Well, I’ve made my point. If I shove Surya over with my inside leg, hold onto the outside rein, and open the inside rein, she will bend her neck to the inside and move off my inside leg.
In the process of insisting on this, and trying to muscle her into a bent round frame, I have completely eliminated her natural impulsion from behind. Also, instead of pushing her to the bridle, I have pulled the bridle into her. In essence, rather than compressing her into a bundle of collected potential energy, I have blocked forward movement.
Because of the holidays and other circumstances, I hadn’t had a dressage lessons for a few weeks. As we trotted around for our trainer this week, she said to get more impulsion from behind and squeeze. We tried a few circles of this, and then my trainer got exasperated and told me to drop the reins completely. Surya stretched her neck down and out and moved forward into a beautiful swinging trot. Then, my trainer said to push Surya to the bridle by squeezing with my legs, but not changing my posting rhythm. Surya reached out, touched the bit, and got rounder.
To be fair, I’ve received this instruction many times before and have theoretically tried to implement every time I ride. But after almost two months of focusing on only applying pressure with one leg at a time (the inside!), I have gotten very lazy with my lower legs. Squeezing is difficult. Also, without the reins defining a dramatic bend, my legs have to do all the directional, bending, and impulsive work. (Owie.)
I really like how light Surya got in the contact. Rather than pulling against the bit, she lightly mouthed it with a slight pressure. Of course, she was very light in the contact last March, but had a tendency to lose the contact completely and get behind the bit. Over-corrections are good? I know the amount of contact has a great deal to do with personal preference, but I think I like the light contact better. Two months ago, though, if I rode like I rode this week, I would have had no directional authority, would not have been able to define a bend, and she would have traveled on the inside rein.
I feel like there’s been two months of pressure….and now that she’s got it, release. An extension of moment-to-moment horse training. Because I am so green, I tend toward over-correction and extremes. But, do all horses go through more contact/less contact phases? Is it alright to sacrifice impulsion and freedom to stretch to the bit in order to teach inside leg to outside rein?
Surya either didn’t understand moving off my inside leg, traveling on the inside rein, and bending to the inside rein, or she was being stubborn and didn’t want to do it. So I made the reins short and got very insistent. Now she gets it and does it, and does it even when the reins are long. Maybe, if I had a do-over, I would approach the concept more slowly, and let her come to the idea without limiting impulsion or taking such a heavy grip on the reins (aka, let her be happier). If I don’t get something, I take a hammer and school it and school it and school it and drill drill drill until it’s right. Subtlety is not my strong suit. Is that a bad thing? Something to think about.
In other news, I lengthened my stirrups a hole! And it felt better than when they were shorter instead of difficult or weird. Hooray!
In yet more news, Sarah from West 12 Ranch Kigers sent me this very informational video of a clinic by JP Giacomini on bending, half-passes, and weight. It blew my mind a little, and made me confused before I thought about it. I particularly like his comment that horses don’t bend like cats. I knew this, but it made me realize that I need to study how horses DO bend. Because there is a basic idea, but then a whole lot of nuance that I don’t understand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWl4tvtZYGg
(for whatever reason I can't embed the video in the post, so just click on the link)
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