Tuesday, August 21, 2012

August 20th - 7:45pm

We got to ride today! Not in the ring since that is still a lake but out on the roads. I was on Cylene, Puccini, Luli and Cor Lit. All were a bit excitable after so many days off/with little work but nothing unmanagable. Am better understanding the importance of shoulders over hips, hands up and leg at the girth. Staying there with your body allows you to put physics on your side incase of a spook/buck instead of just raw strength and luck to stay on. Because young fresh horses on trail rides through town will spook on occasion. One thing I have learned riding with all this rain, though, is how to better manage fresh horses in a variety of enviornments; whether it be walking them down the aisle, longing, riding in a ring or riding on the roads. The ability to keep their attention and respect without having them loose it over too much pressure is a delicate balance. And a balance I never realized I was quite so bad at maintaining until I arrived here. Slowly but steadily, however, the horses are teaching me. And it is something the horses really have to teach me. Martin can give me tips and critique but it is always the horses who will tell me when I am right. Snd especially when I am wrong. I told Martin I love riding his horses because when you do things correctly they are perfect.  But when you do them wrong (too much leg/hand, too little leg/hand, too far forward, ect), they let you know. Usually they let you know quite polietly but they let you know. Martin kind of laughed and said that that is true with basically all horses. Just have to learn to listen. So my new thing now is working not only on my position, aids and whatnot but on learning to listen to the horses better. Ive always joked that Luli and Buck would teach me more about riding then Martin could in a year but now realizing exactly how true that is. And not just those two either. All twenty something that are in work can teach me things. Hopefully I can keep up with that many teachers!  

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