Lisa's Blog post # 4

Well, I did better but not as good as the day before.  Our trot work was fabulous, our canter departures were very good but when he swapped leads in the back I made the mistake of bringing him back down into a trot and starting over.   I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong that kept causing him to do that - he didn’t do it during our lesson the day before!  He also threw in a few bucks and started rushing around so after a handful more unproductive attempts in both directions I decided to bail out on the canter and go back to trot.   I can’t ride my horse without Lesley telling me what to do?!  Unacceptable.

I take Sundays off so Lesley had another one of her students ride him today for her lesson since her horse was lame.  Lauren is a teenager who is schooling training level eventing.  She has tons of natural ability and is much more “straight” than I am.  She also has the ability to separate her body parts – no, she’s not double jointed – she can squeeze the stuffing out of a horse with her legs without getting all tense in her hips and elbows, which is what I tend to do.  And guess what?!  She had the same problems (I loved hearing that!)

Lesley figured it out and explained it to me over the phone.  I am so thankful she has a history with this horse so she knows what he has been exposed to.  Evidently, Cotton is just REALLY scared that he is going to get yanked in the mouth when he is asked to transition down from the canter.  He gets nervous and speeds up. When his rider keeps his leg on him and keeps the contact soft he realizes that he is doing it right and he begins to relax and slow down.  The catch, however, is that it is very counterintuitive, even for a rider as advanced as Lauren, to keep your leg on and keep the contact soft when your horse is picking up speed at every stride!

The reason I was able to do so well during my lesson on Friday is that Lesley constantly reminded me to use my leg and soften my elbows – to let that lapse for even a moment gets a reaction from him.  She also was there to immediately correct my seat and weight issues so I didn’t throw him off balance, which would also cause him to speed up.   Maybe I should take a 15 minute lesson everyday just for canter work until I can get this ingrained in my mind and body!

By the end of the lesson, Lauren had gotten the hang of it, Cotton had learned to trust her and he went along slow and relaxed.

But the mystery still remained as to why he developed this problem all of a sudden when we changed barns!  Lesley said we probably should have changed his feed to accommodate the extra grass and hay he has been getting for the past 8 weeks.  He has had extra energy to burn - we’re cutting back on his grain starting tomorrow!  Also, because he was so wide-eyed over the new, open landscape and beautiful, huge jumping arena, riding him “backwards” like I had been doing, especially since he has had this fear of being yanked around, exasperated the problem.    The stronger bit and running martingale brought him back under me so I could ride him forward.  Now I need to refine that skill in order to be able to ride that way no matter what he does.  Only then will I be able to gain his complete confidence.  It’s going to take some time, but now we’re on the right track!  I am smiling…