Ride Notes: A lesson on the changes

Still chipping away!

I did two rides on my own that focused on the changes between BM's training ride and my lesson yesterday. One went okay. The other one was a shit show, and I somehow broke the tried and true L-R change....but uncovered the R-L.

In my lesson, BM had me warm up at the walk the way I had been the past week: long rein, keeping the relaxation, walk forward, move the haunches back and forth. She also broke down what every single body part needed to be doing and when which is EXACTLY what I needed. She knows more than one to two aids at a time is a real deal breaker for my brain, so we started walking a figure eight pattern as she talked me through the aids I would be doing when we got to the canter.

We did a quick trot with a bunch of changes of direction and circles to get Opie's muscles fully warmed up, and then on to the meat of the lesson. 

The canter was pretty shit to start because I hadn't asked for any collected work yet so I wasn't going to automatically get it there either. But we rolled with what we had and in the figure eight very nonchalantly asked for the change of lead through walk or trot, whichever he was willing to give without getting worked up. 

Ugh, but worked up he got. He started anticipating changing direction and just diving towards the new direction even when I was asking for nothing but a circle. 

Since relaxation is the core goal here because we're not going to be able to get anything without it, I just kept bringing him back to the walk as needed with lots of reassurance before trying again. Finally, after a couple of planned walk breaks where I was confident with my body placement, timing, and aids, we got the canter more collected and started in on the flying change.

R-L was beautiful!!! Super clean, super quiet, right on the aids, cantered off quietly while I heaped the praise on him.

L-R was the shit show I have been experiencing. We never got a clean change this way, and ended after only a few attempts because we didn't want him escalating any more than he already wanted to.

BM thinks the root of it is weakness in the LH--as always with that fucking leg. He doesn't want to load it, so when he changes in front his whole hind end if off balance and he can't help but blow through all my outside aids and literally fall through my outside leg until we're 10m off the track we're supposed to be on, and he's just hopping up and down or bolting or both trying to correct his balance.

So our homework is strengthening exercises for that leg: haunches-in and some small turning jumps focusing on keeping the outside aids and that LH underneath himself.

A small win though! He's cheapo TSC calming supplement has purportedly made him a whole new horse in his stall at night. No more frantic weaving or running, and he even missed a cookie opportunity the other night because he was passed out flat snoring away when lessons ended. At least one thing can be easy!