3rd lesson "The wall is my whip"

Tonight I had a great lesson that ended with the instructor even saying some nice things. That's a first. She said, "Is this your third ride on this horse? Because you're doing really great with him!" She really likes our canter departs (and I do too, they feel wonderful!) but since that is a strength, I don't want to work on it much. I want to nail down his nasty school horse stiffness and resistance mostly.


I arrived at 7:45PM and it was my first time grooming and tacking Danny the spotted cob. I'd seen it done so I was worried about bridling. Twice I'd seen ladies fighting with him to get a bridle on, including the owner/riding instructor. Oddly, he opened his mouth for the bit, and let me bridle him with perfect ease. OK then, what was that about? He is nippy about his girth, but I slap him on the nose when he threatens to bite. Biting the wall is OK though, and soooo common here in Germany!

Since it was my first time grooming him perhaps he had time to recollect who I was and respond better to my aids. I don't know. I led him into the arena and walked the perimeter twice. I never just get on a horse taken from a stall (I'm the only one at this barn that does this). That's what the girthiness is I guess, people girth up and get on in two steps.

I started out walking serpentines and did lots of 10 meter figure 8s and such. That horse is so stiff it's a job to just see his inside eye as you turn. But I figure if I never ride the whole arena, he'll have to improve.

Steffi the trainer/owner had me keep doing that, and then take up my reins and she had to keep reminding me to loosen the inside rein and shorten the outside. It's just still backwards to me and I am having a hard time reprograming that.

I am pretty independent when it comes to private lessons - I mix things up and do what I want in addition to following orders. I like to let the reins out to the buckle and see how far he'll stretch down. I think this is important to do with every horse, every lesson. She's never asked for it but she always approves. I have a hard time understanding her but she's starting to get my body language when I don't: I kind of lean forward and peer at her like "What huh?" She doesn't understand hardly anything I say to her, but oh well.

I don't want you to think this horse knows anything about collection or being on the bit yet. He's like a baby in that way. I think how draw reins would show him the light as far as headset, but then I know that adding leverage to a horse who leans is counterproductive. So we don't make a pretty picture out there, there is not much roundness, but we'll get there. I'd like to introduce leg yielding soon. We'll see.

This horse will not stop. He is a school horse and he must have had just years and years of going, going, going in an arena and only stopping when you're done.

Trying to stop him, even from a walk, is amazingly difficult. He just leans into any pressure so I have to set him up, prepare him, and then ask him, and then ask again, and then give him another chance, and then I turn him into the wall.

The wall is really the only alternative I have other than pull against his leaning. He always seems so surprised that he has to stop, and I just stand him there a few seconds, and let him think, and then we do it again, and again, and again.

If I'm off the wall when I ask for a halt, a one-rein stop works. I'm just walking at this point, although she had me do a few trot/halt transistions, and then canter from the halt. We do transitions every 10 seconds or less. There is nothing like a group lesson going on here for Danny. This is completely new and this is the re-tuning of a school horse.

I thought how the wall is my whip. I don't have to use the whip very often anymore, just once tonight when he ignored my clear request to trot. The whip reinforces my leg and the wall reinforces my seat/weight/rein request to halt.

I also thought about those reining trainers who gallop horses straight at walls to teach them to stop. Yes, that's me!: )

My lesson is only a half hour but that's fine, I can use the other half to work on what I want. Today she said I could go do more trotting but he really doesn't need to work on trotting or cantering, he needs to get light to my stop and back cues. So I spent maybe 10 minutes at the end just walking, stopping, backing, standing there breathing, then walking, stopping, backing, and so on. Since the halt is so hard to get, the reinback is even harder. He just cannot comprehend that he can go slower than a halt: ) I am trying to get three good steps and twice I did, and he was really light as I showed him how nice a release can be if he just shifts gears into reverse.

I did a lot of rubbing on Danny's withers when he was good and stopped when I asked. He finally started getting it. After I jumped off of him, Steffi came over and said how great that lesson was, and how he tests people. I said, "I don't sense that he tests me, I mean, he just needs time to understand my requests. To me, testing is something really bad and he's not being bad at all." She said, "Well, he tests everyone else. He doesn't seem to test you." : ) He sure is teaching me how to avoid a pulling contest with a horse! Thankfully there are walls.

I offered to take a lease on the horse for a month, since I'd like to work more with him, but Steffi knows I do not want to work in the arena in the evenings when it's full of people, and it usually is. I asked if I could just ride out in the outdoor, and she said, "Well, I don't know if Danny will go out there." What? She doesn't know? Oh come on! But she said she'd give me lesons every Monday night (avoiding the issue?) and I'm fine with that too.

After walking him around on foot, (he didn't need that cuz of all the walking/stopping at the end) I put him away.

As I pulled out of the driveway at 9:15PM, I saw a lady lunging a horse while smoking a cigarette. That's not the issue though. The thing is, she was lunging that horse when I arrived an hour and a half prior! Ugh, what is wrong with people lunging horses for exercise!