Summer Riding

As the summer comes to a close it is a god time to look back and share what's been going on with Matilda and me over the course of the summer. Two ideas really dictated my approach, both from conversations with Kim towards the end of Spring:

1) Why does summer (bringing with it heat, summer camps and more ring traffic throughout the day) have to mean that I ride less? Just ride.

2) For the horse's sake, be the rider that you want your students and/or clients to become some day. Ride for others.

So that is what I did (or attempted to do). I rode. I got to the barn early to ride, before summer camps started, or during the heat of the day, the only time the ring was relatively clear. I rode in the rain. Some days I only had 15 minutes and so would do a 5 minute groom and sit on a pony for 10 minutes, trying to teach it to stand still. I made my best attempt to keep riding no matter what and ended up riding 2-4 times a week most of the summer.

I kept up my lessons with Kim for all but 2 weeks which helped to keep me on task. Words cannot express the joys of being in lessons, continuing to learn, grow and develop.

Matilda and I worked following my new philosophy of riding "small and smart": riding for others. The barn needs solid horse teachers for our students that we can trust with walk/trot work first. We spent our summer, not looking for great leaps of progress but keeping the focus on balance, engaging her hind quarters and building strength and muscle memory. All the while I was watching her, looking for patterns of bursts of energy or unwillingness to work. More and more I feel like our theory is correct: that most of Matilda's inconsistencies (resulting in head tosses, kicking up her heels or bolts) are due to lack of balance in her body and/or mine. With that in mind, we worked transitions and circles adding in poles here and there. We kept everything at the walk and trot as we built in a true emergency brake by doing halt transitions ad nauseum.

The Pony and Me

(As a short side note, I was also given the opportunity to join a team or riders that have been working with a pony  belonging to one of our boarders. He has been a blast to ride and work with throughout the summer. I hope I have helped the pony's owner by doing a little bit of ground work with him and helping burn some energy off during the week. He has been another good teacher for me and shown me some imbalances and oddities in how I am carrying myself that I have been able to take back to my work with Matilda.)

Our work appears to be paying off. We made it through the summer without another bolt or anything like it (even with the incredibly crazy rainy, cool summer we had here). Head tosses are incredibly rare. Kim, Matilda and I have begun venturing out to find her canter transition again while maintaining our focus on balance and consistency at the walk and trot. She is lighter and stronger these days. Her straight lines are straighter and her bend is soft. Her head is coming higher as she learns to engage her hind end more and more (though she would always prefer to stretch her head low). Her halt transitions are pretty gorgeous.

A common summer sight: Matilda waits for some banana

I received the best compliment ever, recently, when I heard someone talking about Matilda moving on her tippy toes. She is so much lighter you don't necessarily hear the thud of a draft horse clunking around the ring. Sometimes you even have to look to find her because of her light steps.

We have also begun re-introducing her to some of the students who were riding her before we took her out of the program in February/March. They seem to feel a difference as well, commenting on her softness and ease of movement.

Needless to say all of this makes me very happy. We have worked hard. I continue to ride even as others are using her more. In the past, I backed off riding her as her lesson schedule picked up and I think it was a mistake. Continuing to reenforce her basics for her sake is important so that other riders can focus on their own work without having to worry about her so much. (Does that sentence make any sense?!?)

Is there anything better than a freshly drug arena?

In my lesson, we are taking tiny steps forward by adding crossrails and, as I said, looking for her canter out of a walk transition. This requires good balance from her and it is a bit of a struggle for me. I have confidence that we will find it and it will be better than ever. More relaxed, lighter... less like I am being drug around the ring.... rather carried. I'm looking forward to continuing on!

I should add that it hasn't been all work. I have been able to practice my jousting skills, using my crop to battle unwary low hanging branches along the side of the ring. We have chased cats, scared people by sneaking up behind them, hurried into the freshly drug arena to make sure Matilda's footprints were the first, shared watermelon and bananas.... 

We are also starting to think about getting back on the trails. It's been a long time since either Matilda or I have been out on the trails. We are preparing by taking walks through paddocks, Kim's front yard, up and down the driveway and down to the trailhead and back. We are waiting for tick season to firmly come to an end before even thinking about really venturing out. It should be an exciting fall!