dancinghorse | Feb. 6th, 2005

Lesson-neep time, with sidebar: Still fixing the damned water leak.

Yesterday I longed Capria and Pooka, to see how they were doing. Capria, in spite of very little work lately, was in great shape. Pook was not. He's having his annual "my right hindleg doesn't belong to me" episode, brought on by spring hormones, regular attacks of the whees, and the start of the spring growth-spurt season. (Yes, he will be 8 in three weeks. He'll be doing this until he's 10.)

So, no lesson for da Pooka, though I'll ride him tomorrow and see how he feels.

Meanwhile we had lessons with everyone else. Keed has had swollen back cannons all week from charging at Pandora all night and half the day. At one point he was standing with his head over the top bar of her stall, ears at their nastiest angle, just glaring at her. However he's been calming down a bit, and today he was OK for Joni to ride. He looked very good, from what I could see--I was working with a very eager and bright-eyed Camilla, who asked for a session and didn't panic over it. We did a bit of groundwork, then Joni asked if I was going to get on her. I asked Camilla and she was amenable, so I got on. She turned. She backed up. She experimented. Finally she managed a couple of steps forward all by herself. Then she got confused and started backing up again, but that was OK. She knew the forward part was the good one. I discovered in the process that she has steering and brakes. I had to move her out of Pandora's way while Sue was getting her ready for her lesson--Pandora is so big, one forgets how much of her may be oozing out into the arena--and once she nearly swung me into the fence. I automatically shifted a seatbone and she stepped tidily over, no fuss, no trauma. (Yep. Takes same finesse of aids as Capria and Pooka. No surprise there.)

We were very pleased. So was she. She had a smile all over herself.

Pandora had a very good session. She fits into keed's Big Horn--the extra-wide one with the huge gullet--and she's got a Really Big head. The Courbette USDF headstall in Full size just fits around the nose, though the rest is a good fit. She takes a six-inch loose-ring bit. She was very good about all the fitting and adjusting, then Joni took her out and longed her. She longes well, considering it's been eight years since she did anything. No problem with the concept of work. She looked as if she was enjoying it.

Then finally Capria got the lesson she'd been waiting all morning for. Sometimes when I get on, I cannot get into the saddle, I'm all stiff and perchy, but today for some reason I got on and I had a really deep seat. We worked on straightness in forward motion, on serpentines (three and four loops) and 20m circles with changes across the diagonal, walk and trot. The point was to keep her perfectly balanced in all the aids, maintain a steady tempo within the gait, and lengthen and shorten the frame without loss of balance or rhythm. In walk we had her on the buckle and then clear up to trot length on the reins, without change of balance or contact. Trot was harder until last week's lesson clicked on and I found the back of the thigh again. This with correct contact is the aid for Capria. Get that on her and she sits down behind, raises her back, lifts her front end, and floats. She loooooves that aid.

When we got it, I said, "Omigod! That's where the piaffe is!" And Joni gave me a big thumbs-up. (I could ride piaffe with leg aids and instructor help, back along, but with this I don't need help. Just a ThighMaster. ;> ) It was a wowzer feeling--coming back to all this from scratch after years of unlearning and relearning. We started when Pook was three weeks old, and we've stuck with it through a lot of frustration, humiliation, and general tsouris.

Btw, whitezinnia , when Andreas said "Tone the thigh," this is what he meant. Joni said it's an aid she automatically applies so she had to stop and think it through, but yep, that's it. It's how he got all those horses to sit down like that and do those pirouettes.

And in our own much simpler and less masterful way, we achieved perfection: half a circle in trot with outside rein perfectly applied, said Joni. In eight years she's never said such a thing, so I have to record it. Especially since dropping the outside rein is one of my bugbears.

I am not supposed to put any more words on this for now--that's my homework. Remember the feel of the aid when applied, and repeat it with Capria and Pooka both. It's very important for him, since it's a collecting as well as a balancing aid and he's a collectamatic with green-horse balance. I'm eager to try it on him now--I hope tomorrow, if I can get the damned pipe fixed.