Belated lesson mussing
New York was full of Opinions about being asked to flex at the canter. I'm not sure if he just didn't want to, or if I was asking in such a way that it confused him--admittedly it's a lot of doing different things with different limbs that I'm still sort of wrapping my head around. I knew I was in for trouble when, at the walk, he kept going into a trot every time I even remotely fiddled with the reins. That's usually a sign of Naughty York raising his head, and sure enough...
Now, he wasn't terribly bad or anything, just determined to give me a Going Places Canter and fighting the flex with speed as much as he could. And fuck going into corners. /eyerolls
I had my first BLISTERS when we were done, ho boy. That sucked. You bet I was gripping the fuck out of those reins (don't worry, I was still giving--he's just very sneaky about getting rein out and I was having none of that right then). The good thing is that I was not nervous about the increased speed at ALL. I think I'm finally over my...issues at the canter (knock on wood). Geez, it's been HOW long since my fall? Like, a year and a half? Two? I don't even know.
So. Yeah. Either I really need to puzzle out cue in a way that makes him happy, OR, the bugger just needs to accept that he's going to be asked to do more advanced things again and he should just suck it up and deal. That might be the problem--I'm knocking the rust off things he hasn't been asked to do in years, apparently. At least, that's what she said of the canter/walk transitions, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same applies to this. He doesn't want to flex in, he wants to stick his nose out.
Silly beastie. It still would have been less work to take a nice, mellow canter and not have jumper flashbacks.
Now, he wasn't terribly bad or anything, just determined to give me a Going Places Canter and fighting the flex with speed as much as he could. And fuck going into corners. /eyerolls
I had my first BLISTERS when we were done, ho boy. That sucked. You bet I was gripping the fuck out of those reins (don't worry, I was still giving--he's just very sneaky about getting rein out and I was having none of that right then). The good thing is that I was not nervous about the increased speed at ALL. I think I'm finally over my...issues at the canter (knock on wood). Geez, it's been HOW long since my fall? Like, a year and a half? Two? I don't even know.
So. Yeah. Either I really need to puzzle out cue in a way that makes him happy, OR, the bugger just needs to accept that he's going to be asked to do more advanced things again and he should just suck it up and deal. That might be the problem--I'm knocking the rust off things he hasn't been asked to do in years, apparently. At least, that's what she said of the canter/walk transitions, and I wouldn't be surprised if the same applies to this. He doesn't want to flex in, he wants to stick his nose out.
Silly beastie. It still would have been less work to take a nice, mellow canter and not have jumper flashbacks.