Not quite sure what to make of today’s lesson. Murphy again, as expected, and the plan was to continue preparing for shoulder-in work. Based on what I noticed after last week’s lesson, I decided to give ‘preparing’ his right side a try. So, in the stall I worked on getting him to move away from me when I nudged his right shoulder. I also massaged his neck and the shoulder on the right side, and it seemed like it ended up accepting the pressure a bit more.
Another thing that I had been thinking about before this lesson was an article I read recently, in which the author felt that that no violence at all is acceptable when training an animal, and that corrections with a whip should be considered as such. I thought it sounded a little extreme, but I still decided to give some careful thought to how I ride. I do think that sometimes we’re told a little too often that we’re too nice (in the sense of not being demanding enough) to the horses, and I am not always sure about the less nice approach.
Once down in the arena, and once I had mounted up, I noticed something odd almost at once. All of a sudden Murphy was quite respectful of my right leg, but couldn’t care less about my left. Completely opposite of how he normally is. So, my ‘preparations’ had done something, alright. And that does seem to suggest his unevensidedness (nice word, no?) is more of a psychological than a physical thing. Either way, though, the left side was now a problem and it stayed that way for most of the lesson.
We worked more or less the same way throughout the class. We were supposed to ride on the large central circle until we were happy with the softness in the inside. At that point, we’d return to the main track and stay there for as long as the softness could be maintained. We started off at a walk, then did it a a trot and finally with some cantering added. Today, I tried starting with shorter stirrups, to see if I could get my legs placed right from the start. I think I overdid it, though, and I definitely had my left too short which I noticed after a while as I kept being pushed to the right in the saddle. On the whole, I was not happy with my body today at all. I kept having to adjust my position and I kept catching myself with my hands and shoulders all wrong. And leaning a bit forward.
The trotting to the left was pretty bad, on the whole. He kept drifting to the right even though I tried to keep track of my outside aids, and he was pretty slow and felt rather unwilling at times. And then there was the transitions. I tried to not get rushed (which happens as I want to avoid being in the way of anyone else), and I tried to be firm but still nice. That didn’t go so well, most of the time.
That is, until we switched to the right. I was told I was being too nice when he didn’t respond immediately (but I do think its a fine line between being reasonably demanding and too demanding), but when he did respond he was all of a sudden balanced, very, very light in front, soft in the inner side and he was chewing on the bit. So there I do think my negotiations with him more or less worked out. You do need to be firm with him, because he is a clever horse who likes to test his riders, and sometimes I do think you need to get a little sharp (like when he just walks off in the wrong direction because he feels like it), but what works best is to define the rules very clearly and present them to him.
The co-operation did not last for too long, but it does seem clear that what I really need to get better at is defining the rules and presenting them to him. I did get some pretty good canter work later as well, especially to the right but also to left, and after the class I was pleased to see that while I was quite sweaty, so was he. In fact, I was surprised to see him quite so sweaty, since that’s unusual unless its summer. This suggests that he did work pretty hard at something, and I don’t think all of it was him working to avoid me. Some of it was him doing the right thing, some of it was him eventually getting a bit frisky and running on quite a bit and some of it was probably him trying to do what I was asking but when I was asking for things incorrectly.
At least, I hope that’s what it was, so he wasn’t feeling bad or anything. He did feel a bit more resistant than usual fairly early on, as if he was a bit tired, but it could have been the type of things he was asked to do, too. In any case, his wears were pricked forward for most of the lesson, so I don’t think he was uncomfortable or even all that frustrated with me. Just on a few occasions. Too bad, really, that I couldn’t get my own body to co-operate today, as it seems he might have been in the right mood for some pretty decent work.
Afterwards, though, he was not in a mood for me checking how well he’d move away from my nudges to his shoulders again. All of a sudden, his right shoulder was once again very much dominant, and he pushed back against me when I put my hand on it. I tried asking for movement a bit more firmly, and after a couple of snaps in the air with his teeth he actually got my sleeve. But boy did he look guilty afterwards. He clearly hadn’t expected that, and although he still would only move a bit (and more forwards or backwards than sideways) there was some chewing and suitable soft-eyed looks. I then spent some time reassuring him, while avoiding putting any more pressure on him, and made sure he was happy before I left.