Thursday’s lesson was a good step in which I climbed another rung. I’m still working on my balance and keeping centered as I ride in all circumstances and ended up forgetting that for a little bit. Luckily the way things went, I was able to end on a high point.
I wasn’t able to make it to the barn on Tuesday and this had been another busy week. Luckily Future was a super star. I went to grab him from his paddock and he happily took the halter. Patting him on the neck, I promised to ride him nicely if he took care of me. That exchange was impressively prophetic.
During the warmup my main objective was to try to make this as easy for him as possible. And I tried doing this two ways: by steering with my legs and by balancing myself. The two were strongly interrelated. I found that they both entailed me having stronger contact with Future with my legs and one result was that a lot less was needed with my reins. I know that a good English rider keeps some rein contact but I was so delighted with the leg steering that I kept a pretty loose rein for this lesson.
I had read in a magazine (I’m trying not to shamelessly plug Practical Horseman too many times in this blog) which said that you should ride as though if the horse were to magically disappear, you’d land and not fall. It also recommended going through a checklist in your mind as you ride to make sure you’re in good form. I was doing that and part of my checklist involved trying to keep my legs apart — almost splayed under me. I had been tightening them which caused me to slide my thighs forward.
The jumping went alright but my coach was chastizing me for not steering. It took two unsuccessful jump lines for me to realize that I was just collapsing through the jumps. All my leg squeezing and directing were going to naught when I jumped. And why? There was no real reason. I had to grab his mane as we wildly flayed over the jumps. Maybe over the warmup jump it was but I should have tightened things up.
Which is why it was so nice to go over that one final line. I chose an easier one — a X to a skinny in a broken line (as opposed to the two one-strides in a shallow loop). And I squeezed my legs and somehow rode him better over it. I didn’t even grab the mane; we didn’t have to. Just a release like a normal rider. Here’s hoping for more of those next week.
