Less Greedy This Time

9/13/2013

I rode with a less gimmee, gimmee attitude on Wednesday and rode instead with a show me what you can do vibe. The results were definitely better.

Sydney is really rockin' the keep your rhythm exercise to the left. Just by slowing my seat, or speeding up my posting, he matches his rhythm to my own; sweet! Even at the canter he is willing to stay soft and steady.

On Wednesday, I did a little work to the left, but concentrated most of my time tracking right. Dr. Jekyll definitely has a Mr. Hyde under that sweet brown-eyed face. And Mr. Hyde obviously hates maintaining a steady rhythm. I didn't even attempt to canter to the right. What was the point when the trot work isn't steady enough?

Here are our issues: We have no bend to the right and once we approach the vast openness of the middle of the arena, Sydney's RUN instinct kicks in. Riding with a loopy rein makes these two things quiet difficult to fix. I am not going to say that I rode through it perfectly, but I did my best.

I realized that If I really looked ahead to where I was going and focused on my "marks," I could get the bend, but it took a lot of corrections with the outside rein and a ton of inside leg. He finally gave me one or two decent circles that were fairly consistent in their shape and rhythm.

I totally get why Lois wants me to do this exercise. The more that Sydney can maintain the rhythm and bend without me micro-managing him, the easier it will be to ride him as I increase the contact. If he can't work with rhythm with a loopy rein, he is just going to be HEAVY with contact.

Good thing I have all the time in the world!

Tracy link

9/13/2013 12:15:40 am

I believe that all horses (and people) have a better direction when riding. I think sometimes horses need to be prepared a bit differently when being asked for a specific way of going their "bad" direction.

For example, the horse I leased was much more stiff to the left. So even though I could get a great bend and tracking up fairly quickly to the right, I needed to let him stretch and ask more slowly to the left.

Perhaps Sydney's weaker direction is to the right, and that he needs a little bit different preparation? I know you are very meticulous in warming your horses up, but have you tried doing something different from left to right to elicit a better result?

Just my 2 cents as a very unqualified reader :-)

Karen

9/13/2013 10:11:03 am

I think he just needs more time going to the right. It's definitely his more challenging side. I frequently put him in the 10-meter (or smaller) circle this direction to let the geometry teach him what I need (JL's words). It almost always helps him to bend and move off my inside leg.

Sarah link

9/13/2013 03:38:30 am

"Good thing I have all the time in the world!" Love it. Serious truth in that statement. We may want things *now* but it will come when it comes, and typically it comes once we surrender our artificial timelines and deadlines!

9/13/2013 10:11:31 am

Just plunkin' away day by day. What else can we do?

Karley link

9/13/2013 05:57:41 am

We should do some trading.. Henry has no bend to the left :)

9/13/2013 10:12:09 am

I've always said that I would have the perfect horse if I could just meld my two together!

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Not-So-Speedy Dressage