Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Unlocking the Secret


As I've mentioned before, I'm really working on riding Izzy freely forward, especially in our warmup. It's doing amazing things for her. Last week, after a good solid warm up, I picked up the contact and started asking Izzy to go to work.

All of a sudden, her back end felt different.

OH SH*T!!!! With visions of career-ending injuries racing through my head, I LEAPED off Ms Mare immediately. Of course, there was no one around to help me move or evaluate her at all. I didn't want her to trot, certainly didn't want to lunge her, but I had to know what was going on.

As I lead her to the arena gate, I anxiously watched her hinds legs move...

...and realized that they were not only tracking up, but overstepping by nearly two hoof prints.

D'oh.

What I had felt was not some horrendous and terrifying injury; it was Izzy actually starting to swing her pelvis and really MOVE. Amazing feeling, really.

Of course, after that, we were not able to recapture the sensation. I think it was new enough for Izzy that when I stopped her, she thought it must have been the wrong answer somehow.

Until today.

It was brisk and breezy and Izzy was looky, so after starting with a lot of loose lateral work in walk, we went into a forward trot. Then a more forward trot.


Like this, only in dressage tack.








And then she kicked things into a whole new gear I didn't even know she had. WOW. Whole body swinging, leg pumping, totally and completely engaged. I just kept a nice light contact and stayed in balance with her. We rolled into canter and Izzy practically barreled around the arena, balanced, cadenced, forward.

I have never felt any horse move like that. It's addictive.


This isn't just a pretty moment for us right now. This is starting to be how she works, all the time.

<3

11 comments:

  1. Isn't it wonderful when you find yourself on a new horse? (and it is better!) Keep moving forward with your progress ;)

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  2. That's awesome! Go you guys!! You look great :)

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  3. WOW!! That's great! You guys look amazing. It's awesome progress.

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  6. Blogger gone wild! Sorry for the duplicates... must be as excited about Izzie as the rest of us.

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  7. Video please!!! I wanna see!!
    :D

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  8. Congratulations!! Yes, the feeling is addictive. Now you will be a junkie, always looking for more...
    -stacy and Taco

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  9. She looks fabulous in the pictures. So how do you get her to have a nice forward warm-up without rushing?

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  10. Sorry, Albigears, your comment got caught in the spam filter somehow. I will answer this question in a later post, I guess.

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