Back At It!

I’ve had a lovely couple of mornings with Finn since R and I returned from LA. We’ve been developing some Liberty building blocks and experimenting with some of the very first exercises in Karen Rohlf’s book, Dressage, Naturally. Also getting in some thorough grooming to make up for three weeks of absence. Finn’s mane went berserk while I was gone, starting to revert to its natural position on the left side of his neck, but on the whole he’s looking quite good. His dapples are spreading and he certainly isn’t lacking in shine:

Am I right?

After halfway-fretting over our last two rides being not-awesome while I was away, I decided to start with a ride in the small arena yesterday morning, but Finn was so great we ended up going for a little ride up the road past the big arena. Notably, our weightless trotting was superb in the arena. I found that particularly interesting because we really struggled with that last week at Washoe and worked at it quite a lot. I didn’t really feel like we’d accomplished much of anything, but the improvement over our typical results in the arena was significant, so maybe that time was better spent than I thought.

This morning, I was feeling much more ambitious, so we went for a much longer ride around the ranch and explored some totally new territory. Finn was really quite super about it all, a little hesitant and one silly spook in which he felt like he might trip over himself trying to back away from the object in question, but I was, for the most part, really pleased with how things went.

New territory!

I’ve been thinking a lot in these last two rides about really having a connection down to the feet during the whole ride and testing it frequently with long serpentines and turns. The thought I have in my head is that I want to be able to float that inside foot wherever I want at a moments notice. So we lingered in a few places doing figure-8s until the turns felt really good in both directions. We also worked quite a bit on keeping those feet available even when we were headed towards “home,” and even when we were going downhill. That turned out to be quite a challenge, but we eventually got it going really well. There was a point where I fell into my unhelpful pattern of frustration, but I recovered, so I’m not going to be too hard on myself.

I’ve stumbled across a mantra that seemed helpful for keeping my attitude where it should be as Finn and I set out to conquer the unknown. When Finn was a little “look-y” or distracted, I reminded myself and him that “it’s” not about that stuff. It’s not really about pushing him to face his fears, nor about getting to some pre-determined point no matter what’s in our way. It’s about us, practicing harmony and communication no matter where we might be. This helps me remember to simply ignore what I don’t want and reward what I do, and resulted in me having a pretty soft, confident horse to ride.

Last thing: I was reminded today of the great value in doing things twice (or more). I have often been too constricted time-wise to think about doing too many things twice, but not that I’m either away working or not (and therefore pretty much free), my schedule with Finn is predisposed to longer sessions. Today, I rode him up the driveway quite a ways past where we’d ever been before. Heading back towards home AND downhill, we were really struggling to keep together, as Finn was thinking “home!” much more strongly than I was. So, once we’d found some improvement and gotten back to familiar territory, I decided to try making the “home zone” hard work and the new section of the driveway more relaxing. We trotted for quite a ways, past the barn and up to the big arena, cantered some circles each direction in the arena, and then trotted all the way back to the hill up to the new area, then walked the rest of the way back to the point we’d stopped at before.

While we were up there, I got off, loosened the girth, and let Finn graze for a few minutes. He enjoyed that, of course:

Desert horses aren't too picky about their grass.

When I stepped back on and proceeded to ride back towards “home,” Finn was ten times more connected than before. I was so thrilled with the change. I think I have often missed the opportunity to get that much improvement in one session because I don’t have the time it takes to ride home and back out again. In any case, I will keep that in mind next time I’m wondering if I ought to quit or take one more go at something!

Anyway, with two really productive rides behind me, I am feeling much better. I’d say that I hope Finn is, too, except I don’t think he was nearly as bothered by those last rides as I was! Oh, wouldn’t it be lovely to be so in the moment as a horse.

Post-ride roll!