Reteaching yourself

A lot of riding is about reteaching yourself. You learn to do something, and then you go back and learn to do it correctly.

I feel like Walker's sickness has really given us both the chance to start from scratch and do it all right this time.

When I first got Walker, he was professionally trained, and I subsequently went about untraining him in a bunch of intentional and unintentional ways. I learned a lot of bad habits while improving a lot of bad habits. Now I know better. I know what I want, and I think we can have it.

Since Walker is coming off an illness, he has lost so much weight that it will be a slow process to work his body back up to his earlier level of fitness.  Of course, I don't want that level of fitness.  I want better.

Jane Savoie's book is going to get us there because its broken down into lovely steps that we are going to be forced to follow anyway. He won't be cantering from the start. We will be walking, and if all we're going to do is walk, we're going to do it correctly! This can only lead to other great improvements (notice my positivity!).

I think I'm most excited about finally trying to get Walker in front of my leg.  I'm tired of being tired when I ride, and although part of Walker's laziness is his training, the other part is probably due to my initial lack of fitness and need to keep squeezing just to get him to go forward.  Jane Savoie thinks my horse should be light off the leg, and by golly, we will be!

I'm also intrigued by the walk.  I know that sounds rather boring of me, but of all the gaits, I think the walk is the hardest to change.  I have extended Walker's trot and have done everything from a lope to a nice canter, but Walker only has one walk - and yes, I'm aware of the irony of that sentence.

According to Jane Savoie (and you will hear me say that phrase far too frequently),

...the walk marches, the trot swings, and the canter springs.

That's what I want.  Instead, our walk plods or moseys.  Because Walker can literally jog slower than some horses can walk, any amount of leg pressure usually results in a jog, not a faster walk.  So as ironically as it may seem, I'm considering the walk an advanced maneuver to be worked on later!

As you can see, I'm just brimming over with excitement to start working with my pony again.  Here's hoping that the vet will clear him by the end of the week.  *fingers crossed*

these days we don't march, swing or spring - we just munch