After a pretty crappy day for me yesterday (which Izzy had off), we went back to work today. I'm trying to keep that freely forward that we developed while "hacking", but ask her to work again.
So far, I've had mixed success. She's doing really well to the right--walk, trot, canter--and I'm happy with that. The left is another story. She'll walk/trot ok, but if I ask for the canter, she gets very tense and just goes out whichever shoulder is more convenient at the moment. I'm thinking that it's more a psychological issue than a physical issue for her. I also think that it doesn't help that my left side is weaker and so I don't use my left leg as effectively.
So... I'm unsure as to whether I need to just not even try to canter on that side for a while and try to develop her (and my) muscling, or if I should just keep the reins loose and ride her forward to a messy-but-there canter. Fortunately, our lesson is tomorrow, so I should have a new opinion there. Then again, our lessons are so infrequent that we rarely get all the way to what I'm currently working on. There's always something that I glossed over that needs work instead. Thankfully, everything seems to be related, so it works out.
Anyways. Once again, as soon as she felt the pressure, Izzy returned to her "sticky spot" mentality. She didn't actually stop there today, but she sure wanted to. I found that I could ride her best through that area if I just clucked to her but didn't push with my seat or legs or anything. Throw in a random assortment of lessoners and boarders and a cold, windy day, and I'm pretty pleased overall with how things went.
Now I want to go home and make cookies. Stupid school, getting in the way of my dreams. ;-)
Did I mention that I lunged her this morning and she was a total doll who paid perfect attention to my voice commends? I love this pony.
My Chance was totally "left hoofed" as far as cantering went. At first, I just let him do whatever kind of canter he needed to on the right lead...so messy it was.
ReplyDeleteFound out too, however, that he tends to throw me to the right when I ride so straigtening out my seat and centering myself helped him find his balance.
So, I let the sloppy canter go as he learned his own balance, made sure I sat equally on both seatbones, and now both canters are ALMOST equal.