JATO Girl Returns

So, I had a nice schooling at home on Belles, just did 'stay very
connected and steady with lots of figures and transitions' stuff.
Packed up and headed off to Pleasant Hollow to ride Ms. Moonlight. She
came out of the stall relaxed, chilled while I groomed. Tacked her up
with dressage togs, headed out to do a loop of the pasture and then
work in the upper roadside dressage ring.

She was Impressivly Lively for walking around the field. Our dressage
schooling became All About Trying To Relax. I gave her a place to be
and said 'stay here' in terms of stride/frame, which was a challenge,
but I wanted to ensure she was engaged between my leg/seat and hand
through the ride. We just did a ton of walk and trot work while I
waited to get some true relaxation--we were Females Stretch Trotting
On The Verge of A Massive Explosion when I gave her stretching breaks,
LOL. Kind of nerve wracking to have her reeled out to her knees when
she is not REALLY relaxed into the stretch. She has an amazing leap
into the air and buck from that position when the mood takes her.
Sometimes going around in a stretch will relax her though, although
when it does not work it can get interesting. :-)

Since she was tense and tight, she was swinging out of alignment (she
spills around like a slinky when she is uptight) so I did leg yields
to get her off my seat a bit, and then worked her in haunches in,
shoulders in, haunches out, half pass--all stuff that requires at
least a modicrum of her attention, plus at least after all that when
we were on a straight away we were actually *straight*.

Finally decided that this was the horse I had tonight, not gonna get
better, might as well canter and work on alignment and staying 'in the
zone' asked. So we are doing this canter work which sucked--I was just
looking for a really true canter, as she was so tense she was doing
her lead-swapping jack russell bouncing stuff on and off--been a while
since she did that, it is not tack or lameness, it's just pure nerves
and drama.

So we are doing canter work, changing directions once in a while,
figures, it's sloooooowwlllyyyy getting skightly better and more
relaxed. Then as I was coming out of the corner and ready to head up
the long side on the left lead, she unglued and spooked, took off like
a rocket. I was sort of suprised, but since she has been known to
light out when deer leap by, or a cat in the woods, or once a
porcupine, this is not a strange or shocking behavior. I sat deep,
kept my right rein taut, and went for the left rein, turn off the rail
(which was a single chain a foot high, not what I want to send her
into by mistake), disengage the haunches and pull up the spook sort of
stop.

That was the theory, anyhow. What I got in practice was Moonlight's
head turned back to the left, at my shoulder height, while she bolted
in a straight line down the longside of the dressge ring. She was not
at full tilt because I was that successful at least, but she was nohow
noway pulling up. I was comfortably secure in the saddle and not
worried about coming off or any such thing, but I was begining to
wonder about hitting the chain at the end of the dressage ring; I
booted her shoulder a couple of times with my right leg, which was
enough to bring her shoulder off the rail to the inside, following her
head, and we came to a halt.

I look down to the now far end of the ring where we began, and there
sits Audrey on Killowen, mouth hanging open, in the opening where she
was coming in from the far field where she had been riding. I wave and
say 'Hi!' and she said, "I never saw a horse spook that distance
before! Her head was as high as your shoulders! And Sideways!" And I
said 'yeah, I had to kick her shoulder to get her over enough to pull
up' and she said 'I could see you do it!' She appologized, but I told
her there was no need, Moonlight was just feeling a little dramatic,
that's all, and this was a little big but not THAT out of the
ordinary. Silly mare.

Moonlight stood there shaking, we walked down to look at Killowen, and
then we went back to work. She was actually a lot better almost
instantly, and I got some good canter work off both leads, then let
her quit and hacked the pastures to cool out.

The nice thing about a mare is you get to ride a lot of different
horses without having to own that many.

Eileen Morgan
The Mare's Nest
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Shoulder pain from swimming?
    ... don't know if I can stretch my arms above my head because of my ... shoulder. ...
    (rec.sport.swimming)
  • Re: JATO Girl Returns
    ... Packed up and headed off to Pleasant Hollow to ride Ms. Moonlight. ... So we are doing canter work, changing directions once in a while, ... head turned back to the left, at my shoulder height, while she bolted ...
    (rec.equestrian)
  • Re: Whats the best martial art or principle for womens defense
    ... He throws a right cross: Shuffle in as you bob 45 degrees toward his left shoulder. ... Once your head crosses the line along which his two feet lie, he can't land the right hand. ... While closing the distance, your left hand extends toward his right shoulder to make sure his punch is deflected, then your left hand grabs his neck. ... This will open up that arm for what follows, and tie it up against a possible follow-up should he back up, withdraw his right shoulder, and try to throw a hook or push you off. ...
    (rec.martial-arts)
  • Re: my swing
    ... your head to allow your left shoulder to pass beneath your chin. ... left shoulder simply collides with your chin in your backswing. ... legs are the foundation of the golf swing. ...
    (rec.sport.golf)
  • Re: Not floating away
    ... I have Little Feet with his paws and head on my ... left shoulder, Little Boy with half his body on my right shoulder and ... Miranda just puts her head on my leg, and her powerful brain waves take care of the rest. ...
    (rec.pets.cats.anecdotes)
Loading