A Sunday Ride

Grrr ... maybe it's better not to ride after a long work week, and an equally long horse week.  Dealing with the regular stresses of life and then having Speedy's hospital visit to deal with sort of wore me out.  I am not so much physically tired as I am mentally fatigued.  Even so, horses must be ridden.

It seemed a good motivator to set up the camera to video my ride on Sunday.  We've made so much progress that I wanted to see it for myself.  Twenty-four minutes into the ride, I got off and turned the camera off in disgust.  I didn't have to see it to know that was ugly footage.

Sydney simply would not maintain a steady rhythm.  He would not soften or bend his neck.  In fact, he wouldn't do much of anything.  I tried every trick I could think of.  He was simply heavy and ploddy up front and my aids were completely ineffective.  All of this my fault.  I know that.  I just couldn't seem to get myself together.

With the camera turned off, I regained my motivation and decided to really take hold of Sydney and put his butt to work.  I shortened my reins, which I had been trying to do for close to half an hour, but this time, I held onto them.  I put my legs firmly against Sydney's sides, and I started using my back and shoulder blades.

Viola - there it was.  All of a sudden Sydney was moving forward.  He started making those lovely little grunting sounds he makes when he's using his back, and the foam started building in his mouth.  All it took was for me to really engage my seat and core.  Once I stopped worrying about how we looked on the video, I got a much better connection.  What I need to remember is to establish a rhythm, shorten my reins, and use my core and back.  It sounds so simple...