i went in the arena completely determined to ride like i was going for gold. certain occurrences were present in my mind that day that renewed my drive to improve tenfold. for example, i had a chat with Hope Hand prior to the weekend ride and she mentioned after seeing my show video that though Ruby and I looked nice, the mare could have been quite a bit rounder..this only reinforced what i had already seen of myself in the video, how even though i had felt like i had Ruby in a very good frame, the video showed that it was not as good as i perceived! hearing this from someone so revered in the para equestrian circuit literally tripled my sense of ambition to ride at a better level with each lesson.
Ruby started off as usual, rigid and resistant to contact. but as Brie went to check on something in the barn leaving me, Norman and Callie to warm up by ourselves, i took matters into my own [hand]. i got right to work, bending left and right, leg yielding, really forcing myself to focus on using my left leg as much as possible to get Ruby moving off it. staying at the walk i tried harder than i think i really ever have, to get the mare moving off my left seatbone and leg. i circled, did lateral work, anything to keep her guessing and get that response right off the bat instead of halfway through the lesson. it's time that i ride 100% on the bit. in a frame right out of the gate. no fooling around anymore!
this attitude really seemed to work, and Ruby responded right away. i got her in a better frame than we have previously been able to achieve, and when Brie came back she immediately commented on the fact that Ruby was flexing and moving off my legs better than we'd been doing.
the lesson started with 3 loop serpentines at the trot, focusing on changing the bend through the middle of each loop. it was difficult at first, as ruby likes to cut corners on my weaker side. but the more i focused hard on using that left leg, the more i was able to keep her straight between the rails and finally make a noticeable change of bend through the middle parts. Brie was extremely encouraging and really praised me when she could actually see me implementing my left side. it takes an extreme amount of mental focus and effort for me to make those commands, but the strength is there in my left leg (not as strong as my right one, but probably about 70%) and it's more about focus when it comes down to it. the thing i do appreciate about Ruby is that she's quite sensitive, and will move off of only slight pressure.
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| you complete it by doing the mirror on the opposite side |
throughout this exercise, the quality of Ruby's trot improved with every serpentine. when brie told us to complete the loops at sitting trot, it was bouncy still but the horse gave me her back, so i was able to sit a LITTLE better than before. she was round and supple, flexing and moving very nicely.
then brie had me start canter work, first on a 20m, on which we had an incredibly collected, rockinghorse gait that felt wonderful. we did 6 or 8 circles and then brie told me to do the one loop canter serpentines around the perimeter of the ring. Ruby and i are still new to this maneuver, and i am still trying to wrap my head around what exactly is supposed to happen, but we went for it and i surprised myself!
the difference was that i focused more on keeping the correct bend as i steered her back to the rail in what is the beginning stage of counter-canter; and for the first time, i actually succeeded in getting her all the way back to the wall after going through X. we lapped the arena about 4 times and then did a simple lead change and repeated the exercise the other way. only once did Ruby break to a freight train trot and get all strung out and icky; otherwise we kept perfect control and roundness. the feedback i received was just a slight adjustment that needs to be made in order to make the one loops correct; which i will work on next time! this is that when i ask Ruby to steer back to the wall through X, she is doing a kind of sideways crab step instead of making 2 clear straight lines (the first from the corner to X, and the second from X to the far corner). so i know for next lesson what exactly i need to fix!
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| collected canter |
we ended with Brie telling me to lap the arena and keep the quality canter that we'd managed. it's Ruby's tendency to pull down the longsides and get all wobbly and strung out, but no such trick this time. we went down the rails at a perfect 3 beat and collected pace, without a hesitation or a wrong step. best ride i can remember to date! i am STOKED for wednesday :) #improvements!
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