Night and day

Well, maybe evening & morning.

But that's what today's ride felt like in comparison to yesterday's. I followed through on the ground pole plan, setting up six poles so we could walk and trot through them. It was late - after 8 o'clock by the time I caught Sunny, but the bugs weren't as bad, and the heat of the day was gone.

He wasn't look-y, and I'd decided after yesterday that I was just going to ride through whatever he threw at me. He hasn't ever pulled anything major, so I'm more than likely psyching myself out over nothing anyway. And you know how Arabs feed off of nervous riders - lol!

I walked him through the poles on the ground first. It's been a long time since I set distances up, and he's shorter than the TBs & QHs that I took jumping lessons on. He was patient while I fiddled, and once I had things set, planted himself politely for me to mount.

We walked the poles a few times. Picked up trot on the correct diagonal - yeah, me - and continued winding through serpentines and circles. I could feel him engaging his back and stretching over the poles, which was great.

And I figured out something else while I was thinking over yesterday's ride. I think part of his focus problem was not just me being nervous, but also too much contact. Sunny's been ridden western. I've been using the bitless bridle, but on a mostly loose rein. He neck reins, & works off my legs. He's not heavy headed - he never tries to hang his front end on my hands.

When we were working at the walk he was soft because I was soft. It felt familiar. But when I asked for a trot, we started misunderstanding one another.

Riding English I'm used to picking up contact and feeling the reins telegraph the horse's actions: moving them up into the bridle. So, when I was asking Sunny to trot, I was automatically pushing him forward into my hands. But contact for him means something entirely different. We were working on mixed signals. He was hitting my hands and reading stop - I was pushing forward, and he was confused. We spiraled from there.

Tonight when I asked for upward transitions, I pushed him forward, but I also gave him more rein and encouraged him to reach out for my hands instead of trying to gather him up. For the most part it worked. He didn't get hollow and evasive. He let me know when I was gathering up too much, and if I softened my hands and fed him a bit more rein, he relaxed down into them.

When we were done he was actually warm and so was I. He licked his lips and let out a big sigh while I cleaned his hooves and brushed off the sweaty marks. I think we both finished the day more satisfied with one another.