Thursday, August 27, 2020

Lesson 17 - Soften your GD hands!

Yes, an update already! I want to get this down before I forget my lesson again. As said in my last entry, Mia had her hocks done so she was off until this past Monday. Getting her hocks done was an interesting endeavor, Mia is really hard to sedate! She ended up with Dorm and Torb, double what everyone else got, AND was very awake well before the horse that went an hour before her who had much less than she did. The vet said she was happy with the sedation level to get Mia done for hocks, but she would need more if they did much else.  Even with the heavy sedation and a twitch, Mia was still flinching and jerking when getting poked. Sheesh!! The vet did say that Mia's right hock, the one that doesn't really flex, had really good joint space and no real arthritis, but that the joint was really dry. She couldn't even get any fluid to come to the end of her needle hub like she could on the left hock so injections are definitely something that will help.

She is looking good!

Since I wasn't able to have a lesson this past Sunday, I asked for the first possible lesson and Tuesday was available. Mia definitely has springs now, and is challenging to ride at times! She felt as bouncy as she does when she is a firecracker ready to go, except that she wasn't happy going back to work and had no energy. Was definitely a weird feeling! We started the lesson with one plan but immediately scrapped it to work on frame. Mia was all kinds of unhappy about getting back to work and so we spent the entire lesson trying to re-engage her. Transitions (about 1000 of them lol), more transitions, transitions in gait, transitions up, down. Walk/canter. Canter/halt. Halt/back. Halt/trot, so many transitions. 

Favorite view

About halfway through the ride, Mia started really working and being happy again. Her movement is so big now! A said she was striding well under her saddle pad in the back, which rarely happened before. The big takeaways from the lesson were that Mia is absolutely not listening to my leg/spur and that I have regressed and am pulling with my hands again. I need to soften my hands and stop letting her bait me into pulling on her. Ugh, always something to work on! 
You haz treatz for me? I like treatz!

When I flex her, I am also not keeping an even pressure on both reins, I am losing my outside rein and flexing her only with my inside so I need to fix that. I need to remember to ride with my hands forward and push her up to my hands, not pulling on her. The answer is always more leg. Speaking of leg, my homework is to get her OFF OF MY LEG. A was amazed that she saw me using my spur on Mia and Mia was still not moving off of my leg. Either I am not using it hard enough or Mia needs to "remember" how to listen to my leg. 
Big fat eye :( While still weepy, it isn't swollen and the vet didn't see anything wrong

Last night I rode again and the focus of 75% of the ride was getting off of my leg. If I applied it and she didn't move, she got a smack with the whip. It took more than I expected to get her to move every time, especially off of my bad, right leg, but at the end she moved off as soon as I put my leg on in the walk and trot. She also kept her haunches behind her in the canter, something she had been adamant couldn't happen anymore. She is getting today and tomorrow off, as she has now had 3 dressage rides in a row after 2 weeks off (she also had a weird eye problem before her hocks were done) but we ride again on Saturday AND possibly Sunday on group trail ride! Fingers crossed Hurricane Laura isn't too bad for us or anyone else? 

OH! And I bit the bullet and bought myself a Pivo. I love seeing videos to self-critique and after reading posts by others, I am going to try it! Let's hope it works for me?!?

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