January Lessons with Spring

I was super excited about posting today, guys - Assistant Trainer A took a bunch of video during my lesson with Spring, and we jumped the Scary Boxes and did a small course and generally had an excellent time...BUT THEN MY PHONE DIDN'T BACK THEM UP (even though it said it had), and I lost them because technology.  Naturally, the 800 photos I took of my ME boots for a planned upcoming product review are all still there. I am so mad.  Thankfully I still have a fair amount of media from the last month!

but of course it saved all the pictures I took once I was on the ground -_-

I've been taking weekly private lessons for the last month because Spring seems to prefer to be on her own or in a small group, and the Monday night lesson that I was a part of forever has grown to regularly be 6-7 people large, which is A LOT when you're riding in a relatively small indoor that also contains a shavings mountain.  I'm hoping that as my Thursday afternoon slot becomes a more regular thing, one or two others might join me (private lessons are expensive!), but I'm also loving the one-on-one time with Trainer A (who is always happy to video, and says she will take a few next week since I lost the ones today!).

hay naps

I haven't written in detail about Spring in a while, but things with her are continuing to go really well.  She did fail her first test as a lesson horse pretty spectacularly, which was unfortunate (she had a highly dramatic response to her rider using too much (in her opinion) rein, resulting in a rider fall), so that idea has gone to the back burner for now.  Thankfully, both horse and rider were fine and finished the lesson on a much better note than where they started (although Spring came away with PTSD about stupid white cavaletti). My first lesson on her after that incident involved a LOT of reintroducing her to the cavaletti, which she has jumped 9 million times and lunged over even more frequently - we had to lower it to the lowest setting and Trainer K had to lead her over it a few times before she finally started to feel comfortable jumping it again. 

horses.

The next week's lesson was composed ENTIRELY OF CAVALETTI, so we worked on getting her even more comfortable with them, and then set up a fun exercise where they're all offset, but you still need to ride a straight line.  Spring was a master at this, although a little speedy, and it was highly productive and fun.  I don't have a video of me doing it with Spring, but I did dig one up of riding lesson pony DC through the same exercise last May!

this pony is a complete badass

Last week's exercise was the famous "No Inside Rein" exercise (I just realized that the post I linked is from my last ever lesson on Leo and now I am Feeling Things).  I tried it out on Spring a few days beforehand and she lost her brain, so I was a little concerned about how she would do with it in the lesson, but was looking forward to having Trainer A there to talk me through it.  Thankfully, though, Spring turned out to be completely fine with it (maybe she just needed a day or two to process?) and we ended up having our best ride to date.  We were in tune with each other for the entire lesson rather than finding moments of synchronicity and then spending the rest of the time trying to replicate the feeling. 

I do have video from this!!

The cavaletti PTSD struck again at the end of this lesson when the vertical was turned into an oxer using said white poles of death, so we had to break it down (and I got my reins back) to get her over it, but she got over her fear quite quickly and we jumped it in its original form in the end. 

baby oxer

Big girl oxer!

This week's lesson, as I mentioned earlier, focused on coursework.  We started with a simple bending line - vertical to (you guessed it) a white caveletti.  Cavaletto?  I actually think a single one may be called a cavaletto.  Anyways.  Spring looked at it, jumped it way bigger than necessary, but went over on the first try with only a flicker of hesitation.  We then added in the "big" yellow boxes, which she had never jumped before, so it was bending line home around a tight corner (marked with a mounting block) then outside line of boxes to cavaletti away.  Spring stopped at the boxes the first time, bunny hopped them the second, then blew through the line like it was NBD every other trip through.  Trainer A thinks that her new show name should be "Third Time's a Charm."  She was very brave, and we worked on collection through more effective use of my seat, outside leg, and half halts, trying to collect her and set her back more so that she uses her body better around tighter turns and gets less strung out through lines.  Although we had a few messy trips, we improved each time and I was really happy with our ride!

"why do you always use portrait mode, Ma?" - Spring

The flatwork parts of our lessons have been improving in leaps and bounds - this week and last week both, Trainer A has called Spring a metronome because she's gotten to a point where she'll just go - in circles, around the ring - and I can do things like practice picking up and dropping my stirrups at the canter, or changing directions/swapping my reins at the trot during the no inside rein exercise (accomplished by leaning forward and hugging her around the neck to switch sides), and she'll just maintain a steady tempo as long as I stay quiet with my seat and don't fuss too much with her mouth.  She still has her head flipping moments and her moments of running, but those are decreasing with each ride.  I seriously love this little mare, and I can't wait to keep moving forward with her!