Lessons Are The Best

I took my first lesson with J, my new trainer, today. It. Was. AWESOME!

*Sorry, no pics or video. I'll try to fill the void with random pictures of Indy and Winn.

Okay, so Indy's four and still very, very green. A detailed recap of the lesson would probably bore most of you, even the most devout dressage riders, to tears. I'll try to keep it short. You're welcome.

Indy was SOOOOOOOOO good! She went into the arena and was pretty relaxed from the second I got on her (BTW, I even climbed on from the mounting block that the little heathen was striking at just two days ago). We walked on a loose rein and Indy was stretching down into a very relaxed/swinging walk. It usually takes quite a bit of work to get her to that point, so I was obviously ecstatic to start out like that.

J came in and she asked me to warm up how I normally would. Confession of the day: we don't really have much of a warm up routine. A large part of our rides has been just doing whatever the hell I needed to get Indy to the point she that she was starting out at today. So I kind of just kept that idea of doing what I felt she needed at the moment to be prepared for what we would do next. Not much of a warm up routine huh? J seemed okay with it, so I guess it's alright.

Okay, so I promised to keep this short.

What we need to work on:

1. Keeping a steady connection on the outside rein to support her outside shoulder and turn her shoulders.

2. Turning the shoulders so that the hind end is following the path of her shoulders.

3. Serpentines-keeping her through during the change of bend.

4. Keeping Indy straight and through across the diagonal, using my legs and an even connection. This is hard/good for me as I am still sitting crooked in the saddle

5. Use circles to get her relaxed, focused, and through. Move the circles to different parts of the arena, but use them as a form of a comfortable place when Indy needs it.

6. Make sure that I let the connection become elastic when Indy is going correctly.

Hopefully, I didn't forget anything....

I know this is all basic stuff, but sometimes the basics are damn hard on a greenie. Everything J told me made perfect sense. I completely understood what she was saying and what we were aiming for.

What we did well:

1. Indy was relaxed and very focused for her (about 85% compared to her usual 50-60% of the ride).

2. Indy started off wanting to be a little quick, but I corrected her and J said I did a good job of getting her into a good tempo. *JL had me really work on this in Hellbuquerque and I think he'd be happy that we did this well :)

3. There were moments where Indy was really using herself well and they were happening a lot more and a lot longer than normal. J even said there were times that the work was show quality. Obviously, we're a long ways from showing, but it was still nice to hear.

4. Even when Indy was distracted, she wasn't reactive. A pickup and horse trailer even drove right next to the arena, behind us, and Indy didn't care at all. A month ago that would have been enough to cause a meltdown.

5. I made good and smart corrections and didn't get frustrated.

6. I felt a lot more in tune with Indy and she wasn't hardly resistant at all today.

Thoughts on the new trainer:

I'm really excited to ride with J more! She is patient and understanding, only asking us to do what we were capable of. She tells you what to fix, but is very good about pointing out the positives. I felt very comfortable riding with J and already have full trust in her expertise. I really liked that she didn't have that "Well your horse is this age, so it should be at this level." mentality. 

Other than Indy being so good, one of the best parts of my lesson was when J told me that I've done a good job with Indy. Even writing this now, it still makes me so happy that I could about cry.  I got on today feeling like I had been a failure with my horse and got off feeling like maybe I hadn't done such a horrible job with her training after all. Today felt like we were working on what we needed to get better instead of having to go back and fix all of my mistakes, which I was honestly kind of anticipating. It's always nice to know that you haven't screwed your horse up.

I'm seriously proud of my girl! She was lovely to ride! We even went for a short walk outside of the arena on a loose rein and Indy was perfectly relaxed and calm. I've never really been able to trust her enough to ride her out of the confines of the arena before because she doesn't handle changes of scenery very well. I'm hoping that we can start going for rides on the track that goes through the cross country course soon. It would be so good for Indy. I thought about it today, but L (the BEST) was waiting on me to do thermal, laser therapy, and adjustments on Winn and Indy and it would have been kind of rude to make her wait longer. Plus, Indy was so good that she deserved to be done for the day. One step at a time.

More on the thermal, laser, and adjustments tomorrow.