Back in the Saddle

I have officially ridden, post injury! Today was my first day back in the saddle. It was kind of against what my mom said I should do, and even my own good senses, but dammit, I had to. My back in generally felt really good throughout the lesson. It felt great to actually use my muscles again, like I was sweating out all the impurities and pain from the past 11 days.

I had a 30 minute lesson with the Sara, the dressage trainer that comes to my barn, and I really like her. She's much more intense that my jumping trainer (or really any other trainer I've worked with), in that she really pushes her students to ride well, and I love that. I need a trainer to push my hard. Of course, I felt all kinds of flobbity and out of sorts during the ride, seeing as how it's been 11 days since I rode last, and my back is still wonky. But she was able to see Andy in full force, see me react to him and ride him, and point me in the right direction for practice.

I told Sara in the beginning that Andy would be slow, relaxed, and difficult to get in front of my leg until I cantered. Then, after cantering his mind would switch gears, and he would start his hollowed out, head high in sky running trot, or his running walk that is one step away from a trot. She told me she saw him rushing forward, hollowing out, and evading the bit. She agreed with me that he has one frame of mind at any time: either slow and lazy, or FUCKING GO! And he'll switch between them instantaneously. My other trainer told me a great saying: When you are riding a Thoroughbred, sometimes you are riding a horse, and sometimes you are riding a Thoroughbred, and they are completely different.

She first of all made the point to me that I am allowing him to rush forward. The longer I allow him to rush the walk, break into trot, rush the trot, the worse it becomes and the harder it is to stop. I need to prevent this before he ever gets to act on it. The question becomes, how do I stop him? My method in the past has been pretty much sitting deep, and using the reins, sometimes alternating rein pressure, usually a quick check and release. I generally just timidly fight with him, as I don't want to be heavy-handed. Sara had me half-halting immediately when he began to speed up, and when he refused to listen, halting and backing him up. I totally see how the more I let it go, the more tense and hyped-up he gets, and the harder it is to bring it down.

I think what I got the most out of today was the lesson on how to ride a half-halt effectively. Half-halts always kind of confound me. I know that they are a combination of driving legs, sitting deep, and checking with the reins. They're a way to re-balance the horse and make him think. But how do you ride one effectively? I had one awesome one on Callie (Evil mareface who bucked me off) as I transitioned from a canter to a trot, and I could feel that it was awesome, but I couldn't quite put together in my mind what I did to make it work. With Andy, Sara could easily telling me what I wasn't doing right. As I checked him, I was falling forward, giving him a cue with my seat to go faster. So she had me really sit back and deepen my seat, as I added the restraining aid of my hand.

Another thing that I was doing wrong was fighting Andy by holding my half-halts waaaaay too long. I know that a half-halt is a very quick action, but when I try and get Andy to slow and relax I try gentle steady restraint. Not effective. He just fights it and gets frustrated. I need to think less about slowing him, and instead make him respond to half-halts. She had me give incredibly brief half-halts, then instant release, to allow him to respond. If he didn't, then it was on to another half-halt until he did. I had this one perfect one, when he cocked one ear back to pay attention to me, then instantly slowed and dropped his head. Ah, bliss! We then saw Andy switch from FUCKING GO to lazy instantaneously, as I half-halted to transition from the canter to the trot, and he dropped down to a plodding walk. Seriously, I have Jekyll and Hide Pony.

My perpetual riding pitfall is leaning forward. My tendency to lean forward comes from riding certain polo horses, where when going from basically a halt to a canter you need to lean forward. My jumping trainer, Kandice, has drilled into me that I need to sit back when asking for and riding the canter, and I've improved a lot. Sara had me lean back even further, and incorporated leaning back and lifting my collarbone into the trot as well, as well as sitting back in my half-halts. On the right lead I also curl my left shoulder in...I guess we all have weird little quirks in our riding.

So I am pretty stiff and sore tonight, although I was stiff and sore before I rode because of preschool and the chiropractor. I am dying to ride again soon though, and practice what I worked on. I guess I'm more excited to ride when I feel like my back problems aren't preventing from riding to my true potential.