Friday, August 5, 2022

That Good Lesson Feeling

 I know I'm a little behind in posting, but there hasn't been much riding going on for the past couple of weeks. I had a lesson two weeks ago that was great, and one on Wednesday that was also great. During the time in between we had a heat wave and Trainer A rode Cin as by the time I would get to barn after work it would be 95-105. I don't ride in those conditions for my own health, and A was coming out early to beat the heat, so trainer rides it was. Also, for the first time in my life, I'm at a barn that puts up fans in each stall and multiple big fans in the aisles when it gets hot. It's really nice.



Neither lesson has been groundbreaking in terms of what we focused on; it's been the basics. In my lesson two weeks ago A had me ride in her knock off Equibands. She has used them on Cin a few times, but wanted me to feel what they were like. Part of how Cinder's lameness was diagnosed, was that she likes to push her haunches sideways instead of sitting on her hocks/stifles, so the vet recommended the bands to help keep her haunches straight. And if the hill work/band work made Cinder lamer we would know we needed to do more for her. But thankfully Cinder has been feeling really good. 

We also switched her bit to a Myler and despite her face in this pic, she goes really well in it

 For that first lesson, we focused on getting her in front of my leg, then me doing nothing. She's getting strong enough now to carry herself without my constant input; I just need to learn when to let go and when to help her out. We worked over raised trot poles and my instructions were to support with my leg and hand, but let her do the rest. The first couple times through she hit the poles and got a little quick, but by the third time she nailed it. 

I showed up one Sunday before she got turned out and she was upset I wanted to lunge her before playtime

My lesson this week was a continuation of the same theme. We started by working on a large circle in the middle of the ring spiraling in and out at the trot. We then moved on to the same thing at the canter and while we struggled a bit, I felt like I was actually riding and correcting her instead of being a passenger. I tend to forget about my left hand in the canter and it became very apparent in our right lead circles. But, when we fixed it and left the circle to go around the whole arena, we had a lovely canter. 

Obviously not Cinder, but look how adorable Trainer A's new foal is

I'm really happy with how Cinder's coming back into work and how she's feeling. If she feels like this after only a month back into work, I'm excited to see what the future is like!

 

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like things are going really well! Pammon likes to do the same thing, swinging his bum around to avoid using it correctly. Also why he spends so much time in the equibands!
    Glad things are going so well for you guys!

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