Over the last few days, I have been more than a little depressed, and today was particularly bad. If I hadn’t had the riding to look forward to, I might just have stayed in bed. Fortunately, I didn’t, and when I got the the stables I was thoroughly cheered up by being told that I’d get to ride Murphy. It couldn’t have happened on a better day, and I did not let his attempts to have my nose off with his teeth deter me even one bit. Especially not since a girl who was new to our group (she usually rides the last class of the day, and was probably only making up for a missed class) commented that she thinks we look so good together whenever she’s seen me ride him.
As such, I was in great spirits when we got down to the arena, and once I got onto Murphy it felt even better, even if he was feeling a little on the slow side. Might have been tired from the beginner’s jumping lesson earlier, or just not properly motivated during his earlier classes. As such, it took a while before I got him to be properly engaged, especially since we started off with a pretty slow exercise focusing on turns, and that does tend to slow down most horses. We had also fiddled with his ... hrm, I think it is Thiedeman reins that they use on him (mostly because he does so many beginners classes and there he never gets to be worked in the proper form), and tightened them slightly more than usual, which meant that he had to work a little more and that naturally slowed him down some too.
Still, I was pretty happy with how I got him to turn (we were doing turns for a leading inner rein, as preparation for a turn on the hindquarters), but things didn’t really click until someone else was instructed to get their horses more on the hindquarters before the turn. It should have been obvious, of course—if you want to turn the forehand around the hindquarters, you need them to sit back down and lift the forehand—and it really made an amazing difference when I worked to get him to feel more ‘uphill’. And somewhere along the way, I also managed to get my outside aides to work unusually well, because my instructor commented on how much better they had become than at the beginning of the semester. I guess thinking about my seat, legs and hands separately has actually made them come together better.
After the initial exercise, we moved into a slightly more complex variation, and now he started to become quite nicely collected and very soft. I rode him without stirrups for his part (I really need the practice, and he’s the only horse I am confident enough about to do it on), and as usual he responded very well to this. I managed to get some very nice, centred turns, and she even suggested I attempt to canter right out of the turn. That, alas, was harder. He’d launch himself into an explosive trot, so he was very responsive, but cantering is still hard for him. I did get him to canter some during a break from the main exercise, when we worked them in circles for a while (and I am quite glad I cantered without stirrups too, great for my self-confidence), but it wasn’t very good.
Towards the end, I also got her to help me with getting him to canter just as we came through the turn, and although he took off on the wrong lead, he responded better and she was pretty pleased with the attempt. Overall, it was a very good glass, and I really enjoyed getting a good feeling for how to get him to sit down on his hindquarters more and produce that ‘uphill’ feeling in front. I really hope I get him next week too, so I can continue to build on this. And then, ideally, during all those extra classes over Christmas. That’d be the best Christmas gift I could get.
Well, apart from my very own Murphy with a ribbon around his neck.