Move His Body

When I ride Izzy, I am generally always prepared for the worst because for so, so long that's what he's given me. I have ridden through more spooks than anyone could ever count. And his spooks aren't little twitches either; they're full on Oh, Sh*t! moments. Since I started riding with Sean Cunningham, owner and trainer at STC Dressage, the oh, crap moments have drastically decreased in frequency. Without me really noticing, Izzy has finally become a dressage horse. No more green bean here.

All photos are from the next day's ride.

When Sean joined me on Saturday morning, It took a few minutes before he started teaching. Most of his comments were of the I really like what I am seeing here variety. Even I was a little surprised by Izzy's compliance. Izzy was trucking along like a been there, done that lesson horse. It was really nice to ride a horse that could bend through his body and hear a half halt.

Once Izzy was warmed up, we moved on to the canter work. Sean suddenly had a lot more to say. To sum up the entire lesson, I need to move Izzy's body instead of focusing on getting him to lower his head. We've done so much work to diffuse Izzy's tension that it's now time to change our focus. Izzy still tucks his butt and scoots, but he's far less interested in running away from me than he used to be. This means I can put my leg on and use it to mean go or bend or both.

Where did this lovely horse come from?

Our trot work has really improved, but now it is in the canter that Izzy is so braced. Sean had me do anything but a 20-meter circle. Instead, He wanted me to leg yield back and forth and ride smaller circles. Instead of trying to get Izzy's head down and relaxed, if I focus on moving his body around instead, he'll have to soften on his own. 

Sean has shown me lots of suppling exercises that I haven't really thought to put together before. I feel a little like the Karate Kid: wax on, wax off. Paint fence up and down, paint house side to side. Suddenly, I am seeing how to put all of the exercises together. Izzy wants to lock his his poll and neck, but by moving his ribcage and shoulders around in leg yields, small circles, and counter flexion, his head comes down on its own.

We are definitely summiting a pretty big mountain right now, but I can see the top from here. What I can't see is how many more peaks, if any, we have left to climb. Sean says all we can do is go to another show and see how Izzy does. He'll either be over the worst of his tension, or he'll need a few more shows to realize that I am not going to change anything. I am going to ride him the same way I do at home, or try to anyway. Until that first show, I am going to be here moving this horse's body around.

If it is looks a bit like a tango, just toss me a rose and crank up the music.