A Matrix Moment

I had a great AHA! moment while I was riding Speedy this week. It's something JL says to me all the time, but I just hadn't internalized the meaning of the words: we don't care where his head is.

Even though JL says it frequently, I just couldn't believe it. If I don't care where his head is, what the heck do I care about? The answer finally dawned on me while I was doing our keep his head up exercise.  

Tracking right isn't a problem; Speedy's really bendy that direction. As I asked him to change directions, I met the same resistance we had dealt with at the lesson - stiffness. As JL had suggested, I tipped his nose in a bit and pushed, pushed, pushed with my inside leg. I got it, and felt it, at the same time. All of a sudden I could feel the bend through his ribcage.  It was a true bend from poll to tail. It was then that I realized bend doesn't have anything to do with where his head is.

I rode this new bend for a circle or two and then halted with a lot of good boy pats and praise. 

I wrote the other day about my rapidly developing sense of feel.  I feel like Neo in The Matrix when he's asked if he wants more: Hell, yes. Hell yeah.

There is no spoon.