Friday, February 21, 2020

Homework galore

Right after my last post, I had (of course) big plans to do X, Y, and Z. Then I fell and bruised my right seat bone area. Enough I could legit barely sit. And when I did sit? I had to sit slouched because I could NOT sit up or put weight on my right seat bone. I thought I had bruised my actual pelvis, though FIVE DAYS LATER I was finally able to determine the pain came from the muscles and not actual bone. It was a long ass week y'all. No lesson that week!

I tried to ride while I was bruised, with various levels of success. I couldn't sit down, I couldn't sit up, I sure in hell couldn't sit back, so I did some two point twice in that week. Unfortunately, I had also tweaked my bad knee when I fell so I couldn't do two point very long. Or with stirrups. *sigh* In the end, I gave Mia several days off. She got to free lunge and be fed treats and she seemed content with that. I was finally able to SIT last Saturday, but wasn't able to be productive in the saddle. Instead we just be-bopped around in the ring (hello 22 degrees and super high winds! No riding outside!). Sunday I was able to do a little bit of work, but in the end just walked, chatted with other ladies at the barn and took it easy.

On Monday (8 days after my fall), I felt good enough to ride and so we had a true dressage ride. There were various degrees of success, but the ride went well enough. Mia was SUPER full of energy and we did some long trotting (trotting with head low, as big as we can, for as long as we can) with some canter work. Mia loved that we were doing long trotting again, and was throwing in some super huge extended trot steps. LEVITATION BABY!

On Tuesday our lesson was cancelled because the instructor, A, was under the weather. I rode and worked on homework: walk/canter/walk transitions, lots of transitions, transitions all over the place, gait transitions, speed transitions, all the transitions. Mia did most of them quite well, but wasn't feeling the canter/walk transitions. She was pretty sure they couldn't be done without jigging, and we had a long argument about it. Trot in them? Eh, not ideal but whatever. Jigging? No. Bad mare.

On Wednesday, we went back to work on the canter/trot transition and Mia had obviously taken time to reflect on our Tuesday ride. She was much more willing to w-a-l-k in the transition. I am quite sure A won't like them, as I think I am tensing and I am super collecting Mia's canter which makes her tense, but it is baby steps in the right direction. Mia is understanding the request and trying, so now we just need to fix me for it to come together.

It was also super cool to canter on Wednesday, Mia is so much more adjustable in her body position! When I feel her be crooked, I can put my leg on and she moves her haunches!! I am now able to feel when she is straight! Her right lead is still her hardest direction to keep her haunches behind her, and we still struggle greatly with haunches in the canter/trot transition, but we have come so far in these 3 months. It's hard to imagine that 7 lessons have made such an immense difference!

I really, really wish I had found A sooner, but everything happens for a reason. At this point, I would put her up as tied for the best instructor I've ever had against M from Michigan. She has made such an immense difference in such a short period of time, she explains things so very well, and she seems to really, truly enjoy giving lessons to us. I hope it doesn't end anytime soon, because I think we are going to go really far by keeping up these lessons!

1 comment:

  1. Ouch, sorry about your backside! It sounds like things are coming together. It took me a while to find Shanea. She’s been a godsend so I get how you feel.

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