Stuck like glue

Last week's surcingle lesson was more of the same from the last few weeks. We have been building on this quiet confidence I'm developing and slowly (re-)teaching my body how to turn right again. Turning right is proving to be difficult, but I think I'm slowly getting it. 

There are a few key things have come to light:

1. If I remove my right leg from the horse, my horse can turn right as soon as I ask. So, I need to figure out how to stop blocking him with my right leg and driving him left with my right seat bone, while NOT removing my right leg from his body.
2. If I hold my left arm out over his mane as I try to turn right, I am able to better unlock my right side and actually turn my body and my horse!
3. I do not have that same success when I hold my right arm up over my head -- I still find it hard to get around myself and turn my horse.
4. All of this is way easier to the left, where I have relatively few issues turning! To the left I feel more centered, more balanced, less grippy in my thighs, and it's slightly easier to find my left seat bone. When I try to replicate that feeling to the right, I get a pretty great turn!
5. I'm trying to slowly do more trotting without holding the grabs, because I feel like I'm having difficulty turning around the grabs when we trot figures. Particularly to the right.

This week, my normally flea-bitten grey mount was nearly bay with mud when I arrived. (Yay...thanks, Tosh.) I got a really good arm workout currying him, and eventually managed to get him reasonably clean. (There's not much I can do about stains!)

My face when I saw Tosh, and how I looked after currying the mud off of him.
He, on the other hand, looked pretty pleased with himself.

As if the mud wasn't enough, the hair was coming off of him in sheets. Needless to say, I consumed a lot of horse hair and dirt! 

As usual, I gave Tosh the option to lunge and he was pretty low-key since he'd been out all night. Once I mounted, he scooted a little but then took a deep breath and we walked off by ourselves to warm up. 

Right away, I could feel how stiff my body was, so after we'd walked 2 laps in each direction, I stopped him to stretch my hips and turn my body for a couple of minutes. When T asked what I wanted to work on, I said, I think more turning, trying to see if we can get my circler back in the habit of circling, especially to the right. I told her I was feeling kind of stiff because I'd spent the majority of the previous day lying on the couch with my dog, enjoying the silence of my husband being out of town! She offered to stretch my legs to see if it would help. I think it did help quite a bit. We got a couple of decent releases on each side, and Tosh seemed to appreciate that. 

Then she asked if there were any shapes in particular I wanted to work on and I said serpentines, because then we get the basic arc of a circle but have a chance to straighten out and get everything sorted out again before I can lose stamina in the middle or at the end of a circle.

Since one of the babies was lunging at C, our warm-up took place on the A half of the arena. She sent us off to do a Jacob's ladder pattern and told me not to worry about being round in the turns, to just focus on getting my body right. We set off on a loose rein to K and began the pattern. 

Those right turns were HARD. My ongoing issue is keeping my right shoulder up and back and my right leg stretched down and also "off" the horse so he could turn around it. It did get easier as it went, but man. I don't struggle nearly as much with the same exact turn to the left. 

Eventually, the baby was finished and we utilized the entire arena. First she had me Jacob's ladder at the trot up to C and back to A. Then we walked for a minute before she had me Jacob's ladder to C, with serpentines, instead of straight lines -- at the trot. Good grief. I think it rode as well as I drew it the first time (ie, very, very badly).

BUT, on the way back from C to A in the same pattern, I had an epiphany at my V-L-P serpentine when T asked me to really focus on how it felt turning to the left and to try to feel that same thing to the right. The result was that my right arc in my K-D-F serpentine was literally my best right-hand arc ever.

After that nearly perfect turn, she decided we were done doing figures and asked if I wanted to canter. I did! We were halted at F on a long rein. She told me to take 3 deep breaths and on the 3rd exhale, to ask for the right lead. Guys, this horse is incredible. I can't even. It's SO hard to wipe the huge smile off my face when we're cantering around! The depart was perfect, my body felt soft and relaxed, so the pace felt amazing. But more importantly, I was able to keep him on the rail with just my body and waiting to look for my next marker with my eyes (something I have been struggling with).

After a couple of laps, we did a thigh release to halt and then did a turn on the haunches to reverse. We walked half a lap to C and then she told me to take 3 deep breaths and ask on the 3rd exhale again. We had another great depart and I promptly forgot to breathe once we were cantering. Oops! But even so, everything felt amazing and I was grinning like an idiot. 

By this point, another baby had been brought in for some lunging, and as we came around by C in our second lap, she decided to buck as we passed her. Tosh leaped to the right (probably a slight exaggeration on his part, but hey, he was protecting us). By some miracle, I continued to look around my corner, tightened my hold on the grabs, jammed my heels down, and stuck with him like there was glue on my breeches. I'm pretty sure if I'd been in a saddle, I would have zagged while Tosh zigged. As it is, I'm really proud of myself for sticking with him. It felt HUGE because he's a big horse, but according to the eyes on the ground, my butt never moved from his back. 

The even bigger victory is I was kind of laughing about it and celebrating as I asked him to whoa. We finally collected ourselves and came back to a halt by F  before turning to face T, who was also chuckling, since she knew I wasn't freaking out. T and I agreed that if I had been in a saddle, I probably would have been a goner. But both of us were super proud of me for not getting anxious or upset, for just going with the flow, sticking (literally) with my horse and bringing him back. 

Finally, as Tosh turned to boop my right foot (something he never does), T said, I think Tosh is pretty embarrassed by all of that but he really hates losing his person, so I'm sure he's glad you stuck with him. I'm not going to get onto him for protecting you and getting you out of there. But I think we're going to end on that note and let your body and brain remember that huge win.