Found My Spine....And My Horse

After 7 months off from riding I've been back in the saddle for about 10 weeks now. I have to say, when I first got back on Blackie he felt "broken". Nothing was like it had been before I had to stop riding. He was not forward, resisiting the leg, resisting going forward, stopping, kicking out at the whip, pulling on the bit and just plain tense, ugh. I thought I was going to cry.

I am a thinking and feeling rider - and I've been using both to get back on track.

Monday night I had finally "had it" with him. I've managed to get the stopping as a whole to stop. But as soon as he has to work a little too much (especially in bending lines to the left) it would rear it's ugly head. Not being forward is the real reason why. So that was it! He tried pulling the reins from me and stopping on Monday ........... and let's just say, I got my spine back! I let him have. Enough is enough. This was NOT rider error, this was horse bad attitude. So Tuesday was a small repeat of Monday. Tried to stop once. Both days though I still got him more forward.

But last night, FANTASTIC!!!! It was like having my old horse back! I hand walked for about 10min (new warm up) before getting on. I think the lunging for warmup has seen it's days. Getting on him straight cold doesn't work real well either. But this hand walking seems to be doing the trick. So I got on. He felt a bit tense. I trotted a couple circles. Trot did NOT feel good and was NOT forward. So, canter here we come. Canter, trot, canter, trot, canter, trot............finally he was ooh so alive. Felt hot, felt forward, felt just on the fence of explosive but still totally controllable - that my friend is the BEST!!! Now I could do something! Now I had a horse to ride! This is what I'm talking about.

What we worked on:
-going FORWARD
-quickness of canter departs
-figure 8's with a shallow bend (diagnol lines)
-staying on the outside rein
-lots of give on the inside rein
-trot lengthenings on the diagnol
-canter lengthenings on the rail
-all transitions
-leg yield at trot
-shoulder in at walk