Timing is a funny thing... not that this really has any impact on me, but it just so happens that today is the first day of the next six-month course in Karen Rohlf's Virtual Arena. I will not be signing up, of course, since it is WAY out of my budget, but I feel somehow more motivated on my own personal immersion plan to dive headlong into her book. For the next six months, she'll be guiding students through her six-step program I outlined in my last post, and I'll be working through the same six steps on my own. For one thing, I think knowing this will keep me on a more progressive timeline.
I'd really like to have some quality before and after video footage, but I don't think the GoPro is really going to cut it. I'm working on getting R to come out to the barn, but no luck so far.
Anyway, yesterday I began establishing our conversation about balance by focusing on "whoosh-y" yields, from the ground and in the saddle. One of the most fascinating observations I made was that there was some unexpected brace in Finn's HQ yield. I believe this is primarily due to confusion/lack of clarity rather than any real defensiveness or concern on his part. When I would ask for his HQs, he seemed torn between disengaging and engaging for a forward transition. We sorted it out pretty easily, though, and I will just have to be careful to be more clear in the future.
This group of exercises about balance is about where I got stuck and gave up on this with Journey several years back, and that has been on my mind. Mostly because I have been asking myself: how will this time be different? I think the key is going to be keeping a curious, open mind, and not allowing myself to get bogged down in everything I don't know. Rather, allowing myself to experiment, to feel foolish, to experiment, and to trust my intuition. That should get us through.
Today we took our discussions of relaxation, energy and balance on the road, and added in a little hill work for good measure. Being outside of the arena, I only worked on our whoosh-y yields from a halt instead of playing with the transition from walk to yield. But the real excitement of the day was all about energy...
My plan was to play with the exercises for maintaining energy, and Finn's initial responses to requests for energy were right on from the beginning, so we got right to it. Going into our two main hills, I asked Finn to bump it up from a 3 walk to a 4, and the response he offered was really lovely. His walk was big and swingy and active, and I only had to remind him a few times to keep to it.
When it came time for our first trot hill, I established a 4 walk and then thought about transitioning smoothly and directly into a 4 trot, which we had been playing with the day before in the arena. Well, low and behold, Finn responded immediately and matched my energy perfectly, which I can partly attribute to the patterns of anticipation I have built into this program of ours.
He powered up the hill, high-headed at times, but going into the second half, he started stretching his top line more consistently and really getting to work. In fact, he even did a few strides of a baby trot lengthening, which felt amazing! I've felt a HUGE trot from him before, but it was done with a completely upside-down posture... those few strides today were easily the biggest trot I've ever felt him STRETCH into. The last several strides he leveled back into a more moderate trot, but still felt super committed to carrying the energy and maintained a lovely stretched feeling. Talk about a Yes! moment!
Although I had planned to ride longer, I also needed to get home early-ish today and I was so impressed with Finn's big effort, I decided to just quit on that note. While I enjoy the longer, leisurely sessions we mostly have these days, sometimes there is nothing like short and sweet, an excellent way to reward a horse for being on point from the start.
Feeling that kind of energy and stretch in Finn is so exciting. He is such a talented mover with so much natural athleticism, I can't wait to watch him own that. I can't wait to help him grow stronger, more powerful and more confident. And you better believe I can't wait to ride the movement that's been in there untapped all along!
While I've asked myself, "How will this be different than last time?" (as in, "What's going to keep me from getting stuck again?"), somehow I just know it will be. I can feel it. I can feel it as though it has already happened. I know Finn and I are going to rock this.
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