What a year of walk lessons gets me
I cantered this week.
Oh, I’ve cantered a few times since I started riding again, but for the past year or so the majority of my lessons have been spent at the walk. This is fine with me, because the walk is endlessly fascinating and, if I ever feel like I’ve “got” it, there’s that minor thing called a halt to humble me again. Why is stopping the hardest part of riding for me?
But this second lesson I’m taking every week is with another trainer, in a group, and it should be a great complement to my very technical-minded walk lessons. And, as I’ve always known they would, the walk lessons paid off.
We walked through the corner, shoulder in, canter off. I expected, to be honest, to be thrown around like a rag doll because I figured I’d loose my position in the upward transition and would spend the rest of the time trying to regain my seat and such. Instead, even with the horse doing one of the most powerful steps up into the canter that I think I’ve ever ridden, I was right there and from the first stride felt like I was ready to do… whatever. Anything. Everything.
And in the second. And in the third. And into the downward transition.
It was such a cool feeling.
The two lessons will be a good complement for each other, I think. One lesson at the walk, to keep reinforcing and progressing in the mental/technical aspect of things, and the other lesson with more trot/canter work to apply the walk lessons to other gaits.
Leg yield vs. half pass, redux
All right—so the leg yield vs. half pass. Again.
My original question was why the leg yield comes before the half pass in the training scale. I would ask my trainer if I ever thought of these sorts of questions while at the barn, but I tend to limit my questions to the work we do in the lesson.
But in last week’s lesson we (sort of) half passed at the walk. It was not a “now we will half pass” moment; it built out of what we were working on.
So here’s what I felt as the difference between half pass and leg yield, and why I now (think I) understand their relative placement in the training scale:
In a leg yield to the right, the horse’s haunches are to the left. Every cross step asks the horse to step towards the body—so, in a sense, closing the angle.
In a half pass to the right,the horse’s haunches are to the right. Every cross step asks the horse to step away from the body—so, in a sense, continuing to open the angle and reach even further under and then across the body. The leg yield really only asks the horse to step under the body.
Which is a major difference, and explains (to my satisfaction) why the half pass comes after the leg yield in the training scale. I’m sure there’s more to it, but I’m happy to have figured out this much.
Now to get some books and videos so I can figure things out more quickly…
And she’s back
Ah. Hello again. I’m back.
I’m happy to say that while the past six weeks or so have been insanely busy, they’ve been nothing but good. Exhausting, sometimes, but good.
I moved (new apartment, not a new city or anything), bought a new car, made some serious progress on paying off my credit card (even with the miscellaneous expenses that go with moving), and I’ve decided that, since I won’t be buying a horse next year thanks to the new car, I am going to take an extra lesson every week. The last few lessons I’ve had have been amazing, and I keep thinking how much better they would be if I rode twice a week instead of once a week. So I will. Ha! Take that, penny-pinching mentality!
First priority now that things are settled in and I get back into the online thing will be to take care of Horse Bloggers, and then I’ll be back to dust some things off with this blog and say something of substance. Like how I rode a half pass in today’s lesson and finally understand why the leg yield comes first in the training scale. Woot!
Oh… and I should probably point out what some people have already noticed: I’ve turned off comments for older entries. I’m not trying to be anti-social (I love comments!), but spam on this blog has gotten overwhelming again, and it’s mostly on the older entries. I figure this is better than, say, adding captchas or requiring member registration, because who wants to deal with that?
Walking ER Bill, redux
Help—best pain relief for significant (down-to-the-bone) bruising? Aleve and Ibuprophen do jack all.
My arm is killing me and I would really rather not have to go to the doc-in-a-box over a freaking bruise.
(Don’t ask what I did; I don’t know. I moved this weekend, and now I have a bruise the size of Texas on my arm and it hurts like a candy-less kid on Halloween.)