I was pretty impressed when I came out on Sunday and May was ready to play. I started my Dressage ride with some pretty strict rules for my. INCLUDING, sticking my crop under both thumbs to keep my hands from doing funky things or wandering. I know everyone is shocked to hear that doing this meant May came pretty reliably into the contact, including bending in both directions without my hands having to enter much of the conversation.
After a quick warm up, we played with some turns on the haunches, which were actually pretty good. So I moved into the shoulder-in exercise on a 20M circle. The left, as expected, was great. And the right was pretty good too. She was able to give me a few steps of true shoulder in. Instead of drilling this willingness, I let her drop down into the contact and switch directions after each good attempt.
Alright, so then I figured we should play with the shallow counter canter loops. We picked up the right lead first… and when I got to M, I directed her to the quarter line, then bent back to F, wash and repeat on the other side. It was OK. I still didn’t feel like she was really wrapping around my inside leg. Again though, I didn’t want to discourage the try or drill it. So we moved onto the other side and repeated…
Or at least, I went to repeat… and she immediately spooked at the corner of the arena. It was one of those moments where she was spooking, and I was looking around trying to figure out what she was spooking at… mid spook. No clue, so I circled around, and it was now a non issue. Maybe she saw something through the door. Maybe she felt I was getting too comfortable up there. Who knows.
Either way, we repeated the same counter canter loops with pretty much the same results. Ugh.
So I stopped for a minute. What was I trying to achieve? As always, I am trying to quicken the hind end and shift more weight backwards while improving jump. Sooo I decided to pick up the right lead again and try some baby shoulder fore. I mean… not even totally three tracks, just offsetting the shoulder to the inside.
May’s reaction? Well, I am apparently the MOST UNFAIR MOM EVER. Seriously. I half halted, asked for the bend, put my inside leg on, moved my hands over, shifted my weight, and she started flinging her head around.
May:
Me:
I swear, I ended up with mouth foam on my helmet. I was just sitting there, no contact in my hand, just maintaining the bend with my leg and seat, staring at her like…. As soon as she softened, I let her go back to straight. I asked one more time, less dramatics, and I let her be done with a lap of stretchy trot around the arena and a nice walk hack.
Fingers crossed that it translates to our next Dressage ride with less drama.
#opinions.
Good on you for being a Zen Ninja though!!
She has taught me that getting into an argument with her will never end well. There is a fine line with this one between not being a doormat and starting a fight.
Lol… mares. May was all “I did the things for you already, mom. We’re done here.”
Basically. She needed to remind me that she does things for me because SHE wants to, not because I am making her. She is her own, independent, woman hahaha
gif game on point!
Bahahaha It seemed important to utilize the RHONY for this one 😉
She thought you were done with the fancy prancing. Smart mares and their opinions…HA!
Aw, the yellow drama llama. I also has one.
Bahaha Yes. The blondes seem to have the strongest opinions, after Chestnuts of course 😉
bahaha she is never ever dull. EVER 🙂 Mouth foam on your helmet. LOL 🙂
May! hahaahha
I feel like sometimes you have to have a little dramatic flailing to get the point across lol
This is Mays approach to life ?