Back in the Saddle Again

After a crazy week of having no time to do anything, I finally got to work Walker today.  Let's just say that with essentially a week off, a windy day, and cooler weather, he was feeling his energy.  In fact, the goal of my ride quickly became: just stay on and let him run.  A happy coincidence from his energy level was that I think it's one of the few times we've actually cantered the frantic corner without breaking stride.  He was cantering so fast that I literally just had to hold on and let him run.  I gave him lots of rein the whole time, helped maneuver a little, but mostly just let him do what he wanted.  I think after all my neglect, he earned the right to get the energy out of him however he wanted.  We only actually rode for 35 minutes, but we cantered straight for probably 15 - 20 minutes of that, so he was pretty sweaty when all was said and done.

I'm also glad that Walker isn't spooky. Today was pretty windy, and at first I was afraid that he was going to be spooky on me.  When a wind knocked over a jumping standard right in front of him though, he just trotted around it like it didn't bother him at all.  I was pretty glad because I probably would've been on the ground if he had decided to spook at the speeds he was going today.  

In a way, it was actually a great ride because of how energetic he was.  Because it was almost impossible to slow him down or stop him (a couple times he would just round a corner and keep cantering if I asked him to halt), I really got to practice using long reins and sitting deep in the saddle.  I find that because I'm used to a Western Pleasure lope, I don't have as good of a seat when a horse canters.  It's just too fast for me and I resort to a lot of bad habits.  In particular, I have a tendency to try and slow the horse down, which results in too much pulling on Walker's face (which is probably why he often now ignores me when I ask him to halt).  I was all by myself in the arena today so there was no chance I was going to hit anybody, so I loosened my reins A LOT and just let him go.  I focus too much on control when I'm riding, on trying to get things perfect when sometimes you just need to let them run.  It worked perfectly.  Because he had lots of rein, he let me turn him on the loose rein (which is what he was trained to do), and I found that I didn't really need the tight rein.  I also simply practiced sitting in the seat at the speed instead of standing up in my stirrups (which, for whatever reason, I have a tendency to do when the cantering gets fast).  

Today we just went for it.  We just ran.  And it was pretty nice.  I think we need a few more rides like that.  If Walker knows that I'm not going to constantly try to pull him back, he'll probably be more likely to slow down when I ask as a reward (because, as I've said before, Walker trains me just as much as I train him).  And I learned that I won't die or fall off if he canters his little heart out.  All was well.  It was a good day.

On the loping-on-the-wrong-lead front, I still haven't figured out if that's what he's doing at the frantic corner.  As I said, today was the first day where he "easily" (it was still a bit of work but nothing compared to what I usually do) loped the corner on his bad side.  However, at one point today, he was loping a circle on his bad side and it felt really jolty.  I automatically assumed he was loping on the wrong lead, but he was in fact, loping on the correct lead (which is his bad side).  Once again, this made me think that he is not loping as much on his bad side as I think he is (even though I work him in that direction), and he has simply gotten so used to counter-cantering that it has become smooth.  I am going to try and videotape myself next time because this is something that I definitely want to confirm and nip in the butt before it goes any farther.  I also might try and wrangle my instructor or trainer into watching me lope him since they will easily be able to pick it up.  Of course, maybe I'm just over-thinking it.  After all, perhaps he is actually loping on the correct lead in both directions, and he's simply stiff on that corner - like I thought from the beginning.  Either way, it's best to check it out!