How many times does it take for me to learn?

Today I watched Shannon ride Charlie, while she told me what she was doing.  This made a lot of things "click" for me - things she has told me when I'm riding that I think I understand, but then, once I really DO understand, I realize I didn't understand before.  (The bright side of this is at least I am now aware of the next level of things I don't really understand.  Last year at this time, I was blissfully ignorant of the whole world I'm riding in now, and I thought I was hot stuff until I (slowly) began to realize I didn't know jack.)

So the big, big take away is the very closely related issues of too much hand and not enough leg.  This sounds so simple:  don't brake with your hands (close your leg, use your hands as a "soft stop", and then use your back/core to halt or half-halt or do a down transition).  But even though I know this, I am still relying far too much on my hands, which means that it is hard for Charlie to collect because he doesn't know if my hand aid means "come on the bit, please" or "brake!".  It's also harder for me to ride him, because I don't have his "engine" going well enough from behind to drive him into the soft hand, which, when done properly, results in those floaty down transitions and the big, lifted movement.

Second big take away?  I don't work him hard enough.  The theme of this post is that I know all these things, I've written about all these things, and yet I'm STILL writing about all of these things.  Each time it's like a miracle that I figure it out, and a few weeks later, I've forgotten again.  So - it is REALLY useful for me to watch Shannon ride Charlie, especially when she explains what she is doing and why (e.g. Charlie is stiff in the jaw, so she is bending him to the right, left, overflexing, and then releasing) but then I think "no, it's a better use of time to have lessons" and I stop watching, and then I watch again and I'm all "this is genius, I should do this every week, it would help me advance so much!".

Shannon puts Charlie to work right away - even when she walks, she has him walk round and over his topline, not dragging around like a camp pony.  She has told me this, and I thought I was doing it, but I definitely have not been now that I see how she does it.

Third was the light going on about his left hind leg.  Seeing her ask him to move it, and how he barely moves it across but mostly forward (especially contrasted with his right hind), and how hard she had to ask before he started doing it, just made all kinds of sense looking at it from the ground.  No wonder leg yield to the right, shoulder-in to the right, and haunches-in to the left are hard!  He's barely moving that leg!

So I need to:  a)  work harder right away, b) STOP using my hands as brakes and use my legs instead, but c) don't squeeze - give the aid, and give a smack if he doesn't respond, d) then work on flexion and softness, and e) then that pesky left hind.  It's so close, and yet so far away ....
It makes me crazy how slow I am to put this stuff into place.  I think I get it, but then another layer peels off and I realize I was only seeing the tip of the iceberg.