Hands Together

A few weeks ago I wrote about my wayward, disobedient inside hand. When I ride Speedy, photos show my inside hand closer to my body than my outside hand, especially tracking right. I assumed that I was being overly strong with my right hand. It may actually be that I am allowing Speedy (and Sydney) to take the outside rein away.  Hmm...

I am not actually sure what my left hand is doing here, probably trying to get a better grip, but it is definitely not in line with my right hand.

I had a lesson yesterday; can I digress for just a moment? It was awesome! I have the best trainer. I do not know how she is getting me from here to there, but she is. We may not have a perfect right lead canter yet, but gone is the whirl and bolt. We are now working on softening the outside rein so that I can begin getting some inside flexion. At the canter. To the right. Not get a canter, but improve the canter. I never thought we'd get there.

It was in the softening of the outside rein that JL "caught" me letting Sydney go with the outside rein. Once I had him listening to the outside rein, she asked me to start softening with the inside rein. Right away she coached me about not dropping the outside contact. What? But I could still feel him there. I wasn't dropping the contact. I didn't know what she meant until I glanced down and saw my outside hand sitting a good six inches in front of my inside hand. Oh.

While I hadn't let Sydney go completely, I was setting him up to be able to blow through the shoulder and lose his hind end. I had just gone through all that effort to get him straight with his butt behind his shoulders, and there I was just tossing it away. Every time I give that outside rein away, Sydney (or Speedy) loses his balance, and we fall apart.

As soon as I really saw it for myself, I was able to feel why I had to "guard" that outside rein. Sydney takes it in a very obvious way. He leans heavily on it until my hand slides forward. Once I became aware of it, I was able to keep "sponging" him off of it. Duh … keep him soft on the outside rein. 

Speedy is a bit sneakier in getting me to give that outside rein. He roots at it just ever so slightly with an oh, that's not very comfortable for me. If you could just give me a little more room … ah, thank you!

I am really excited about riding him this morning as I want to see if I am right. If I am more vigilant about keeping my hands together and even, can I keep him between my aids more consistently?