to make sure you were serious first.

double wide gazebo!

So I picked up a crop and he was like, "OH OK Thats what you meant. Got it." haha. After that tho it was just managing his rhythm and softness. Like this is a horse who clearly can do the things. But he's also very clearly been a lesson horse for a long time. He knows the order in which we proceed. And when we should take breaks etc.

look at all the little gates!

And by our second canter he was pretty sure the jumping was coming up soon so he was much more alive. A little stiff at first bc his way of going had me getting a little grabby and braced against him. Maybe still residual defensiveness since this was my first real ride since eating shit off Gogo last week (womp womp).

quite handsome actually. even if he was super distracted by the athletics field haha

But he was the perfect tattle tale for me bc he would only truly soften and carry himself when I softened myself and allowed him. That's a feeling I need to commit to muscle memory.

he was glued to this soccer practice like it was the freakin world cup

Jumping was pretty straight forward too. It had the added advantage of soccer practice starting up in the field next door and Casanova was just riveted omg. Like he had a lot of money riding on the game or whatever. Not spooking but just wanting to stop and stare. And getting a little inflexible when we were near that side of the arena.

really tho it was just kids. nbd Casanova, nothing to see here!

So the focus became getting him soft and bending again before starting out on whatever the jumping exercises were. Which, to start was a simple gymnastic. Trot pole to X, eventually building up to a compressed one stride to an oxer. We mostly handled that just fine, tho I was having trouble forcing myself to release over the out jump. Typical issue for me that I would love to resolve one of these days. Trainer M hit the nail on the head tho calling it "defensive."

still watching those soccer players. but still omg this farm is so pretty!

Then we did some basic elements of coursework, trotting in to a line and cantering out in a quiet add stride. Then working on a roll back. Then putting it all together. Basic simple stuff and none of it was ever very large. But the purpose was correctness. Trainer M wanted to see carefully planned turns, and balanced pace to the fence.

indoor for good measure

Both Casanova and I have a tendency to get a little excitable on approach to the jump and then run past our distances a little. So we worked a lot on that. And it was that same feeling as before: I needed to soften so that Casanova would "melt" into the rhythm instead of rush off the ground.

This horse was great for teaching that feeling too bc despite being distracted by the soccer team, and despite getting jiggy when we would start the course, he was VERY honest about softening when I did. Again, that's a feeling I must remember bc it was super effective, and yet is something I really struggle with.

with a very organized and tidy aisle plus lots of pretty ferns hanging all over the place

It's been really great riding this variety of horses too bc they've all added a slightly different dimension to my most common mistakes. Like riding backwards. Each horse responds differently, except when I get it right. When I get it right, they generally all do too. Funny how that works lol.

One of these days tho it would be great to settle into a more regular routine with just one horse. And not have to hustle so hard for lessons just so that I can ride and jump something interesting!