finally clicking again

Phew. 

(that's the sound of a huge sigh of relief, if you were wondering)

Isabel and I had a downright pleasant schooling ride. Finally. The kind that prompts onlookers to say 'Ooh that looks FUN!' 

Yessssss. Ms. Princess is getting her groove back! This was her 4th consecutive day of work: dressage lesson, then light but meh schooling, then Dan lesson, then this ride. Each ride got progressively better and now things are clicking again. For this ride, she was just right there. Ya know? That place where you can just go straight to work and enjoy it? 

does she look happy? i think so! 

Of course my media is limited to video from setting my phone on a jump standard... and I only jumped a couple times - mostly to get a feel for a change in saddle fittings (to be discussed tomorrow), so you better believe I'm milking the ever loving hell out of the two jumps I got on film. Lol... pictures are pictures, right?

and gifs are gifs :D

Despite the media being limited to our jumping efforts, the ride was predominantly a dressage school - obvi given that's been our biggest problem area lately. 

And I just stuck to the same guns:

• get Isabel moving forward
• keep her shoulders square in front of me (and her spinous processes upright!)
• stabilize my hands: outside elbow at my side, inside hand up and open
• no riding backward!!! I repeat: hands do NOT move back! 
• wrap legs down around, no curling. feel my big toe in the stirrup  
• squeeeeeeeze and hold with legs!

sorry these stills are all so blurry

It was immediately apparent that I had my horse back tho. Isabel was rarin' to go - clearly remembering our recent lessons and ready to build on them. Sure there was some curling under - but now it was more like our normal pattern of trying to find the right steadiness and balance, rather than a straight up evasion. 

but i kinda love them anyway

We went through all the same exercises from recent lessons too:

• transitions within the gait (specifically in trot)
• collected walk to collected sitting trot to walk to trot again and again - just using seat
• repeated trot canter transitions
• walk to canter; halt to canter (Isabel DEFINITELY remembered this exercise haha)
• just a couple jumps - but Isabel must be solidly in front of my leg with lifted shoulders

And it was all just so perfect. This is my horse guys. She's perfect. 

she was just feeling so good!

I'm not sure what all the fussiness has been about lately ... but I'm gonna blame it on a perfect storm of small irritants adding up to one big ol' case of the blahs. She was in season and not feeling great - that's fine and all and will happen. But I handled it exactly wrong. 

I backed off too much, forgetting the very first lesson I ever learned from Isabel, that she thrives on routine and consistency. 

I stopped asking for much at all - and when she gave even less than that, I just stopped riding altogether outside of lessons or trail rides (maybe I thought I'd screw her up even worse? that I was somehow incapable and shouldn't push for more without professional supervision?). There was literally ZERO schooling happening, and that's just not how you build a sport horse. 

flying over the tiny coop

So the lesson is (re)learned: A quick easy ride wherein I push all the buttons to make sure they work (and fix whatever might be sticky) is way more beneficial than skipping out completely. Our 4-5x weekly schedule works, and can (and should) still include a lot of variety (like trails!). But I just cannot scrimp on our solo schooling rides. End of story.

Phew. Nothing quite like an abysmal event (yes I am happy with our experience at Waredaca, but you can't deny that it was a shit outing on paper) to send you into a minor tailspin reevaluating everything... Has that ever happened to you?