Not relying on my reins

I arrived at the barn on Sunday, hoping that what we'd worked on and talked about the week before had percolated a bit and my body might possibly remember how to circle. When I got to the horse assignment board, I got a little nervous because I didn't see my name right away. Then I realized it was down toward the bottom on a rusty part. I checked in with T and she confirmed I was riding Skylar and told me where to find his stuff and that I would want to lunge him first. I moseyed off to find his stall and gather his tack. Skylar is a cute little palomino gelding, looks like a full quarter horse to me, but I didn't ask!

He had a sweet personality on the ground, although we had some words when he got a little snarky when I did up his girth. Once he knew I wasn't going to let him do that, he stopped and stood there licking and chewing. I guess he was testing me.

I headed out to the arena about 15 minutes before my lesson time to put him on the lunge, and T told me she was going to empty the manure spreader in between my lesson and the one before me, but I could ask the woman riding any questions while she was gone. No problemo. I put Skylar through his paces on the lunge and then mounted and started my 2 laps of 2-point. I actually did more like 4 or 5 laps, including some figures, circles, 90-degree turns, etc. And I made sure to rotate and swing my shoulders around a bit to loosen them up. Then I sat up and started practicing my 90-degree turns, circles and tear drops with my reins on the buckle and my inside arm in the air or on my hip. Skylar was very responsive to this, so I was thinking either he was more compliant than Eli and G or I actually was communicating a bit better!

When T came back, I told her what I'd been doing to warm up and she asked what I thought of Skylar so far, and how I thought he differed from the other 2 geldings. I said he felt softer and easier to influence with my body. He was still telling on me if I wasn't asking quite right but he was trying really hard to give the right answer. She laughed and said his compliance could be a mix of personality and the fact that they finally got to have several days of turnout in a row!

She put me right to work doing more figures with my inside arm out like an airplane and although I initially struggled a bit with her watching, it really was a lot better than the week before. Eventually she had me pick up a rising trot, keeping a slightly longer than normal rein, and oh my god, it was like riding a giant couch. Skylar is SO comfortable! She told me to do a large circle at C and while it wasn't a perfect circle, it was circle-ish. That's a win! We stayed on the circle for a while in both directions and they just kept getting better. Then she asked if I wanted to try keeping my body this way at the canter, and I said sure!

I guess my right side was tired by this point because getting the right lead was a struggle. My body just wasn't cooperating and Skylar was trying really hard not to give me the wrong answer. So we changed directions, to see if the left would be any easier. It was, but then I had this struggle with him dropping his head a bit too far in response to my right side dropping, so I would pick him up, also picking my torso up in the process, and then my right leg would jut forward to catch me. She was very positive and said there is a huge improvement happening, but my right side isn't ready to do that yet. We chatted for quite a while about what could be causing the right leg to behave that way, could it be from an injury, etc. And I told her the only thing I could think in recent years was when I threw my back out in 2016, it was the right side, so maybe it is a compensation from that.

When we ended, she asked if I wanted to try a surcingle/lunge lesson next week so that she could try to dig deeper into the chicken and the egg scenario...are my hips the issue, is my back the issue, etc. She is quick to tell me I can say no to any of her suggestions, but I think it sounds like a great idea. So, challenge accepted!