Since someone thought it would be a good idea to make June 6th, aka the ‘Day of the Swedish Flag’ or the ‘Swedish National Day’, into a holiday starting this year and since said date falls on a Tuesday this year, there’s no regular riding lesson on the schedule this week. So, what’s an addict like me supposed to do? Why, book another private lesson, of course. And that’s just what I did, for 14.00 today. As I am writing this, I am still feeling mildly euphoric in the way I only do after a really good riding lesson. Sorry, Elio. ;)
As usual when I get my pick of the horses, I had booked myself in on Murphy, and I was happy to see that all was well with him when I got to the stables. Seems the way he acted after last weeks lesson was mainly due to him being fairly sensitive to any warming of the weather. In fact, today he was a bit sweaty even before the class. He was in a very good mood, though, just like last time I had him for a private lesson during the day. No wonder, really. The stable is so calming and soothing at this time of the day. I could spend hours slowly brushing the horses, or polishing some gear or whatever. Of course, the fact that the weather has finally decided to realize that its summer might have had something to do with it feeling extra nice.
Given this, we decided that I should ride outdoors instead of in the arena. That way, Murphy would have a bit of extra energy, and since I had dragged Elio along to take some more pictures and film some more, I figured that’d make his job easier too. The outdoor arena was also nicely prepared since they’ll be holding a competition there tomorrow, and it was much drier than when we did our warm-up for the dressage program. In fact, it was almost too dry, although at least it hadn’t gone too hard. But I had quite a bit of dust to wash off once we got back home afterwards.
As with the previous private lesson, Murphy’s behaviour was strikingly different from how he normally behaves. He definitely seems to think he needs to keep himself very alert when he’s alone, and he took his sweet time to get used to some of the changes done to the outdoor arena in preparation for the competition tomorrow. However, he’s always very polite about any skittishness he might experience. For the most part, he’ll freeze briefly instead of bolting, or he’ll go banana-shaped when passing by the dangerous spot. He’s very much inclined to look at and to carefully consider (he is extremely curious, too) anything new and unusual, instead of just reacting immediately and taking off. Wouldn’t survive a day on the steppe, I suppose, but I am perfectly happy with a horse that doesn’t have a strong flight-response to unfamiliar stuff.
So, what about the class? Well, during the lesson last week, my instructor noted that I was pulling my inner leg up while cantering. This is an old, bad habit of mine, and my leg does have a nasty habit of getting pulled up whenever I need to actually use it. I guess its mainly a matter of a lack of muscle strength, preventing me from using it efficiently while it is extended. However, I figured I might as well focus on that for this private lesson, as well as some more general canter work. Last time, I sorted out how to get him to canter and how to sit it without interfering too much. Now I wanted to see about actually trying to improve his canter a little.
We decided to work on a large circle and started with some work at a trot, focusing on getting me to sit centred over the horse (I frequently allow myself to get pushed off-centre when working on a circle) and on controlling both the horse’s outside and my outside aids. One method that my instructor used to get me to find the right mindset was to tell me to ride as if I was preparing to turn through the circle to change the leading rein. This forced me to keep his outside and my outside aids in mind, and once I did do the turn it took much less time to get things sorted out on the new leading rein than it would have if I hadn’t prepared so carefully. I will definitely have to keep this approach in mind, since letting the outside (mine and the horse’s) go can be a big problem for me.
Unlike the last private lesson, we focused a bit less on getting him to shift his weight further back, but I felt as if that actually happened quite a bit on its own this time. Partly, of course, the preparations for canter had to involve some related work anyhow, but he also tends to respond to being correctly framed with more collection, even if you’re not focusing all your energy on making it happen. Well, after he’s objected a few times by stopping suddenly when asked to work a bit more, that is. Once you get beyond that, though, he quite likes the work. Being quite a thinking horse, however, he just has to see if he can outsmart you first.
The canter work started out, as expected, with a fair share of problems. I twisted my body in preparation for giving the aid, my inner leg rode up when I was giving him aids during the canter and his outside drifted away from me. But I have to say I think that concentrating on these specific issues really resulted in some improvement. First, we tried to make the aids for canter even more subtle, with me keeping entirely still and not contorting my body strangely. This worked pretty well. We then went about correcting my position: leg down, back straight, stomach forward and outer shoulder back. This, of course, is a work in progress, and the leg in particular kept coming back up, but overall I think I managed fairly well.
The next step was to start affecting Murphy’s canter. Its it fairly poor by nature, but I suspect that it could be greatly improved if he got to work in the correct form for a little while every day while cantering. Or at least a few times a week. But since he’s such a great horse for the lower groups, that probably happens pretty rarely. Especially since its pretty darn difficult. Today, we had the advantage of lots of extra energy due to him being outdoors and alone, but even so its easy to lose it as soon as you start shortening his outside to slow it down a bit. But, as my instructor noted, that should not be a big deal. Its better to try to make the canter better, than to just sit there and let him run on because you’re concerned he’ll fall back down to a trot if you touch the reins too much. After all, you can always make him canter again if that happens.
We started working on the canter on a clock-wise circle, with a right leading leg. I’d say this canter is better by nature than the other way around, but its also harder to do anything with. We noticed that I did some odd stuff with my legs whenever my instructor told me to prepare to slow down to a trot, probably some odd preparation-thing I had gotten used to, so we moved onto letting me decide when to change gaits. I’d go from walk to canter, then down to trot, down to walk, and back to canter, focusing on the transitions and on exercising a bit more control over the canter than normally. It worked quite nicely once or twice, especially the transitions but I also managed to slow the canter down a bit, and then Murphy suddenly decided to start going for the wrong canter. The first was my fault, and it probably crossed some of his wires, cause he kept getting it wrong several more times even though I did my part correctly. Eventually, however, we got it sorted out, and changed to working cantering with a left leading leg.
Previously, this canter had been much trickier, partly because its naturally a bit weaker (but, at the same time, more malleable) and partly because the aid for canter often ended up coming right where he could see the exit out. As a result, he had thrown himself into canter a few times (tipping me forward a bit and leaving me to haul the reins back in and regain a good seat) as well as drifted a fair bit towards the exit. Now, however, he surprised me by making some really nice, both balanced and soft, transitions to canter. Its a little harder to shorten his stride in this canter without disturbing him, so he did end up falling back down to a trot a few times, but once I managed to be more subtle with my aids he responded quite nicely. Plus, the canter was of a better quality from the start, so it took much less to affect it.
After the class, I walked Murphy for a bit, even though he was clearly very eager to get back to the stable to have a break. Poor boy was really sweaty, and my instructor had noted how he had gotten quite a high heartrate during the canter work. It gets much more intensive than what they’re used to during private lessons. Of course, he was eager to canter more all the time, despite it being hard, sweaty work and not just an ‘easy’ fast canter. But afterwards he was, again, too hot and tired to want any treats. Once I got him up to the stables, I sponged him quite thoroughly, and that was clearly very welcome. At first, his ears came back, as if he was expecting a brush, and then when the cool water touched him he went ‘hey, what’s that?’ and then ‘oooh, nice!’. By the time I was done, he looked much perkier, and decided to try some leftover hay from his lunch. That’s always reassuring.
I’ll be taking a close look at the photos and the film later today or so, to see if what I was feeling was reflected in how it looked, but either way I am pretty darn happy with this lesson too. If I could manage one of these a week I’d be making some serious progress, that much is clear. And who knows, maybe I can next semester. I ‘just’ need to nail that subtitling job I’m applying for, and get Elio working on his driving license. For safety reasons (the safety of myself and everyone else on the roads), I do not drive myself, you see. I have serious issues with high speeds (and if I am behind the wheel, anything above 20 kmph counts as fast ;P), and a slight tendency to panic. Which in my case means scream like a banshee and drop everything, including any such things as steering wheels.