I read this quote in a magazine today and I thought it was one worth restating. I feel every rider might need to remember this one day or another since it's so easy to get frustrated or off topic when we're trying to communicate with our horses.
Anyway....I love my horse. This week I've had some really great rides that have really made me more confident about going training this weekend.
Tuesday I flatted Rori by myself. She started off a bit stiff but I think that was due to showing this whole weekend and then having Monday off. So we started off slowly and we hit a point where things just weren't clicking...she felt heavy, running a bit through her shoulder, etc. I know I've experienced this before and I know that I know the tools to fix it, but sometimes I get frustrated too easily, so I used one of my new tools which was stopping and thinking about it. I took a minute to figure out how to fix it rather than getting frustrated and riding her incorrectly. What I realized was that the problem had to be fixed by moving her haunches, taking away some of my bend and changing my circle size. When the problem was fixed, we were able to move on and then we progressed positively from then on forward. I'm really proud of myself for taking a break and not getting frustrated because that has been such a bad habit int he past and it's my number one priority to break this season.
Yesterday we had a stadium lesson and that turned out to be excellent. We worked a lot on improving myself, my position, and my approach to the jumps. Before we were working a lot of holding Rori to the base and making her add in another stride when possible to increase her adjustability...since then, Rori has really improved and now I'm working on allowing to the deeper stride rather than holding. It took a little bit of time but by the end of the lesson we really had some nice jumps and she really used herself nicely over them. Throughout the lesson, I also focused on staying quiet with my movement in my position. When the jumps get more difficult, technical or I think she might spook I tend to rush rather than wait so we addressed this throughout this lesson, as well as today's lesson cross country.
This lesson I have been anxiously awaiting all week. I went into today aiming to just stay relaxed and really trying to trust Rori.. and with that attitude there was not only a change in Rori's performance but mine as well. We did some banks with four strides to a skinny, jumping in and out of water with one stride to another fence, jumping roll tops with one stride to water, and through it all Rori showed me how brave and talented she really is, and with that I became more confident with myself. I was able to use what I learned in my lesson the day before in today's lesson and I think that made Rori more confident in me when taking her over fences that she may not have been too sure about.
The first time we dropped off the bank to the skinny she was a little wormy about where she was going and instead of rushing her we slowed down and rode it with one extra stride and she jumped the skinny with great form. The second time down she was more confident since I didn't rush her the first time and I was able to allow her throughout the line and it rode a lot more fluidly.
Today I was also able to watch Mark Phillips give Sinead a lesson on Tate. I really love watching lessons, whether they are by Mark, Sinead, David, Karen, or anyone else because I feel like I learn a lot not only about my own riding but a lot of good teaching methods as well. I've discovered while being down here that no matter the level of the horse, there are going to be frustrating moments, times of uncertainty, or plateaus in the training. The important thing is how we as riders deal with it and move forward rather than getting stuck in a rut or discouraged and being down here watching these advanced riders work through things has really put more things into perspective for me.
All in all, I'm really excited about moving up to Training this weekend. Friday we have dressage and stadium and Sunday we do cross country. My goal is just to get through the show feeling confident. I don't want to stress myself with trying to be perfect because in the end that just works against me. If I can place my goal with just going in and being confident Rori and I can only learn, improve, and move on up from there.
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