Recalibration

I had a nice, steady lesson on Charlie today. He gave me just enough to work on to not be cocky (not that I have any reason to be after riding 3 times in the last month) but we made satisfying progress and I felt like I got it. Shannon's tip for when I'm riding by myself is to work on bending both ways and then going straight. She said Charlie was overbent to the left and stiff to the right. We worked on the proper response to the spooking (after she rode him this week, it's getting him in front of my leg and then letting him go up and down instead of faster forward or sideways) and then counter canter, which feels so wonky around the corners. News flash - even when counter cantering, they should bend in the "proper" direction (towards the inside). It was a great lesson, satisying on multiple levels, but I'm just too pooped from my month of work to do it justice describing it. I'm written out.

Sir Spooksalot

Charlie, with his generous heart, today gave me lots of time to work on how to ride him when he's being a little squirrely about rain and wind and boogeymen. In addition to the same old (legs under me, not behind me; left hand closed and back; right hand not gripping with death grip), what we worked on was doing the opposite of what I want to do - making him feel confident in me. I used inside leg (away from the spooky thing), and inside hand to pat, and then outside leg and hand to stay firm. And if the wind was particularly rattling, I did a bit of shoulder-in and planned ahead. In theory. In practice, I pretty much flunked every single time past, but at least we figured out what I do wrong (hit with whip and clench hands) and so now I know what to practice doing right. As we warmed up, my feet are now creeping back behind me, so I need to feel like they're in front of me like a chair. And my left hand is a wimp and my right hand is a lunatic control freak. It is very, very, very hard to get the left hand to stay firm and in place while softening with the right hand. Almost impossibly hard. So that needs a lot of practice time.