I am not terribly efficient of late, but that should be rather evident. I don’t do well with deadlines these days, even small ones kind of sap my energy for everything else. However, the riding is the best therapy for just about everything that bothers me, and I think it helps my riding to do these write-ups, so I keep trying.
This week, I was back on Murphy. Much rejoicing. There was also an illegally cute new horse in the stables, that I am really hoping I will get a chance to try. 8-year-old Heddvig is a “North Swedish Horse” (I have no idea if Wikipedia is correct in this translation of “Nordsvensk”), a medium-heavy draft breed. She’s black, with a looooong curly mane and a thick, curly tail, and she’s about as broad as she is tall (she’s probably around 14 hands), with massive legs. Adorable, like a little troll.
But, for this lesson, it was all Murphy. We started a new theme, lateral work, and we started by stripping it down to as simple an exercise as possible: simply ask the horses to obey a lateral aid and don’t worry about how they do it, its just about having them do it. Of course, it didn’t turn out to be all that simple once we got started. Murphy would respond pretty well (almost too strongly) to the initial aid, and then he’d just stop moving laterally unless constantly reminded. And that was what she wanted us to get away from, the “nagging”.
Initially, when I tried hard not to “nag”, I did better about not pushing the horse sideways as I tend to end up doing. But once I tried to correct for his lack of movement after the initial burst, I was back to pushing again. It will definitely take some work to find the “just enough” spot for lateral aids. I think I managed to keep my legs a bit more relaxed, though, but it was mainly due to being able to ride without my stirrups for most of the class. I wish I dared to do that on more horses, even if I ended up sore here and there after the lesson. ;P