T was waiting on a horse to be trailered in, so I watched J warm up the woman riding 2 classes before me on the little halfie gelding she leases. He's really quite cute, and he just turned 5, so he's still pretty green. They did a lot of serpentines, circles, changes of direction, and worked on trot to canter transitions, which I guess he's been struggling with. It looked great to me!
When T got back, they started jumping, working on her folding more and looking up. They did a single diagonal a few times in each direction and it was really nice, so T asked if she wanted to do a line. She said, hell, yea, and off they went to do a vertical to a small oxer, heading toward the barn. It was a beautiful ride, straight through the line, and her release and position were great. The gelding really was super proud of himself. T said she had goosebumps it was so good, so they ended on that note.
Then it was off to the indoor to watch the next class until my phone rang. I had a friend from the other barn, L, ask if she could come watch my lesson. She got a little lost, so it was a good thing T was running late! I managed to get her heading in the right direction and then hustled over to get G tacked up. It was a little hairy for a minute, but it all worked out, and L got there right as I was getting ready to mount.
G and I did our 2 laps of walk and then came back to where T sits and she asked what I wanted to work on. I said, "Well, last week in the saddle, we realized that my right leg needs to soften, which to my brain right now means take it off the horse completely. I feel like I just pull it away about 6 inches when you tell me to soften it, and then he can move his right shoulder and starts bending around my left leg again." She chuckled a little and said ok, anything in particular you think might help with that? So, I said I thought serpentines and circles might be helpful. Then she asked, how is your body feeling today? I said, tight, and my lower back has been really tense this week. So, she stretched my hips and then had me basically do mountain pose, which if you do yoga, you know is NOT an easy posture to maintain when you're truly doing it correctly! My favorite yoga instructor likes to say that you SHOULD be sweating after doing mountain pose 🤣
So, I lifted my hands/arms STRAIGHT above my head, palms facing each other. I had to take 3 breaths in through my nose, out through my mouth, and stretch up from the waist without bending my arms. Then, on my third breath, she had me slowly bring my arms down to parallel with the ground, still keeping them straight, and turn both thumbs to the right before twisting to the right, from the waist, until my left arm just barely started to bend, and my right arm is behind me, basically over the horse's rump. After 3 more deep breaths, I slowly came back to center, lifted them over my head again, and 3 more deep breaths, brought them back down, and turned everything left. Rinse and repeat, once more in each direction. I literally was shaking and sweating profusely at the end of this, but I felt MUCH looser. All of this got a couple of huge sighs from G and lots of licking and chewing, so apparently he felt better with the softness, too.
After that, she had me start right away in a working walk on the rail and do a 2 loop serpentine from C-X-A. It didn't go well due to another horse making me feel like I had to cut my 2nd loop short. She called me out on it, saying I can ride rail to rail or quarter line to quarter line, but it has to be the same on all loops. I laughed and ended up turning around and starting again.
The quarter line path worked better, since horses were cooling out on the rail, so we did that. Then we did it again from A-X-C. My right leg was a lot softer this week, and I wasn't struggling nearly as much getting a left bend as I have been. After a few more small serpentines, she had me pick up a sitting trot (have I mentioned I'm glad she doesn't make us post in the surcingle?!), and we started doing some circles.
I had a few issues with tipping forward or to the inside, which makes G slow down or stop. It's greatly improved and I am so much more aware of it. T ended up handing me a crop to keep G going, because while he is doing his job of wanting to slow down and "catch" me, I am not truly unbalanced, so she wanted me to be able to tap him and keep going through my mistakes so I can work on fixing them. It really does help!
Our trot work got better and better, and straighter and straighter. Like, leaps and bounds from even a week ago. Our halts were beautifully straight and square every time. And every halt resulted in a deep sigh from G. She told me she got goosebumps from my ride, too! I was like, really? you did?! 😃
After walking a couple of laps and getting some water, she asked if I had enough energy left to canter. I said, yea! Let's do it! She said, ok, do you want to start to the left since that is your weaker direction? Sounded good to me. So, I got a working walk organized, put my right hand on the surcingle handle, and asked for a canter. I tipped forward, and got a fast trot. We came back down and tried again, really nice depart, although not exactly as prompt as I was aiming for. Once I got him going, I actually felt like I was wrapped around him well enough that I let go of the handle completely. Guys, I cantered bareback without holding on! But then I got excited and I tipped in the 3rd corner and he broke, so we came back to the walk and tried again. She wanted me to hold it together in my corners by talking myself through it in my head, outside shoulder forward, inside shoulder up and back, turn my head in the direction we are going, eyes up, outside leg back, inside leg on. When we got through the 4th corner reasonably well, she had me halt before the 5th corner. Beautiful, square, straight...and I wasn't holding on!
We switched directions and I felt comfortable enough to let go to the right, too. (Now my smaller goal will be to feel like I can ask for the canter without holding on, but one thing at a time!) We worked on the same thing, getting through the corners without breaking gait or tipping in or forward. It was a bit harder, even though the right is my easier direction, because I was running out of steam. She told me to try to get all the way around the ring but if I felt like I was losing it, to halt before I actually did lose it. I must have been thinking loudly (and tipping forward) because in the far corner, G slowed down and stopped. I laughed and said, I'm guessing my entire body said, I'm ready to stop, so he obliged. She laughed and agreed. Then we did it one more time just to end on a halt that was my conscious decision.
At the end, she told me she is really proud of me and she hopes I can feel the difference as much as she can see it.
L walked with me while I cooled G out, and she exclaimed, I've never seen anyone teach like that before, it's SO COOL. It is so cool, and I told her, I was so angry and hurt when the other place basically told me I was too fat to ride their horses, but it was a blessing in disguise and I am SO, SO happy I found T and her horses. I get to the barn feeling excited instead of anxious, and I leave feeling content and fulfilled, and HAPPY. I've really missed this feeling, and I didn't even fully realize I was missing it until I got it back.
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