Apparently, one of my big issues is that I'm not seeking out enough contact and pressure on my reins in encouraging Gwyn to reach down and into my hands. I'm not necessarily throwing it away, but I'm certainly not doing her any favors.
I did finally get pictures of the new farm where Gwyn is living. Here is Kaylee. The goat pen is to the left and round pen to the right. That little shack behind the round pen is the community tack storage that I'm not planning on utilizing.
This is timely, as I've just reached the part in the book I'm reading about that exact thing and remembering the feel of what she needs (and what isn't too much, despite what my brain says) is going to require some serious retraining on my part.
Farm managers live in that super sweet RV. I'm pretty sure the clearspan building is where they keep the hay. The hay field in further in the back and the river is behind the tree line. The hills you see are on the other side of the river and are part of Lord Hill Park, which has miles of equestrian and hiking trails.
I don't think I nearly appreciated this book enough when I read it as a teen as I do now that I'm putting lots of pieces together from my own instructor, deKunffy, Swift, Wanless, and several of you bloggers. Or honestly, even when I started taking lessons with Jim. There's been a lot of mental maturing in my approach to riding over the past 8 years.
I had just read the part where if human anatomy was ideal for riding, we'd have long enough arms that our fingers could wrap around the bit. Instead we need reins as extensions of our arms. This isn't the first time I've seen that imagery used. Sally Swift has an illustration of that exact thing in her book Centered Riding. Now that I go and find the section (in the chapter on Hands) I see that she's referencing the quote by deKunffy, who is the author I'm currently reading. Go figure. hahah
The simple shelter Gwyn has in her field. This is the first time I've seen her using it.
The trick for me, of course, is actually taking up that contact and treating my reins as though they are my forearms. I'm so loathe to catch Gwyn in the mouth, that I'm avoiding her mouth. But of course reins aren't forearms. They're flexible little shits that have slack while your forearm, by its nature, is much stiffer but would automatically require your elbows to be the point of give. So I have to remove the slack AND incorporate give.
Right before she decided to be a snot and go gallivanting across her sizable pasture.
However, once I push past my discomfort at holding her mouth, all of a sudden my horse wants to stretch down and into me. In fact, the whole lesson more ended up being me teaching myself how to quickly gather up my reins while keeping even contact and then automatically let her stretch and pick back up.
I brought my GoPro to record the lesson! So I have media
But it was good. Gwyn has a high set neck because of the friesian blood. We fight a lot of anatomy to get her moving where her back is lifted and her head is down. This is where I really appreciate the blogging about TC that Megan does at A Enter Spooking. He's a lot further along, but has the same anatomical challenges. She clicker trained this stretch into him. I'm seeing the value.
My warmup was serpentining on the outer racetrack. Gwyn progressively got looser, her head dropped and her pace slowed and steadied. The last quarter of the track he had me halt at my bend switch point and back a few paces then move forward. Then I moved into the arena and worked on contact.
Jim: I want her nose so low she's plowing the dirt while you ride!
Once I was getting good at keeping things steady at the walk we moved into the trot. It helped to think of holding contact as a bicep curl. My hands tend to be so low that this imagery was enough to bring them where they ought to be with contact, which then had Gwyn stretching
Also note my absolutely straight arms in all of these pictures. *facepalm* I obviously really really need to keep that bicep curl image in mind while riding.
After a lot of trot work, I did some canter work, aiming to ask for the depart while she was relaxed and rounded. Since we were actually asking her to take off with her hind, she barely maintained the canter for even a stride, but she was offering a VERY nice transition each time I asked and that's improvement for sure.
Jim wants me to also analyze how she sounds before, middle and end of the ride. After all the stretchy trotting and walking, her trotting was quieter and smoother. She was moving lighter on her feet and not clomping. In fact, I was able to switch between the clompy trot and the lighter trot just in how I rode her. So more senses to incorporate while riding in self evaluation.
Fantastic stretchy trot on Gwyn's part and beautiful heel first landing too
Here's some quick moments where we are getting the stretch in the walk and trot.
And here's some super rough canter departs. Something to work on and build strength for.
Once the lesson was over I gave her a quick rinse with liniment. I figured it would help ease any muscle aches after doing the big trail ride with all the climbing and then asking for a lot of work being rounded.
Concerned with joggers.
Mount Baker in the sunset on our drive home (I pulled over to take this photo)
This valley is really popular with skydivers and hot air balloons (those two dots to the right of Gwyn's head)
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