Back on Murphy today. The girl who rode him last week doesn’t like him much at all, so she got somebody else and that freed up Murphy for me. I wouldn’t have minded tackling Nelson again, but I knew Murphy would present a challenge too considering the work we’d be doing. I was told he’d been rather forward during the jumping class earlier in the day, and I suspect the horses had once again not been able to be out much (its really slushy and slippery) given that they all seemed to be rather ticked off with each other too. Murphy was fine to tack up, but he definitely wanted to kill some of the other horses. There’s clearly some tension in the herd at the moment, and it comes out very strongly when they aren’t able to be out as much as usual and settle their disputes properly.
My own main concern was otherwise my legs. Given last weeks issues, when it turned out that had I only shortened my stirrups right off, I would have been able to affect Nelson so much better, I was very keen on getting a good leg position from the start today. However, that still turned out to be easier said than done. My normal stirrup length on Murphy seemed pretty fine, all in all, but later on I would find out that it wasn’t quite right.
We spent pretty much the whole class riding either circles or small squares where we had a lot of corners to concentrate on, and we were instructed to focus pretty much entirely on the inner shoulder. Going to the left, this was no problem at all. Well, I had to watch that Murphy didn’t overbend his neck, but once I sorted that out he was happy to get that shoulder in. Going to the right ... was not so easy. And of course my leg came up whenever I tried to apply it more strongly. Time for more pilates, I have been slacking off since that bad cold, and I can feel it. But at least I did manage to work through much of the resistance after some hard work on that inner leg.
Once we started trotting, I also noticed that my outer leg was hopelessly unsteady. This is probably the norm for me, but now that I had last week’s lesson to compare with I could feel how wrong it was. So, after a while I tried shortening my stirrups. They ended up rather short for dressage, but I think I may try riding like that for a while. I think it will make it easier for me to remember to push my knee down and get my heel lowered, and it will make the leg steadier too, especially when I need to use it further back.
I could certainly see a difference in Murphy’s behaviour right off. With the outer leg applied more firmly and a little further back, he suddenly started protesting at the amount of work he was being asked to do. It took us a while to work past that hurdle, but then he did start coming together okay. He was a bit high in front, but his hindlegs were getting more engaged as well. Which I had some use for when we got to the canter. Here, I got a decent result going to the right, the side I had had to work a lot on, though to the left I wasn’t able to get him to feel very connected and energized. My position in the canter remains pretty good, though.
The final bit of trotting was okay, but if I get to ride him next week to I will need to work through some of those hurdles much more quickly. My instructor was pleased that I had managed to use my inner leg more correctly towards the end, but other than that there wasn’t too much to say. I think I also need to add leg position as one thing to work on during a private lesson. I am starting to collect quite a list of things I need to focus on. ;P
The best part, however, came when we were back in the stables. I have made it a habit to test Murphy after each lesson, to see if he will move away from me when I push against each of his shoulders. He always moves away from a nudge against the left shoulder without any objections, but a nudge against the right shoulder usually results in teeth snapping together inches from your face. But not today! All that work we had done during the lesson resulted in him moving away from a nudge against the right shoulder with no objections whatsoever. Its fascinating how his dominance is so much more readily apparent on his right side both when you handle him and when you ride him, and if working on that during the lesson leads to him being more accepting on the ground, I really have to try preparing for my next lesson by working on the right shoulder already on the ground.