Finding a Steady Forward

Monday

Elf is a bit of a polygraph.

There is no covering up when my balance is off or I’m not quite steady in the contact or I’m not holding my core – it is abundantly clear when he pops above the bit, blows out through a shoulder or his haunches go swinging out. While it is sometimes frustrating, it also makes me a better rider.

There are 2 primary things I’m focusing on in my rides now as we build up some fitness and increase the length of our rides.

1 – Keeping Elf steadily in front of the leg

2 – Precise, accurate transitions

Both of these goals require that my riding is consistent and my timing is on point – both things that I tend to struggle with. I have a tendency to revert back to the defensive riding I used when Elf was relatively new to me, younger and much more reactive. That doesn’t work now and only shuts him down. I can be a much softer touch once he is firmly moving forward.

Monday felt a little sticky to start. Elf was distracted, it was windy and a new young horse had just come into the barn and was calling. The first couple minutes of our walk warm up felt like I fight, and I felt like my position was weird. I got off and adjusted my saddle, then opted to do some walk – halt – walk transitions from the ground where I can be a little quicker with my timing. It’s been a long time since we long lined, but Elf is really solid with it. Once he was moving forward with energy off voice cues, I got back on and had a much more effective walk to work with.

I followed essentially the same work plan as last week:

Walk warm up: large figure eights on a loose rein, quarter line to rail leg yields, serpentine, a more working walk with shoulder in and 20m circles mixed in.
Trot work: large figure eights, leg yields both directions from quarter line to the rail and quarter line to quarter line.
Quick canter
Schooling transitions, with a focus on the trot-halt-trot and mixing in some 10 and 15 meter circles.

We finished by doing the transition work on a 20m circle and mixing in some stretchy trot and canter. I asked for 1 canter-halt-canter each direction and was really pleased with Elf’s effort. The canter-halt transition while tracking left felt a little unstable and he popped above the bit, but it was more a lack of strength than a straight evasion.

This was hard work for Elf, especially with our temperatures having popped up into the mid 90s. He got a very thorough shower, 2 popsicles and his hind legs iced before being turned out for a couple hours.

Wednesday

For the last two weeks, I’ve said almost every morning I’ve gone to the barn that this was going to be a quick ride.

I have failed.

I’m sure as the temperature continues to go up, I will manage it, but I’d been fortunate here lately that the weather has generally been beautiful. Today, again, it was warm but breezy. A friend was pulling out as I was pulling in, so of course, we had to chat.

I started today, again, trying to focus on establishing the forward from the get go. I’m struggling a little with wanting to make sure I do at least 10 minutes of walk warm up and getting a good marching walk. Elf really needs a bit of canter to loosen up and get forward. For the last several years, I’ve done a pretty abbreviated walk and trot warm up before letting him canter a bit on a loose rein and THEN going back to our warm up. As he’s gotten older, I’ve tried to do more walking but I think I need to add some tools to that particular toolbox.

Once we got going, he was pretty solid today. His leg yield felt much easier than Monday, and he gave me shoulder in on a 20m circle the very first time I asked. He was stiffer going to the left, especially in his jaw which is long standing trouble spot for us. I thought we’d worked through it pretty effectively until we got to the last exercise I wanted to do: trot-halt-trot on a 20m circle. Tracking right went smoothly through our transition checks, so I did a big figure eight in a loose, stretching trot to bring us around to a 20m circle at B tracking left.

Annnnnnd, he braced in the left jaw, I got stiff in my left elbow and right in my left shoulder, my right hip probably came back & I likely went up a bit on my toes (since that’s pretty common for me when I get tense in the saddle). Elf’s head went up, his back got hollow and connection went out the window.

By this point, we’re both hot & sweaty. This is the last thing we’re trying to do. Is it worth it to work through?

I took a moment to shake out my hands and reset. Big, marching walk with a little bit of leg yield in and out of the circle. Once I felt like I could move his shoulder around and I was getting some flexion in the jaw, I added easy transitions – mostly walk-trot-walk with a couple trot-canter-trot since the canter is his most adjustable gait. I waited until he felt really with me and responsive before asking for the trot-halt-trot.

When he got it the first time, I called it today and we went for a little hack.

Best ride I’ve ever had? Not by a long shot. But, we ran into a sticky spot and worked through it.

I’m good with that.

Friday

A quick ride.

For real, this time.

I feel like almost every time I’ve gone to the barn in the last couple weeks, I’ve meant for it to be a “quick trip”….and failed. I mean, the barn and quick don’t really go together any way. Everyone knows (including my husband) that time simply doesn’t work the same way at the barn.

But.

I meant it this time.

It’s Friday, in May, with two weeks until school is out and we’re already hitting summer temperatures. Before I left the house this morning, I was tired, had a headache and just needed a break. So, I was serious about needing a quick trip to get my mood right but leave me with enough time to relax before the afternoon whirl of extracurriculars.

Elf was his normal self today. We’re at the time of year were he is itchy (he reacts to pretty much every insect bite) so I took a little extra time with a curry brush to make sure I was hitting the itchy spots and breaking up any dried sweat. Dried sweat makes the coat dull, irritates your horse’s skin and sticks on dirt. That lovely summer coat shine comes out best with regular currying to break up any sweat and rinsing.

The arena was pretty busy today, but Elf handled it like a champ. We weren’t adding any new work today – I just wanted calm, response to my leg and a little stretch at each gait in both directions. I think it’s time to get Elf’s teeth done, because a few times when I picked up the reins after a stretch he really popped his head up and seemed a bit reactive. (Sure enough, I checked when I got home and he is due for his teeth floating in June)

I’ve made a point today, since we were sticking to a very simple ride, to concentrate on doing less with my upper body. I’ve noticed recently that in transitions, especially up transitions, I’m throwing my body forward. Since it’s unlikely that my leaning forward is going to do much to propel my 1300+ lbs horse, I need to cut it out. It’s also throwing Elf’s balance towards the forehand which is pretty counter productive to everything we’ve been working on.

Good points today: I moved the canter part of our warm up earlier in the ride and that seemed to make a substantial difference in how forward Elf was. The leg yield felt smoother.

Things to work on: I was pretty distracted today. I didn’t have a concrete plan at all. I’d thought to hack by they were mowing with a large tractor were we hack and Elf is a bit skeptical of large moving machines.

That being said, we had a decent ride, I had the opportunity to chat with some friends and I was pulling out of the barn driveway exactly 2 hours after I got there.