Day off from teaching.
Reasonable amount of sleep plus morning coffee with Rick is what makes the best start to the day.
I then set off to the yard and did a first 'work' session with Kingsley. He responded really well. Although he did perform some spectacular displays of agility on the lunge fly bucking and dragging me after himself, once I got on he behaved impeccably.
I spent a lot of time just flexing him and getting him to understand the bending aids as he is rather stiff and thinks pressure on the left/right rein means turning left/right rather than yielding to the rein.
He got the idea pretty quickly and I was really pleased with him. I was walking around and someone joked asking if that's all I was going to do and it made me realise how good it is to finally be able to work with a horse in my own time and to my own agenda. No pressure on doing things in any particular order or way or on/off without any continuity. Here is a blank canvas young horse I can take forward step by step, let him learn and understand and only move up a level once I'm sure everything is clear in his head.
Schooling horses is what I always considered my 'hobby' while teaching and coaching is what defines career to me. It might be because I don't like the pressure of speed schooling so popular nowadays and what I really enjoy in working the horse is to tune in to it and feel what he feels back. It's a bit like being in another state of awareness, being here and there and yet somewhere totally different in the same time. Sometimes it takes me a while to get to that place so no timetable is what I need.
I love getting to that place as it's where all you think about is every single muscle working underneath you and the more I can feel the more the horse responds back. It's where I allow myself to be completely introverted and just listen to the motion.
When it happens it's addictive.
Pic.above: I was filling in a bucket to sponge Mr K down and he decided that waiting is boring. Wonder what's in that room...
Spent the rest of the day with my dear friend eating some lovely food and playing with her puppy.
She decided to go back freelance and will work with me again soon so I am very much looking forward to that.
2 comments
That feeling you describe is the most amazing thing - I think often people just ride, and just train the outside of the horse, instead of really listening to what the horse is telling us with its body about the inside of the horse. If we listen, they tell us a lot.
Your new boy seems like a quick study and also very willing - how fun for you!
Hello Kate, very true. I am especially enjoying the fact of being able to take the time to get to know this horse and not treat it as a working tool or a sports tool!
Post a Comment