Still riding Tosh!

What initially was only supposed to be a 2-week experience with Tosh has now turned into a 5-week experience! I am not sure why I am still getting this privilege, but honestly, I will totally take it as long as it is available to me!

Just to recap since I didn't post after last week's lesson, we continued our focus on containing my rogue right hand and re-engaging the entire left side of my body. It was a really great lesson (in huge contrast to the one the week before, that I wrote about in Tosh2.0 here, which was equal parts great and frustrating). We warmed up with the Jacob's ladder pattern again, and when T asked me how it felt, I said I was realizing that I needed a lot more left leg in both directions to keep him on the pattern. Then I made a huge breakthrough at the end when I was trotting a 20 meter circle spiral square to the left at C. It was pretty terrible the first time, so we did it again. The second time through I really focused on keeping my left leg on. Constantly asking him to stay out with the left, while also trying to keep my right leg "off" (which right now to my body means literally OFF the horse) because that pesky right leg keeps asking him to spiral in. When I kept that left leg on, our circle was large, round, and even. When I didn't, well, it was a square that spiraled in on itself. We ended the lesson after that really nice circle and T said, I think you're really starting to get it, which means we should have a breakthrough coming soon!

So, this week, I was once again shocked to see my initials next to Tosh on the board! After I mounted and warmed up, T asked what I wanted to work on, and I said, well, I want to really try to stay relaxed and out of my head, and then I want to focus on using my left leg more and keeping this guy (I lifted my right hand) out of the way. She said, ok, so the relaxation is all you, but let's see what we're working with on the box. Right, mental game is ALL me: check.

Tosh and I set out at a walk on the quarter line and I tried to keep my hips and legs loose by swinging them around a bit as I kept bumping him to walk on. We did some circles, a couple of serpentines, and all in all, my left leg was working really hard, but I was remembering to breathe and I wasn't getting tense! Tosh's walk was swinging and relaxed and T commented that she could see in him that I was keeping my body soft and that he was traveling really straight even in our circles (which were WAY more round!), he was staying in 2 tracks.

We started trotting to the right because it's a bit harder for me to have my stronger side on the inside at stay on the box because I need the rail to "hold" the left side for me. The entire time, I kept reminding myself to breathe, to keep my hands low and quiet, and to continuously bump with that lazy weaker left leg. I had a hard time disengaging my right seat bone, and kept inadvertently driving him to the rail. 

To try to fix this, she had me walk, put my right leg over the surcingle grab, and then walk a few circles. At first, Tosh was like, no, ma'am, you are not balanced, I'm not going. So I halted, got into 2 point and while holding mane, kind of wiggled my butt so my hips would open and my legs could get longer. Then, I put my right leg over the grab again and this time we did several circles at the walk before I put my leg back while trying not to change anything. That helped, along with just trying to sit deeper on the left seat bone.

Long story short, I had a few bobbles at the trot in both directions, but was largely able to maintain the softness of my body regardless of what it was doing. This is huge! After we trotted left and took a break, she had me trot left again and this time, change directions through a serpentine to see if I could keep the seat bone softer. Not exactly, but when she had me put my left arm in front of me over his mane to help me turn in a circle to the right, it had the added benefit of forcing me to soften the right seat bone so that he could move his body around my right leg. Hmm, marking this down for future reference.

At the end, she asked if I wanted to canter, and I had debated asking her if I could canter on the line so I didn't have to think about steering and could focus on keeping my body relaxed, but when it came down to it, I decided not to. We started to the left. She told me to get organized and when I was ready, I could go ahead and ask. We got past C before I felt like I was both relaxed and organized, but Tosh never got prancy, so I think my main objective was a success. I held both grabs and asked and Tosh promptly stepped up. Since I had the grabs, I couldn't pull back on him, which was good, but it also allowed me to relax into the rhythm quickly without feeling like he was going to fast or I was sliding every which way (none of which is actually the case, brain, so just stop it). We did some really nice circles and loops and then did a thigh release back to the walk. Everyone watching clapped, including the people that had stopped what they were doing to watch! T told me it was a beautiful canter. 

The right lead is absolutely my harder direction, and I tend to get very tense in the right lead because it is so much harder for me than trotting to the right. I am not really sure if there is more to it than it just being harder with my stronger side on the inside. I've been pondering what else could be contributing and have not come up with much. Anyway, I consciously relaxed my body, took hold of the grabs and took several more deep breaths, then asked from the halt. It was beautiful and after my initial oh sh*t we're actually going, I relaxed again, and really tried to make myself feel like we weren't going as fast as my brain seems to think we are. I was able to keep my body from collapsing in (YAY!), and we even did several planned circles! The last time I rode his right lead (intentionally), I kind of froze and couldn't get him out of a circle. 

We did another thigh release, got some more clapping, and exclamations, and then T asked if I wanted to cool Tosh out outside since it was such a beautiful day. So he and I walked about halfway down the driveway to her house and back. He was a good boy, but he got a little nervous on the way back when her dogs started barking at us. He gave no craps about the wild turkeys that crossed our paths, but started whinnying for his friends with the dogs. I was like, I've got you, buddy, we're fine! He was a good boy though. 

I am super happy with the progress I've made in the last couple of weeks, and I hope T is right, hopefully we have a big breakthrough coming up!