Charlie with the long sought after cooler

Charlie with the long sought after cooler
Spring NWEC 2013 Novice

Monday, September 21, 2009

Willig at home

Well, back to the grind.
The fabulous feeling of the low head and the impulsion? Gone. Instead we spent the evening being scared of ... (jaws music) the mounting block.
Seriously. A hard day of work, I raced home on my bike, wolfed food, patted the dog, raced out to the barn so I could give him a good workout and we spent 45 minutes being nervous about the same mounting block that has been there since February.
Tom came to video (coming later, when I have more time), the new, improved Willig after his training, and his observation was that Willig looked pretty much like he always does, i.e. not at all like he did yesterday for Mark, then me, then John. (Until the end, when I got this fabulous trot with impulsion on the bit that just made me grin.)
While it was not one of Willig's "good" days (neither was yesterday), I was pleased that with a dog barking in the distance, riding in the dark, with Tom popping in and out of the shadows (until I asked him to cut it out, I only need one "learning opportunity" per night), and back at home, he did as well as he did. I guess that's my lowered expectations from two years ago.
Also, when I ride, I remember a lot more of John's instructions. Something gets lost in me trying to get it all written down at home. One of the big Mike ones from my last lesson is to ride like a belt is around my biceps. Instant improvement when I visualize that.

1 comment:

gina said...

Don't you just want to squirm when you have someone to video and your horse does something totally freakish? I feel for you when you do so much to set up for a good ride and put a lot of your own energy into just "getting there" and then you feel your partner doesn't hold up their end of the deal.