crayons for the kiddo

Happy Friday, y’all! It’s been the kind of week where I almost don’t even really remember everything that happened, except that things felt pleasantly routine and productive. I’m still not super sure that we have Doozy’s situation figured out, but felt optimistic enough to schedule another lesson with the new local 5* coach. Yay!

pretty biscuit went to another lesson! and was sound!!

I warned her that the horse would almost certainly be lame, even tho she seemed sound for all the rest of our rides earlier in the week… Bc that’s honestly just how things have been for us so far this year. 

yours truly ran a bit late tho bc apparently my gps doesn’t have a setting for “avoid bus routes” at school o’clock

But I figured, eh, it was worth a shot. Worst case scenario, it would be just another off farm exposure, possibly with another set of experienced eyes weighing in on what might be going on with the mare. 

it’s a very pretty farm. maybe eventually we’ll get out to explore the xc fields

Naturally, tho, Doozy surprised us all — as is her way, apparently — and was sound! Yay!! We still kept it super low key, tho, and just focused on the fundamentals. 

no media from the lesson aside from where our halt transitions suddenly got a whooole lot crisper when a friggin wild turkey randomly sauntered across the ring LOL

This coach is really great about calling out all my positional bad habits and flaws etc in a positive and productive way, which I LOVE. But she’s not so rigid that she requires I completely abandon my core base of strength — even as she may want to evolve that over time too.

anyway. speaking of randomly spooky objects…..

Mostly, tho, her focus is on helping me be more effective in improving Doozy’s way of going and overall training. She zeroed in fairly quickly to my delicate handling of the hot horse, and wants me to be more proactive in getting my legs on and actually touching the horse more.

oh no!

She used a really great analogy for Doozy that reminded me a lot of our early days together. Remember how, back when Doozy was brand new we sometimes struggled to just like… hand walk around an arena? But literally simultaneously, if I had to do some sort of little task like picking up manure, setting up ground poles, or opening or closing a gate while still …hand walking the horse around the ring, Doozy was always totally aces for all that?

so #controversial

At the time, this behavior in Doozy really struck me as reinforcing that I needed to be keeping her occupied and engaged — like with the little ‘micro tasks’ — bc otherwise in the absence of any clear direction or objective, mare would fill the vacuum with her own ideas haha. All of which were, naturally, a bit chaotic. 

she might be silly but she’s so sweet <3

So this new coach’s analogy was that Doozy is a bit like the kids out to dinner at a restaurant who stay occupied by coloring in the place mats with crayons. She needs something to do, beyond just “trotting around a circle.”

and hey, how about MOAR unrelated pics??? went on a gorgeous hack the other night too

W’s suggestion was to be more proactive in finding feelings of leg yield and counter bend while going around on our circle. And to be sorta strategic with whether I want to leg yield out or in based on where we are with the circle and Doozy’s natural affinity to drift one way or another vis-à-vis the gate. 

it’s crazy how fast the hay fields grow this time of year

We practiced getting the feeling right while mostly staying on a figure 8 of 20m circles, spending time getting balanced and connected in one direction, then achieving a walk transition to change bend and direction, then trotting again the other way. All while working on those sorta subtle micro adjustments in Doozy’s balance and bend.

  

nbd just wandering the hillsides

This was super useful bc my own crookedness has only gotten more pronounced with time out of the saddle. Changing directions while staying mostly on small figures really helped me be aware of what my own posture was doing from one direction to the next. 

looking back across the valley to the barn yard

Another comment from W has also really stuck with me — she advised me to make our exercises take more time. My tendency is to try to rush through things and get them done. Whether bc I’m not feeling confident about it, or feeling like the mare is unspooling, or whatever. But the point is to really slow down my own approach and be more intentional about making the exercises take the time they need to take in order to actually have the desired effect on the horse. 

majestic mare!

That isn’t necessarily a ground breaking observation, obviously, except that it really helps me stay focused about what I’m doing in our schooling sessions. And go figure, Doozy has an easier time not rushing when *I’m* not rushing. Crazy stuff, guys lol.

my friend always gets the most epic shots <3

Doozy, for her part, responds really well to these lessons. Another great reminder that she will, in fact, go as correctly as I can ride her. Assuming she’s sound, obviously. Which… she was for this ride— woo hoo! 

it ain’t a bad gig!

I don’t want to get ahead of myself or count my chickens before they hatch or whatever… But we’ll just keep sorta tentatively proceeding and see where it gets us. And mayyyybe try thinking about making some plans again. Maybe lol. We’ll see ;)