3 rides & a lesson

Today was full and fabulous. I rode three of Mike's horses (Pablo, Prince, and Falada) and then had a lesson on Willig. I feel like the cup that overfloweth. There was WAY too much information in those three rides and lesson for me to be able to retain it all.
Mike gave me a mini-lesson on Pablo. First - a "duh" moment. I've been trying to get Pablo to carry his head lower, and the way I've been asking is to suck up and suck up the reins. Because Pablo is a gentleman, he sucks up and sucks up his neck, and neither of us could see the forest for the trees (actually, Pablo was probably just like "What the hell is she doing up there?" and then chummily going along with it). Here is a life lesson: if what you're doing isn't working, don't keep doing it. Try something else. This took about a nanosecond from Mike before he said "let the reins out" - Pablo stretched down and out into them (gratefully, I'm pretty sure) and we solved the problem why I couldn't get his head and neck frame lower. Second - then we got to the harder (new) stuff (for me). Pablo can canter really, really, really slowly. And I need to ask him to, because that's how he's supposed to canter. I fling around like something shot out of a rocket, and what he needs is the moment of "lift" (the suspension) in the 1-2-3-air-1-2-3-air. Because he's Grand Prix, he can hold that "air" moment so long that you can feel it. If you're going slow enough, which I never am on my own. Oddly, this was hard for me to do. Mike also noticed that Pablo, who is a very straight horse, was riding travers the whole time, and so I think it's coming out of my left hip. I had to contort myself (at least, my feeling) to get him straight. I've got to get that figured out. We also worked on extended trot. Mike says to balance it out - ride passage, and then extend it, but you keep the "up" from passage and then let it flow forward to the extension - not flopping onto the forehand but the elevation and engagement from behind.
Next I rode Prince, who is my favorite, and a total delight to ride. He wasn't quite as much a sweetie as he has been the other rides - he didn't really want to do transitions smoothly. We ended our ride outside, where I taught him to walk over the tarp. Since he's a sweetie, this was really just me being patient while he looked at it, hesitated, looked at it, took a tentative step forward, looked at it ... etc. I can tell I adore him because he finally put both front feet over it, got scared, and jumped backwards instead of the rest of the way over it, which I thought was funny (instead of infuriating, if Willig had done it). We got to where he didn't hesitate for a second to walk over it and called it quits.
Then I rode Falada, another Grand Prix horse, who has an entirely different feel than Pablo. It doesn't feel like you're working to ride her (at least, the way I was riding), but then your muscles are oddly tired at the end. She feels like you're just sitting in a nice swing on the front porch of a southern mansion. We worked outside in a nice break of sun. Shannon rode by and said we were long and low, and Mike said he'll try to time it so I can ride her and he can give me a lesson because she's naturally long and low (and I am too) so I'll know the proper feel.
Then came my lesson on Willig.
He should be the easiest, since I'm the most used to him, but he rides like a pogo stick after them. A pogo stick with one of those bobbling heads.
He's been a bit of a kook about the far end (now that it's dark out of it at night), and today another boarder parked there to move fences, and so he spent most of the warm up telling me he had been justified all those nights he's been scared of it in the dark.
So what we ended up spending a lot of time on during the lesson was how Willig doesn't actually respond to me, and in fact, kind of blows me off. And worse than that (to me), when he gets punished for it, he gives me the horse finger (a little buck, a head shake) instead of a shamed "I'll do better next time" Eeyore approach.
I was having a terrible time with his bobbling head (which is just excruciating after riding three of Mike's horses) so we went way, way back to basics, at the halt, with Mike holding the reins, we'd get his head in the proper place, and then I'd release when he gave, and then the second it flung again (about a nanosecond later), we'd do it again. Then we did that at the walk. Then we tried to do it at the trot. The idea is that he learns that it's what I want. Then he holds it for a nanosecond on his own. Then he holds it for a second - then two - then three - etc. until it's a 1/4 circle, a 1/2 circle, a circle - half the arena - then trotting - then transitioning up - then down - to infinity. Maybe by the time one of us is 40, we'll be able to go around the arena like Mike's four year old does. I give a little uberstrechen (sp?) on each side once he's got it to teach him that's what I want and he's supposed to hold it on his own.
Honestly, this was most of the lesson. And I was making grunting noises of frustration through a lot of it.
Then we did picking up the correct lead. If I want the right lead, my left shoulder blade "looks" to the inside, and I ask for leg yield to the right. And the problem was yes, my position, but also that I'd ask (correctly) and Willig would just ignore it. So there was a lot of kicking and whipping - or at least, Mike telling me to kick and whip and by then it was late.
Then we did our teeny tiny (8 m?) circles at three strides of up-up-up canter. This is to help him a) build the muscle for the longer suspension like Pablo can do, b) know that what I want is the slowed down version, and c) get his attention on me. It also helps me remember that transitions are supposed to be seamless - 1-2-1-2 (trotting), then 1-2-1-2 (cantering), then 1-2-1-2 (trotting) - no sprawling in between the up and down aids. Maybe 1 in 10 he did gorgeously. The rest were like a blooper reel.
Then we did some half-elevated trot poles, and then the trot poles picking up the canter as we came over the last pole. What was interesting here was that the cadence over the trot pole, I could sit (it also helps me to sit the bigger trot to think about "swinging" my hips towards my hands) which I think we tried about a year ago and it just flung me out of the saddle like a rag doll. But as soon as we were over the poles, I'd flop around. Mike thought Willig was diving down and pulling me.
Finally, we ended up with trying to work on the passage feeling from Pablo, but this ended up being a wrestling match about his head position (back to square one, where we started), and as sweat was pouring down my forehead, he finally gave for a teeny tiny second and we were able to quit. It took lap after lap after lap after lap. Mike's take is that while Willig is not the most generous of horses, he's teaching me a lot (at the very least, teaching me what to feel for the next horse I get), and he suspects that while I might grumble (and sweat, vigorously), I'd be bored on a horse that didn't have that spunk. And since the ones with both spunk and a charming personality are never for sale - or require winning the lottery to buy - this is worth learning.
I agree. Learning how to teach Willig (who Mike says has a nice canter and walk, but could improve his trot) how to do all these things will help me with my next horse - and every other horse I ride. It's just I'm impatient. Now that the door has opened and I've seen how much I'm missing out on, I want to be in THAT room - not learning how to go through the door - and I want to be there, like, yesterday. And yes, I've let Willig get away with a lot of nonsense for the last 4 (?) years, so why should he understand that as of last week, I didn't want to put up with it anymore? I need to unteach him the bad habits I taught him.
By the end of the day, I was exhausted and ecstatic. What a great day. I would give just about anything to be able to do this every day. And I am so, so lucky to be able to do it one day a week (and weekends!). This has been, quite possibly, my best life decision yet.