Wayward right hand
After a productive lesson with Henry, I was really looking forward to my lesson with coolie.
We had a very civilised 10.30 lesson, so I had a relaxing morning of feeding the horses and doing some things around the house before I headed out to load Coolie. Coolie has a habit of running away from me in the mornings when he knows we are going somewhere, so I had lots of carrots and no halter when I caught him. He was very happy to see the carrots but realised he had been tricked once I started leading him by his rug! We got to our lesson with time to spare so I got to potter about getting him tacked up and all.
We warmed up doing the same exercise we had done the night before with Henry, encouraging Coolie to go forward and stretch down and over his back by softening the outside rein and opening the inside rein. I have to think about putting Coolies nose on the floor and supporting him with my body.
My coach was on to me and my right hand very quickly. I kept opening it out and waving it around far too much. I was NOT allowed to move it at all. We used long and low in our leg yields too, really trying to keep him soft and straight.
After warming up, we moved on to practicing 10m circles, keeping the rhythm and maintaining the contact and the keeping Coolie soft and round.
It was really hard, and my right hand has a mind of it's own. When I kept the contact in my right hand, and didn't open and wave it around, Coolie stayed soft and round and our circles were great. When I forgot it went terribly!
My coach also had me focus on the muscle on my knicker line (or my glute) to help support Coolie, especially on the right side. By building a wall using my body (not letting the right rein go floppy and flappy) Coolie was much straighter and went so much better. It is so hard to think of doing all the things I need to, plus ride the horse.
We moved onto canter, doing all the things we had done in walk and trot. Our canter has improved so much, and it was actually easy to build the wall, and control my right hand in canter. We nailed our 15m circles and our extended canter wasn't too bad either.
Our aim for warming up is to get those forward stretchy circles and really focus on putting his nose on the floor. I must not throw the right rein away, it has to stay on his neck! It was a really good lesson, and great to have a plan on our warm up for the training day we had on Sunday.
We had a very civilised 10.30 lesson, so I had a relaxing morning of feeding the horses and doing some things around the house before I headed out to load Coolie. Coolie has a habit of running away from me in the mornings when he knows we are going somewhere, so I had lots of carrots and no halter when I caught him. He was very happy to see the carrots but realised he had been tricked once I started leading him by his rug! We got to our lesson with time to spare so I got to potter about getting him tacked up and all.
 |
| So handsome! |
We warmed up doing the same exercise we had done the night before with Henry, encouraging Coolie to go forward and stretch down and over his back by softening the outside rein and opening the inside rein. I have to think about putting Coolies nose on the floor and supporting him with my body.
 |
| More stretchy needed |
My coach was on to me and my right hand very quickly. I kept opening it out and waving it around far too much. I was NOT allowed to move it at all. We used long and low in our leg yields too, really trying to keep him soft and straight.
 |
| Can yield sometimes |
After warming up, we moved on to practicing 10m circles, keeping the rhythm and maintaining the contact and the keeping Coolie soft and round.
It was really hard, and my right hand has a mind of it's own. When I kept the contact in my right hand, and didn't open and wave it around, Coolie stayed soft and round and our circles were great. When I forgot it went terribly!
My coach also had me focus on the muscle on my knicker line (or my glute) to help support Coolie, especially on the right side. By building a wall using my body (not letting the right rein go floppy and flappy) Coolie was much straighter and went so much better. It is so hard to think of doing all the things I need to, plus ride the horse.
 |
| Fancy |
We moved onto canter, doing all the things we had done in walk and trot. Our canter has improved so much, and it was actually easy to build the wall, and control my right hand in canter. We nailed our 15m circles and our extended canter wasn't too bad either.
Our aim for warming up is to get those forward stretchy circles and really focus on putting his nose on the floor. I must not throw the right rein away, it has to stay on his neck! It was a really good lesson, and great to have a plan on our warm up for the training day we had on Sunday.
i'm pretty sure my right hand is possessed by the devil. it just.... does things. idk. coolie looks great!!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it's not just me! Once I was told to just stop using it, and I stopped riding completely because apparently if I can't use my right hand, I can't do anything
Delete