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| Warming up for our lesson... |
Look where you want to go... How many times have I heard it,
thought it, and said it to my own riding students? Only about a million times. If
you’re looking down and something happens that’s where you’re headed, down to a
usually not so pleasant dismount off your horse. If you look a head of you, if
you have a plan, your body follows through subconsciously with out thought and
the horse picks up on those movements and responds to them.
Its frustrating, having ridden for 24 years of my life, to
realize I’m still making rookie mistakes.
As we progress in our lessons my trainer is adding in some small jumps,
and lately she’s also been adding some more complicated entries to the jumps
having me approach off a tight angle or a bending line trying to get me to look
ahead, have a plan, and be focused on more then one area of the ring, and one
step in my riding at a time. Its one thing to take a jump, but we won’t be able
to do a course if I can’t multi-task with my brain a little bit and get my eyes
pointed up and a head of us. Mind you, I have ridden some small jump courses,
but I was always on a horse that seemed to have auto-pilot. Point. Shoot. Jump.
I didn’t have to think about it on the school horse I was riding. Riding on a
green horse (at least where jumping is concerned) is a whole new ball-game. Rio
is still unsure, and often unbalanced approaching a fence so when I’m not
looking where I need to be with a plan in place well ahead of each jump or turn
our ride falls apart and he knocks jumps, hesitates, or refuses all together.
I used to think Rio just didn’t like jumping. Some horses,
training or not will go over a fence the first time you point them at it like
they were born to do it. The more
we ride, and the better I get at looking ahead instead of down at Rio, and the
more balanced I am, the better Rio takes each jump.
We had a rather frustrating lesson on Wednesday, which
consisted of me trying about 25 times to get through a particular pattern and
over a small set of cross rails coming off a very tight bend. But, in the end
when we finally got it; when I’d finally put all the puzzle pieces together I
realized Rio doesn’t dislike jumping at all really. I was just not providing
the direction he needed to be confident about what I was asking him to do.
Today I road him down the road to a neighboring barn to work
with a friends horse & to expose Rio to a new setting… God forbid we
actually ever want to show I want him to have as many new experiences as
possible with out it being a major deal. He was extremely well behaved once we
got down to work. A few minor spooks at some polls and jump standards piled
along the fence and a little apprehension about riding in the ring with horses
he didn’t know, but five minutes into the ride he was behaving like he was at
home.
I warmed him up long and low at the walk and trot, before
coaching my slightly less experienced new leaser through some basic walk trot
work with him. By this time he was fully focused and plenty warmed up so I
asked for the canter which is something we’ve been struggling with lately.
Getting a collected canter from a walk or standstill is also a nemesis of ours…
at least with out Rio throwing a small tantrum about having to do the work.
Quick side note - I’ve been
working him on the lounge line in side reins a couple of times a week, as well
as working to make sure we are both better balanced and in good rhythm at the
trot when under saddle. Apparently all that work has paid off, because today
for the first time in quite a while I got a good balanced canter on the correct
lead in both directions. Really for the first time ever, I couldn’t tell a
difference between his good side and his bad side, and we maintained our canter
through several circles and through turns. Before it would have been a fight to
hold the canter around the ring one time when working on his off side.
Since we were having such a fantastic ride, and Rio was
rather forward and game to go I figured why not try a couple of cross rails. We
trotted through the first couple of times, and on the third go around he landed
in canter and I was able to maintain a balanced canter to bring him back around
to the jump so I let him approach at a canter. He took the jump like it was
really no big deal and by the fourth circle through he was looking for it. On
the fifth cycle I broke our pattern asking him to turn before the jump so that
I could bring him back to a walk and I actually had to over correct our course
with my seat & legs because he was locked on to the jump and ready to go again
if I’d let him. It was a complete 180 in attitude from our Wednesday lesson
& completely negates my theory that he just doesn’t enjoy jumping.
I can look at this turn around and say, well he’s figuring
out his balance and so am I which is helping our ride over all, but the biggest
difference in today’s ride was that I made a conscious effort to be looking well ahead or us,
not only not down at the horse or my position, but well out ahead of where we
were aiming.
Looking ahead isn’t just a part of riding. It’s a metaphor
for life really. It seems like the
last 10 years of m life have been nothing, but one big transition after another.
A move to Florida. The completion of my B.A. and a new job every year since
graduating trying to find where I fit best. When things get scary its easy to look down and burry your
head in the sand hoping life will just fix itself.
This last year of teaching and this summer have been all
about digging myself out of that hole and looking ahead to my future rather
then just doggy paddling a long against a current and hoping it will get
easier. God gives you
opportunities, but its up to you what you make of them.
This summer I took initiative to get healthy, working extra
hours so that I could work with a personal trainer and I’ve lost 16 pounds
since the start of the year, and 10 of those this summer. Getting fit has
really helped my confidence level, and my riding. Training with my most amazing
coach has made a huge difference in how I ride. I always thought I had a good
partnership with Rio, but I’ve realized until recently I was letting him down
by not being the leader he really needed, and I didn’t even know I was doing it
until we found L. I’m headed into a new year of teaching staying in the same
position for the first time since graduating college and already I’m seeing
positive changes that have been made in our small school because of advice I
gave, and I’m starting to see myself as an educated adult who’s opinions are valued.
The lesson’s I’m learning through riding are lessons I plan to apply to my life
and to my teaching in the classroom. And, I’m fully confident that this will be
the most amazing year yet because I’m looking forward for the first time in a
very long time.
