This past weekend didn’t go exactly as planned but it was so fun! Originally the plan was to head to our first show of the year. The show was cancelled due to how wet it is in order to preserve the facilities footing for the rest of the season though.
Trainer ended up coming to our area to teach Sunday instead. Even Dobby got to go on the field trip! Both of the creatures were very well behaved. It was nice to see how they handled being tied to the trailer for a couple hours. Dobbins does need some work loading onto the trailer but with some practice and patience I am sure he will figure it out. Apparently it’s hard to get on the trailer when you’re a giraffe! 😂
This was the perfect opportunity to have Trainer sit on Dobby and tell me what she thought. Who am I to pass up the opportunity for a training ride? It was pretty uneventful (in the best way) and I loved getting to see Dobby go around. Trainer commented on how quiet he is and gave me some good homework.
Next up was my lesson with Inca. We hadn’t been able to jump since our cross country school the week before. I wasn’t sure exactly what I would have under me but shouldn’t have worried. Inca was very rideable and took great care of me.
This will come as a shock to exactly no one but one of the primary focuses of my lesson was my upper body position (Sit back or die folks). I am getting stronger and holding my position better but I have to stay focused to maintain it. Every jump school we improve but it is still frustrating that we can never seem to pick up where we left off. At least I can see some progress. Slowly but surely we are chipping away at some of my bad habits.
I have lamented to Trainer a few times that I have a hard time riding Inca with any kind of contact. On Sunday she helped me with a small breakthrough. With Inca being so sensitive you can’t simply pull on her. Where I get caught clamming up and trying to hold hold hold my actions are too loud. Instead I need to think about squeezing my shoulder blades together. Just that slight change made so much difference in my ride.
Another thing we talked about was my reaction times. I really need to start thinking and moving faster. Right now it takes me a few strides too long to recover which can make combinations or quick turns a challenge (read: impossible). This ties into my upper body position though.
Where I like to be and where I need to be in the saddle are very different places. I get frustrated when I think about how I should be riding… then I take a step back and remember that I haven’t had regular lessons in over 2 years, had a baby, and I’m riding new horses. Considering how little I sleep these days I guess I’m retaining about as much as can be expected!
I don’t know how I went so long without lessons. I guess you work with what you have! I am so grateful to be in a position to not only ride but get so much help with my riding. It’s not easy and it’s certainly not always pretty but we are making baby steps in the right direction.
Do you find that you work on a lot of the same stuff in your lessons? Same theme with different exercises? Sometimes it takes me being told the exact same thing a slightly different way for it to click!
My lessons have gotten more regular and more fun this past year. But yes, a lot of the same on the flat (right heel down, right heel down). Jump lessons when you’re not getting good sleep are hard. My trainers don’t have kids so I try to be extra communicative about what I want to do that day. Jumping after a bad night(s) of sleep is kinda like drunk driving, so I just try to be super careful to keep myself and everyone around me safe, haha!
I’ve found since having my horses home (in other words, not in a full time training program with a trainer’s eye hanging around) bad habits die a lot harder. Most of the time, you don’t even know you’re doing something wrong until it gets pointed out. And even then, you may not feel it right away. I’ve heard the same from trainers even who don’t have other trainers around for feedback. (We ALL develop bad habits at some point- trainers and ammy’s!) But now that you have a pretty good program happening, I think things will start to fall into place faster than you expect. You look like you’re doing great and working hard!
What’s been really fascinating to me, having just changed trainers, is seeing what bad habits my new trainer is picking up on (and squashing) compared to my old one!
Here’s to getting stronger with new ponies, though!!
Your “Sit Back or Die” ear bonnet picture started making the rounds on my Facebook feed again recently with comments of “i really need this!” “This is me!” Etc etc, so if it makes you feel better a huge population of riders is in the same boat! And totally agree on hearing the same thing over and over again in lessons! When I was taking lessons I probably could of recorded my trainer and just listened to that over and over again hahaha
Yeah, I’m still working on sitting up and sitting still. Just when I think I’m getting the hang of it, I see a video and I am still doing weird stuff with my back.
That said, I also had an epiphany a couple weeks ago, that if I sit up and pull with my shoulders and biceps instead of curling up and puling with my abs (or whatever the hell I’ve been doing) not only am I sitting up, but Cosmo responds much better too. Go figure.