A Mental Break for Me

A friend of mine came out to ride today. I'd never seen her ride before, so we saddled up Cassie (my old girl) and off they went. I was quite impressed with my friend's riding, so I offered to let her ride Izzy, too. I lunged Izzy and rode first, then Katie got on after seeing where we were at.

It was pretty fun. I've only gotten to watch someone else ride Izzy once before, so that was novel. Izzy is very pretty to watch. More importantly, Katie is a pretty advanced rider, so she was able to take Izzy from where she's at to somewhere more productive. Izzy threw a massive fit. She tried not going forward. That didn't work. She tried throwing her head up and running. That didn't work. She tried dragging down on the bit. That didn't work.

It was a pretty hard workout for both of them, but it ended well. Katie worked on getting Izzy forward, listening, bending a bit, stepping off the leg, and overall just looking good. She gave me some pointers for dealing with Izzy's specific evasions, and demonstrated them as she rode. It was really good to get some specific feedback on where we're at right now.

I think the most important thing I learned was that I need to be braver. Izzy threatened to do a lot of things with Katie, but didn't actually do any of them. She just wanted to see what she could get away with. I tend to be a bit backed off because I'm not secure in my riding like I used to be, but I need to just ride through some of her stuff.

Katie also pointed out that Izzy's overbending in the neck is just a way of pushing her energy out one side and not going forward. Again, I need to be braver (my words, not Katie's) and keep her straight and forward.

After Katie got off, she thanked me for letting her ride, since she doesn't have a horse right now. I almost laughed. I was feeling like I ought to pay her for riding since she did so much work. The good news is, she wants to come ride again and she really likes Izzy, so hopefully we can continue to improve together a little bit faster than we were on our own.

That is, until Katie decides to start charging. ;-)