22 November, 2011

Shining in the Rain

Today was Leyla’s day to shine, despite the grey sky and light rain. It was her second ride on Spiderman in the bit after a month plus of working in the hackamore in order to get a better feel of half halts without the fear of catching Spidey in the month. Our weekend lesson with the bit had some good moments but left a lot of room to be desired. Today she nailed it. After a warm up, she found the perfect leg to hand connection and Spiderman was rocking around the ring pushing into the bridle. We even got to start the conversations about how high the poll should be and how to correct him up when he dropped too low, a little leg and outside rein. Canter again was confirmed as a success with Leyla able to send him into the bridle, adjust the bend, his straightness all while keeping him connected. It was such a pleasure to watch.
We moved on to jumping with a few single fences for warm up. We then worked on a grid from over the weekend that we did not get too due to all our dressage work. Cross rail, 5 strides, vertical, one stride then an oxer. Leyla has been learning to keep her leg on no matter what, even if Spiderman feels fast, slow or perfect, she has to stay there for him. Today she nailed it nearly every time, allowing the jumps to get up around 3’6” and with ease they sailed over. Her leg was also in great shape and with a fist full of mane was able to keep with him as he over jumped it by an easy 12 inches.
Teaching feel is a hard thing, teaching self-awareness is also hard and I consider it one of the first steps to feel.  I find my adult riders that rode as kids find their feel again much faster than those that are learning to ride as adults or even the teenage riders. Most horses scream what they need from the rider or clearly tell us with their body, it’s the rider’s job to feel and see this and react accordingly with one of the many tools in their kit.
Leyal and Spiderman over the weekend:

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