Typically, my lessons are on Tuesday nights, which tend to be unusually quiet at the barn, and honestly, I love that. By the time my lesson is over, the barn has mostly cleared out, and I get some quiet time to reflect on my lesson, pet my pony, and just relax. However, this week my lesson was on a Wednesday, sneaking it in right before NT spends a couple of weeks in Aiken (so jealous!).
This week, I pulled into the driveway to see a few horses tied to trailer by the indoor. Not thinking much of it. I got May all ready for a Dressage lesson. Since May has done a lot of jumping lately, I wanted to reestablish our connection and get some homework while NT was out of town. So the white boots and pad went on, I threw on my new spurs, and I headed out to the indoor. I got halfway there when I saw a white ball fly past the entrance, followed by a HERD of polo ponies.
Alright then… outdoor it is! While it was pretty warm (in the 50s and I ambitiously rode in a t-shirt because I only had heavy jackets and fleeces in my car), it was WINDY and CLOUDY. Since May had a fairly easy few days after last week’s jump-heavy rides, she was a bit up. Plus we were in the outdoor, with the jumps! And the polo team was in the indoor right next door to the outdoor. While May couldn’t really SEE them, she could definitely HEAR them.
I had a few minutes before NT headed to the ring, so I started with my usual “my aids mean something and you need to listen” routine. So we walked on the bit, and we halted. I try to be REALLY methodical about my aids when she’s like this, so I shifted my weight back, engaged my core, halted my seat, closed my thighs, and then rocked my hands back.
And she ignored me.
So then I pulled, and she threw her head up and halted.
And there is May in a nutshell. She KNOWS these aids. We do them EVERY TIME I ride, but she will always give that little baby test to see if I REALLY mean them. If not corrected at that point, it all snowballs into a big hot mess of her questioning if I REALLY mean that aid…
So we walked again, and again, I shifted my weight back, engaged my core, halted my seat, closed my thighs, and then rocked my hands back. And she slowwwllllyyy came to a halt. I let her move forward again, and repeated it in the other direction. After 3 – 5 repetitions, she is tuned in. So at that point, we can finally trot.
The trot was still a bit tuned out, so we just did big, loopy figure eights. I asked her to move off my legs and flex through her body. Buuuuut I actually don’t think this is still the best method of getting her to tune in at the trot. The walk/halt stuff is super important. And Trot/walk/halt tends to make her more tense instead of less.
BUT NT to the rescue. I told her that May just felt really tuned out, so she had us trot and just work through our gaits within the gait. So we started with working trot, then stretchy trot, then working trot, then collected, then working etc etc etc. By the time we rotated to her “bad” side (going to the right), she was on my aids and listening. The right bend has gotten SO MUCH better.
Once we had all three variations of trot nailed down, we moved into the same exercise at the canter, but replaced stretchy trot with a medium canter. My left lead transition was really good. She was actually a bit sticky off my leg to go into the medium, and that stickiness created some struggled at the collected canter.
You know how I knew when we got the collected canter? May GRUNTED. She sounded like me mid spin class when I realize I have another 20 min to go and the instructor says we are going to “ramp up the resistance”. UGH. 
To the right, I was not surprised to get a little more resistance with some head tossing and breaking down to the trot. Ultimately though, we did get a few steps of true collection, so that was pretty cool.
Finally, we moved onto a serpentine exercise. Trot across the short side of the arena, turn left, do a 10m half circle, trot across the short side, turn right, do a 10m half circle etc etc etc. All the way to the end of the arena and then back.
Given that there are a TON of jumps in the ring, I had to get a bit creative with my half circles. However, by the end of the exercise, May was the most connected and steady in the connection as I have ever felt her. She was tracking up, in front of my leg, and I felt like we could spring forward or halt dead with ease.
So when we finished the exercise, and NT said to do it again at the canter with simple, trot changes in between, I was super excited. The first half circle to the left was GLORIOUS. I really felt her step under herself and bring her shoulders around.
Then we went right… and it was a little messy. I sat back further. I added more leg. I engaged my seat more… but she was clearly over it. We managed to mostly pull it together to finish, but it was clear she was tired, and it was really hard. While it wasn’t perfect, it definitely gives me a great set of things to work on while NT is away, AND it gives me a great baseline before her injections on Saturday.
Obviously though… she wasn’t THAT tired. Because when I turned her out that night, she GALLOPED down the hill, JUMPED over the ditch at the bottom, GALLOPED back up the hill to get to the new hay bale in her field…
Do you have a specific routine you go through that helps your horse settle into work?
That guinea pig gif has me giggling. OMG so much going on for May 🙂 Sounds like it ended up a great lesson once you got her listening. And so tired May taking off after you were done with her cracks me up too
Standard. She is capable of galloping around her field… and my abs are so sore I can barely sit up straight.
Haha Whisper grunts when she’s trying REALLY hard lolol! It’s actually really cute lol May’s probably like “dear god this so HARD” lololol I still love her tho 😉
hahaha yes. My trainer told me “there’s your sign that she’s really trying for you.” And… yeah I feel that from her
omg, so fun fact i have a pic of me and isabel that is *almost identical* to that pic of may with her snoot straight up in the air, and it’s legit one of my all-time favorites…. oh mares and their opinions!
sounds like an awesome lesson tho, i’m kinda impressed you were able to get such good work out of her despite the noisy polo ponies!
Mares definitely force you to have a sense of humor!
It definitely wasn’t our usual, quiet lesson night, so I am super proud of her holding it together and blocking out all the distractions!
I was wondering why the polo people were there! I have never seen them on Wednesdays before. Wonder if that will be routine hahaha
I don’t think so? I think they might sporadically be by, but they’re being thoughtful to not try and use the indoor if the weather is bad. I was catching bits and pieces of info about it mid-lesson hahaha.
ha ha, she reminds me a bit of June. So many opinions!
Hahaha mares know how to have a conversation ?
June, May, and Ellie together would be scary! hahaha 😉
hahaha Three horses of the apocalypse? Black&White, Pale, and Red?
I always shake my head when the horse is all “so tired, can’t move anymore, please stop work before I die” and then you watch them gleefully gallop away in the pasture.
Seriously… I bet my Dressage would go better if I held a carrot in front of her face the whole time.
The one I’m leasing now can be a little ADD when we first get going (probably due to weather more than anything), so we work on figure eights to loosen up and redirect that energy!
Figure 8s are my usual go-to exercise with ADD horses. They literally work magic.
I always question how hard it actually was for them when they race away full bore following a “hard” ride lol
Right? You can’t tell me that 15 minutes of standing on crossties totally recharged her batteries. hahaha