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Neepity Neep
Oct. 8th, 2004 12:23 pmHey! A Lesson Neep post! With deadline number two of three having bitten the dust, and deadline number three still a few weeks away, I have a little bit of leeway. So, a morning on horseback was had by all.
Started off by saddling up keed for his Teacher Torture. Keed was all for it. He loves his sister Ylla's saddle. Supposing he still loves it when she needs it back (by which point let us pray he will no longer be a large and increasingly furry hatrack. With ears), he's getting one. Big, swoopy walk, light, boingy trot, and bee-YOOOO-tiful canter. Happy keed.
While he worked, Camilla Insisted that she have some, too. She did not want Out. She wanted In. She wanted Work. Actually she wanted Ride, but there wasn't time to do that and still get Capria saddled up for her lesson. So we did groundwork with poles. I put some pressure on her--first time in a long time--and she responded well. Her next session will need to be no-pressure while she thinks things through, and she slept for a long time after the session--it was all of fifteen minutes but it gave her a tremendous lot to think about. Next lesson, I think, I'll tweak things so that I can sit on her while keed has his Teacher Torture. I don't care if she moves. That will be up to her.
I talked to Joni about it and she agreed--Camilla at this point cannot be pressured. If I try to force her into progressing like a normal horse, I'll lose her permanently--or as Joni said, "You'll set yourself up for a fight on a scale I sure wouldn't want to get into." Bear in mind, this is a horse who can rear up, leave the ground, and spin around in midair.
Yes, it needs to be her idea. Oh my yes.
Capria's lesson was about Transitions. Also, Half-Halts, or rather Balancing Aids. Joni's been watching the Hausberger tapes, so she's been telling me, "Think Andreas!" meaning try to recreate the SRS torso--which is sometimes, by the ignorant, criticized as "stiff and upright," but what it is is beautifully designed to stay out of the horse's way and provide appropriate support when needed. My whole front is sore--it felt as if I was wearing flexible armor. Pure muscle tone--or as Andreas says, "Tooooone the front!" Capria highly approved. Also I confess I was Thinking Pooka, as in collection, as in lifting the withers--highly useful in the canter work. Pook has to collect to do everything--Capria can drop her back and pop up her butt and fake it, but he Hates That. If I Think Pooka, Capria is much better balanced and much happier, though she's also working much harder.
Klutzitude of the day involved a wandering right hand. Finally got it back under control, more or less. The collapsing left side was more persistent. That always happens when I'm overly stressed and spending too much time on the puter--my left side sort of crunches up. On horseback my left shoulder drops, left hand ditto, and left hip collapses. Horse falls to the inside going left and veers off to the outside going right. Left thigh wants to rotate outward which causes left knee to point away from the horse which removes left leg from play. Horse grabs opening and ride falls apart.
Most instructors don't address things like this at all. They put out brush fires--fix horse problems as they come up--rather than fixing the cause of all the fires. Joni fixes the cause. 99% of all horse problems are rider-related--either the rider is crooked and the aids are mistimed or the horse is crooked but the rider isn't doing anything to straighten him out. Joni straightens out the rider, who can then straighten out the horse. Significantly slower process, with significantly higher repeat results.
And that, Capria says, is a Good Thing.
After Capria left, I went to ride Pooka, who was literally hopping up and down demanding a turn. He'll get the next lesson--my mistakes are starting to magnify again, as they will with a green horse, and it's time to get Joni on the case. He's getting so strong--instead of being sore from all the hills yesterday, he was pumped and ready to go. He's decided he's a trottin' fool. He wants to trot! He loves to trot! He's good at it! My job is to show him how to balance and be straight under me, which is challenging at his level: he's quite crooked, and with my left side in collapse mode, that got magnified. Plus he needs help with collected transitions, since the normal young-horse forehand-heavy version, because of his industrial-strength drive train, throws me on his neck. I have to sit back, Think Andreas, and ask him to sit down and lift his withers...without coming to a screeching halt.
We rode our first real figures: basically an infinity symbol (figure 8 is rounder and has a straightening in the middle--this was more a bunch of changes across the diagonal). He thought that was cool.
Hands were all over the place. Left side kept leaving the building (and I'd lose my left stirrup, oy). Temptation to overstate aids was sometimes overwhelming. We have much work to do. But Pook was tolerant (!) and we had a good time. I'm really getting into his trot. Wheeee! Boingity!
Now I am a complete puddle. That was a lot of play-with-ponies.
Started off by saddling up keed for his Teacher Torture. Keed was all for it. He loves his sister Ylla's saddle. Supposing he still loves it when she needs it back (by which point let us pray he will no longer be a large and increasingly furry hatrack. With ears), he's getting one. Big, swoopy walk, light, boingy trot, and bee-YOOOO-tiful canter. Happy keed.
While he worked, Camilla Insisted that she have some, too. She did not want Out. She wanted In. She wanted Work. Actually she wanted Ride, but there wasn't time to do that and still get Capria saddled up for her lesson. So we did groundwork with poles. I put some pressure on her--first time in a long time--and she responded well. Her next session will need to be no-pressure while she thinks things through, and she slept for a long time after the session--it was all of fifteen minutes but it gave her a tremendous lot to think about. Next lesson, I think, I'll tweak things so that I can sit on her while keed has his Teacher Torture. I don't care if she moves. That will be up to her.
I talked to Joni about it and she agreed--Camilla at this point cannot be pressured. If I try to force her into progressing like a normal horse, I'll lose her permanently--or as Joni said, "You'll set yourself up for a fight on a scale I sure wouldn't want to get into." Bear in mind, this is a horse who can rear up, leave the ground, and spin around in midair.
Yes, it needs to be her idea. Oh my yes.
Capria's lesson was about Transitions. Also, Half-Halts, or rather Balancing Aids. Joni's been watching the Hausberger tapes, so she's been telling me, "Think Andreas!" meaning try to recreate the SRS torso--which is sometimes, by the ignorant, criticized as "stiff and upright," but what it is is beautifully designed to stay out of the horse's way and provide appropriate support when needed. My whole front is sore--it felt as if I was wearing flexible armor. Pure muscle tone--or as Andreas says, "Tooooone the front!" Capria highly approved. Also I confess I was Thinking Pooka, as in collection, as in lifting the withers--highly useful in the canter work. Pook has to collect to do everything--Capria can drop her back and pop up her butt and fake it, but he Hates That. If I Think Pooka, Capria is much better balanced and much happier, though she's also working much harder.
Klutzitude of the day involved a wandering right hand. Finally got it back under control, more or less. The collapsing left side was more persistent. That always happens when I'm overly stressed and spending too much time on the puter--my left side sort of crunches up. On horseback my left shoulder drops, left hand ditto, and left hip collapses. Horse falls to the inside going left and veers off to the outside going right. Left thigh wants to rotate outward which causes left knee to point away from the horse which removes left leg from play. Horse grabs opening and ride falls apart.
Most instructors don't address things like this at all. They put out brush fires--fix horse problems as they come up--rather than fixing the cause of all the fires. Joni fixes the cause. 99% of all horse problems are rider-related--either the rider is crooked and the aids are mistimed or the horse is crooked but the rider isn't doing anything to straighten him out. Joni straightens out the rider, who can then straighten out the horse. Significantly slower process, with significantly higher repeat results.
And that, Capria says, is a Good Thing.
After Capria left, I went to ride Pooka, who was literally hopping up and down demanding a turn. He'll get the next lesson--my mistakes are starting to magnify again, as they will with a green horse, and it's time to get Joni on the case. He's getting so strong--instead of being sore from all the hills yesterday, he was pumped and ready to go. He's decided he's a trottin' fool. He wants to trot! He loves to trot! He's good at it! My job is to show him how to balance and be straight under me, which is challenging at his level: he's quite crooked, and with my left side in collapse mode, that got magnified. Plus he needs help with collected transitions, since the normal young-horse forehand-heavy version, because of his industrial-strength drive train, throws me on his neck. I have to sit back, Think Andreas, and ask him to sit down and lift his withers...without coming to a screeching halt.
We rode our first real figures: basically an infinity symbol (figure 8 is rounder and has a straightening in the middle--this was more a bunch of changes across the diagonal). He thought that was cool.
Hands were all over the place. Left side kept leaving the building (and I'd lose my left stirrup, oy). Temptation to overstate aids was sometimes overwhelming. We have much work to do. But Pook was tolerant (!) and we had a good time. I'm really getting into his trot. Wheeee! Boingity!
Now I am a complete puddle. That was a lot of play-with-ponies.
