Back in the (English) Saddle!

I haven’t been out to the barn much at all lately. In fact, I don’t think I’ve actually laid eyes on my horse in about two weeks before today. My board exam is coming up on July 23^rd and I’ve been using any spare moment to study. But, I felt as though I had made good progress this week and deserved a reward for being so diligent. So, I set up a trail ride with a friend for this morning at 9am.

Now, two weekends ago I had finally decided to get my western saddle restored. It’s currently in the possession of a very nice cowboy who’s working on it. That leaves me with my close contact M. Tolouse, which I LOVE and it’s very comfortable. But, I haven’t used it in awhile because Secret’s canter had been SO bouncy and I like the security of having something to grab onto on the western saddle. I was gonna HAVE to use it today, I’d left myself no choice.

I arrived at the barn and fortunately, as I hadn’t been out in awhile, everyone wanted to chit-chat, which bought me some time to psych myself out about the saddle and work up my nerve. Then it was time to groom. WOW… Secret was really dirty! It was like that sweaty, matted on dirt. Gross! I brushed out as much as could since she was still sweating and threw the blanket on, then the concussion pad, then the saddle (after wiping the mildew off), tightened the girth and climbed aboard.

I have to say I felt kind of silly. I had a definitely western-esque hackamore bridle with an English saddle. But I was somewhat comforted when my friend emerged with a dressage saddle and bridle, draw reins, and saddle bags!

We had a wonderful ride. It was all pretty much at a walk with a bit of trotting as my friend’s horse is still somewhat lame in the stifle. But, it was a great time. It was nice to go out on Secret and not feel like she could blow up at any moment. She was back to her old pokey self and I love it!

 After arriving back at the barn we entered the large outdoor arena so that my friend could work her horse over some cavelleti (gotta build up those muscles to help the stifle!) I trotted Secret around and it was SO hot that she was very calm about the whole thing. So, I made up my mind and told my friend, “I just want to try a canter down the long side. Just to try to start conquering my fear.” She moved to the center of the arena and I set off. She picked up the correct lead on cue and went right into her nice, slow, smooth canter. It’s hard to tell if it’s partially because it was so hot and she just didn’t want to expend extra effort or if it’s because her atrophied muscles are rebuilding post-chiropractor and she’s better able to use her back end. But, either way it’s wonderful!

About half-way down the long side she did get kind of squirrely. But, even at the trot she likes to jump off the rail right in that spot so I was kind of expecting it and since she was in such a nice canter that I didn’t slide even the slightest bit in the saddle. Then I turned around and cued in the other direction. Again she picked up to correct lead and we cantered a whole circle with a very nice bend! She has made such improvement in the last few months that I am absolutely astounded! At that moment, for the first time in a long time, I felt as though I was truly borrowing freedom, instead of fear.

Follow-Up Lesson

I was really hoping to follow-up the success of bareback riding last night with a great lesson. I have to say I was not disappointed! It was super hot, even though we waited until 7pm, and Secret was feeling super lazy. But we started with (surprise, surprise) more circles!

First we were doing them in the corners... trotting the long side, walking, and circling in the corner. This was to work on trying to get her to do a nice, deep, 90o corner. After a few of these we started working on the bigger circles again trying to get her to bend around the inside leg. She is still having difficulty doing it perfectly, but I could feel that she was getting more responsive with less effort from me... my trainer commented on it as well! So we are definitely making good progress there.

We ended, as usual, with some canter work. This took awhile because it was so hot that Secret got tired pretty quickly. So, we cantered a few laps to the left. Then had to stop and rest before going to the right. I've known for awhile that I ride heavy on the left. To compensate for it, I tend to drop my right shoulder and lean my upper body slightly to the right. It's not so obvious when we're cantering to the left, but that is Secret's bad side (she doesn't like picking up that lead). So tonight, when we started going  to the right, my trainer stopped me and started giving me tips on how to be more even. Of all the things she told me I found that the most effective was to really try to turn not just my upper body but my hips as well when I was looking through the turn. A few of the other tips that she gave me were: stretch the right heel way down, lengthen from the waist to the top of the rib cage on the right. I found that when I was focusing on looking through my turns, turning my upper body AND hips, and bending my horse with my legs I had NO time to focus on being scared of panicked of actually cantering! What a difference that made! Here's another shocker: when I wasn't panicking, my horse didn't get fast!

It's also very comforting to know that if I sit really deep and say "whoa", my horse will immediately transition down. I find that knowing that relaxes me and encourages me to sit down in the saddle rather than get tense.

We didn't have any "perfect" canters tonight, but we did have several really good ones. We started to Secret's bad side (the left), then went to the right, then back to the left. On the last few passes to the left, Secret was getting really tired and was having a hard time picking up the correct lead. So I kept cueing in, breaking to the trot, and cueing in again until she got the correct lead and then let her stop and walked her out.

So, to summarize the progress we made this lesson:
(1) More responsive to leg and bending better.
(2) Responding nicely to seat for downward transitions. Not so much from walk to stop, but definitely from canter to trot and trot to walk.
(3) My seat at the canter is getting much better.