The One with Go

I had a very close friend in college for whom English was something along the lines of her fourth or fifth learned language. I was a bit envious on that note as other languages have ALWAYS been a struggle for me. However, every once in a while, we would stumble upon a concept that she simply did not understand until I went through a thorough explanation – hopefully full of words she understood. At that point in time, her eyes would light up with realization, and we would both laugh knowing that we were finally sharing the same thoughts.

Every once in a while a rider will have the delightful, and most likely unexpected, experience of a break through. Another bridge of communication has been constructed, and you and your horse are speaking your developing language more clearly.

I love these moments. They are what I ride for!

In an effort to control my expenses, I’ve cut back on my lessons even more. And with work picking up some, and getting over a body wrenching cold, I’ve slacked off in continuing the literary side of my education as well. I would love to tell you this has had NO affect on my riding whatsoever, but sadly, as we all know, this is definitely NOT the case. I know I needed to save some pennies and get help again.

I’d finally gotten to the point with Sudi where our dressage was getting better, and he was actively seeking the bridle and contact. However, he was still NOT nearly responsive enough to my seat nor could I seem to get him off his forehand. I felt like we were elephants tromping around our circles, hoof beats reverberating throughout the back acreage of the farm. Needless to say this was also clearly affecting our canter departs, and I was finding myself contorting my body is all manners of ways just to get him to go. Again – not effective!!

I knew when I got to my lesson Monday that I had clear goals. We were GOING to get him to GO! when I asked nicely. We were also going to get off the forehand. We were also going to canter when I asked (correctly!) and we were also going to get the correct lead. I ALSO knew it was all the same problem (80% of which stemmed from me!)

Susan, who is always so nice about it, picked up our problem immediately. I was accepting too little of him. My expectations have to be MUCH higher (Is this a problem with ALL mothers??? – we want to love our children for who they are…but maybe we should have been pushing them just a bit harder? Asking them to live up to slightly higher expectations? Hmm). Since I had allowed Sudi to get away with such non-responsiveness, we had to work on re-sensitizing him.

Poor Sudi didn’t know what him. Litterally. There he was, just standing there (one of his favorites). I asked him to move, and he was slowly deliberating as to if this was even a good idea when… WHAM! Susan had taken the dressage whip harshly to his butt. He jumped up in attention, but still wasn’t moving quickly enough for us. WHAM! WHAM! That got him going. I allowed him to pick up a canter since that was at least forward, and we circled and came back to her to try again. (I now understand why Tammy’s mare Bunny, the head mare at the farm, gets so frustrated with Sudi! She basically has to beat him up to get him to move!) Unfortunately the second time he was AGAIN non responsive. We repeated the exercise twice more until it actually seemed to compute. (Is this a red-head thing??!) The good news though, is that eventually all I had to do was rock my seat forward, and OFF he went into a trot!

The exercise, painful as it was to watch, did end up working. Even more amazingly, this new found impulsion got him off his forehand! I couldn’t have been happier. I actually had a trot I could do a half-halt with! The improvement in his gait alone was phenomenal. I could not have been happier. I felt like I finally had a horse I could DO dressage with. Our canter work was even amazing – he felt like a horse!

My hope now is that this “Forward Thinking” will continue on through our rides this week. The cynic in me wants to think he is going to need some work, but the new “mom” in me KNOWS that he’s going to get it! (At least he better! Haha) Onward and upward and definitely more forward…