I had fantastic luck yesterday with all the lesson kids heading out on a trail ride, but today I was all geared up to hit the round pen... and got an arena to myself instead!!! There was only one riding lesson going on, and I was doing my online pre-flight-check with Gwen as they were finishing up. By the time I was mounted on Gwen, the arena was empty and I had the place to myself. Score!
I've learned that passenger lessons are very hard... for me! Apparenly, I am not a very good passenger. More like a back-seat driver. (*cough*). I have no problem letting her go where she wants... it's the stopping that starts getting on my nerves. At one point, I literally had to change "She's an introvert, she's an introvert..." over and over in my head, to remind myself that Gwen, innately, does not WANT to move her feet. Most of the lesson felt like we were taking two steps, stopping, two steps, stopping... ugh. Very infuriating, for me. I kept catching myself "encouraging" Gwen to keep walking when I could feel a halt coming on. I had to tell myself to let her stop completely, give her a few seconds, and THEN ask her to walk again. This was supposed to be a passenger lesson, not a "walk wherever you want" lesson. Clearly, I was having a harder time with this than Gwen was.
For the most part, she was very.... left brained about the whole thing. She kept putting herself into situations that would make her appear "stuck". Ex: there is a point in the arena where two jumps come together in approximently a 90 degree angle... and she'd stick her nose in it and act like "Oh... there's a jump... I can't go anywhere mom" and then "Whatcha gonna do about it?". Thankfully, I am not a ten year old. I know my horse has a brain, and doesn't need me to steer her around everything. She's not dumb. She can figure out how to turn and walk the other way. So every time she got "stuck" or "blocked" by something, I'd just ask her to walk and keep asking her to walk until she got herself unstuck. She did this several times, as several different jumps, so I know it was purposeful. For a good five minutes, all we did was walk a (really, really SLOW) triangle from one "trap" to another. Argh! LBI much?!
I made it a point to keep my hands on the cantle of my saddle, so I couldn't be tempted to touch the reins and redirect her. If she got herself 'stuck' she could get herself unstuck.
Finally, mercifully, at the end of our lesson she actually started WALKING ON THE RAIL!! I was so damn impressed that she did this on her own, I only let her get three strides in before I dismounted her (as she was walking! She was quite surprised) and quit there. I am sincerely hoping that our next Passenger Lesson will progress a bit more...
At least we can't get into any arguments when I'm refusing to touch the reins or direct her! Sneaky little mare... I swear, she's RBI on the ground and LBI under saddle.
Won't get another chance to ride until Friday, due to work/Valentine's Day, so here's hoping she still remembers all this by then! :)
J
 |
| She's so fuzzy!!! Look at that winter coat! |
No comments:
Post a Comment