Saddle check-in

On my way to the barn yesterday, I was asking myself if I wanted to ride in the saddle or the surcingle. My instant answer was, saddle. I started to think about why that was my first answer, and it came down to several factors: I hadn't ridden in a saddle in several weeks and it seemed like it might be time to check-in on my progress; it was cooler and rainy and I had been fighting off a head cold for several days, so because of the nasal drainage, I thought maybe my balance would be a bit off; I hadn't ridden in 2 weeks and thought that, combined with the aforementioned weather/balance, I might want the safety net of stirrups. I was admittedly being kind of a wimp!

I got to the feed room and saw my name next to Tosh and thought, yea, definitely saddle today, since T calls him an adrenaline junkie who likes to scare himself. He proved this to be a wise choice for a few reasons: 

1. When I took him to get his pre-ride drink, the water was pretty low in the trough, so his martingale started to slide down his neck. In true prey-animal fashion, he freaked out and tried to leave. I went with him, told him to whoa and I could see him kind of go, wait, you're not panicking, it must be ok. He came right back mentally and I nicely held the martingale in place while he finished drinking, but definitely tied him up in his stall while I watched the middle of the lesson before me. 👀

   

   Actual footage of Tosh trying to escape his martingale's attack at the water trough

2. I asked T if she thought he might need a minute on the lunge line and she said, that's probably a good idea. So, I attached the line and told him to whoa (her horses ground tie better than any I've ever seen, so this is not usually an issue) but when I turned my back to get a lunge whip, he started trotting off to the spot in the back of the arena where horses usually get lunged. I had to step on the line to catch him and T was kind of chuckling. She explained they sometimes free lunge him in the winter, so once he's set up, he thinks it's time to go. She admits it's not the right answer, but you also can't really fault him for it! 🤷
   
3. A pallet outside the arena that normally has a round bale on it spooked him (and everyone else, for that matter) several times in each direction while I was doing my 2-point warm-up. I held my inside leg on him and wiggled my outside fingers while really concentrating on my breathing and keeping my eyes focused where we were going and he eventually forgot about it. 👻

So, after I did my warm-up, T asked, "Why did you decide to ride in a saddle today?" I told her mostly because it had been my gut reaction when I asked myself what I wanted to do today. She expressed concern at my head being filled up with snot and told me if I felt dizzy at all, I needed to stop before I hit the ground. Haha, I totally get her concern, but I really did feel fine other than being stuffy!

Turns out, she was going to suggest I ride in a saddle if she had seen me before I had gotten ready. Interesting that we were on the same wavelength!

Anyway, we started in working walk to the right, on the box and did a few 2 loop serpentines to get my body warmed up and turning properly. Then she had me pick up a rising trot to the right. The first thing I felt was I got the wrong diagonal and had to switch. We did some circles and other figures and it felt way better than my last ride, but I could sort of tell I was sitting more to the right again. When we changed directions, I got my diagonal right away and felt more balanced, but that was because my right side was on the outside! Either way, it is way easier to change my weight in stirrups than the surcingle. 

I stopped and adjusted in 2-point several times because I don't feel off center in 2-point. And, I was able to adjust my weight left several times and see/feel an instant change in Tosh. One of those times, Tosh was standing with his body arced around my right leg. When I got into 2-point, and stood more in the left before settling back into 2-point, he shook his head and then straightened his body out. I also no longer had issues getting the wrong diagonal tracking right. But, I had to consciously shut my brain down -- literally had to tell it to shut up so I could ride. It was screaming that I was sitting wrong and I was going to fly off the horse, when in reality, my left side was engaging and I wasn't going anywhere. Finally, I started to also realize, to the left, it meant he stayed OUT in our figures. To the right, it meant he stayed IN in our figures. 

For example, when we cantered to the right, and I was struggling to keep my weight to the left/outside, it resulted in wide corners and issues circling. When we cantered to the left, I had a way better grasp on when my weight had shifted and was able to fix it on the fly, which in turn would fix my circle. We ended up cantering to the right a second time to see if I could find that same feel in my harder direction. T asked me to circle at A, and as we came around by F to end our circle, Tosh was drifting left while diving with his right shoulder. I had an oh, sh*t moment and then somehow managed to climb out of that negative spiral that normally causes me to panic, and shifted my weight to my left stirrup. It felt SO counter-intuitive, but Tosh immediately stood back up on that right shoulder, because I got the hell out of his way, and then our turn evened out and our circle ended beautifully. 

We came back to a walk after that and ended the lesson on that note. I seriously hope my brain can maintain this little tidbit of feel and replicate it!