See Spot run ... and catch the bright blue ball

Wake up call at 5 a.m. today, in order to beat the 100+F temps. The boys are currently spending the nights outside, it is cooler in the pastures and the open run in shed than in the barn. However, it meant that I had to get them in to feed at 5 a.m. in order to leave at 6:30 a.m. for our lessons - on my vacation day! It was all worth it, though.

I started again with Chambord, and I don't know what happened...  he was just awesome. Soft, round, on the aids, I couldn't have asked for more. And the nice thing was that he kept it for JP. It's not easy for a horse to have to adapt to two different riders. As Sandy pointed out, I keep my long legs close (sometimes too tight) to Chambord's sides, where JP's legs are at a different point of Chambord's barrel, and he is moving them more. Chambord adjusted nicely to both of us and really did a great job.

We worked quite a bit on my position again. Seems my long upper torso is 'swaying in the wind' in downward transitions. I absorb the motion upwards instead of in my hips and thighs. Sandy compared it with a long backed horse (as opposed to a short backed one). Collection for the long backed horse is usually harder. So... more collection exercises for me!

Now - what's with the "See Spot run ... and catch the bright blue ball"? Another one of Sandy's apt analogies. I still have the tendency to ride Remy like a baby, even though Sandy has been on me to "ride him like a trained horse", meaning asking for more. So today she came up with the comparison of kids in school: Children need to move on from reading "See Spot run" to more complex sentences like "See Spot run and catch the blue ball". Same with Remy, he needs to progress in his learning. Don't get me wrong, we are not skipping grades here, but we are moving up correctly and consistently with the training scale as our 'bible'.

For example, I tried using Saumur's exercise of shoulder-fore for straightness with Remy today. Initially, I got too much bend and we lost the rhythm and relaxation. After a bit more practise we succeeded it made a great difference in Remy's way of going.

Perhaps my reading should get a bit more complex, too. I've always been a ferocious reader of a great variety of books: Classics, novels, academic books, training manuals, etc. but right now I am glued to a murder mystery. Not exactly food for higher learning, but then, who knows, I might have to draw on it some day: "How to win over the handsome FBI agent". Of course, only to give advise to my single friends :-)!