The Elusive Active Trot...

And today's piece of advice is... 

Don't bad-mouth your horse while she's listening.  Particularly, when she's a she.  Mares take note of these things.  They hold grudges.

I was paired up with Molly tonight.  I chatted with the riding school staff beforehand, comparing notes on my respective steeds.  Diva is fully booked on a Wednesday night at present - she's not very fit just now - so it looks like Molly will remain my regular Wednesday night partner.  But this may be subject to change: they're keen to get someone experienced on Diva in the immediate future, so she remembers what it's like to be schooled.
 
So it looks like I'll be either alternating Molly with Diva, or making the switch entirely.

I felt a bit of a heel when I led Molly into the school.  I'd felt I'd betrayed her by fraternising with another horse.  But oh, boy, is that girl hard work after Diva!  A few years ago, she bounced about like Zebadee, ricocheting across the school.  These days, she's more like Dylan the rabbit on Mogadon.   All this is good news for Molly.  She used to be spaced out of her mind.  Now she's really chilled.

Today, though, she made an exception to the rule.  A tractor was moving muck about outside.  This was, of course, a good excuse to go goggle-eyed and spooky, particularly when Molly was paired up with someone who wanted to Do Something Serious And Work.  I spent the evening trying to get my trot more active, so it was half an hour of trotting poles and trot-canter transitions without stirrups.  What made me laugh was the fact that every time I moved down from canter, I went straight into rising trot, even though I was bereft of stirrups!  It was really difficult to stay in sitting trot and push onwards maintaining the energy, which was the whole point of the exercise.

It was exhausting, and Molly really wasn't in any mood to co-operate.  My canter transition was hit and miss, but this time there were more hits than misses, and I wasn't losing my balance in the transition, so it was a major improvement,  But I was concentrating so much on what the horse was doing tonight that I think my position was going to pigs and whistles.  All the cries of 'Toes!' from Sunday's session were forgotten...

And the good news?  After realising how difficult it is to get Molly to do anything these days, I understand all the more how miraculous that moment with Molly was a few weeks ago, where we actually got it together for a couple of seconds in trot.  It's an unfortunate thing, but I think Molly lost the desire to be an equine athlete years ago.

That is, if she ever had it at all.  Which is debateable.  All she wants to do is hang out with her pals and eat hay/grass etc,

Can't blame her, really...

The Elusive Active Trot...

And today's piece of advice is... 

Don't bad-mouth your horse while she's listening.  Particularly, when she's a she.  Mares take note of these things.  They hold grudges.

I was paired up with Molly tonight.  I chatted with the riding school staff beforehand, comparing notes on my respective steeds.  Diva is fully booked on a Wednesday night at present - she's not very fit just now - so it looks like Molly will remain my regular Wednesday night partner.  But this may be subject to change: they're keen to get someone experienced on Diva in the immediate future, so she remembers what it's like to be schooled.
 
So it looks like I'll be either alternating Molly with Diva, or making the switch entirely.

I felt a bit of a heel when I led Molly into the school.  I'd felt I'd betrayed her by fraternising with another horse.  But oh, boy, is that girl hard work after Diva!  A few years ago, she bounced about like Zebadee, ricocheting across the school.  These days, she's more like Dylan the rabbit on Mogadon.   All this is good news for Molly.  She used to be spaced out of her mind.  Now she's really chilled.

Today, though, she made an exception to the rule.  A tractor was moving muck about outside.  This was, of course, a good excuse to go goggle-eyed and spooky, particularly when Molly was paired up with someone who wanted to Do Something Serious And Work.  I spent the evening trying to get my trot more active, so it was half an hour of trotting poles and trot-canter transitions without stirrups.  What made me laugh was the fact that every time I moved down from canter, I went straight into rising trot, even though I was bereft of stirrups!  It was really difficult to stay in sitting trot and push onwards maintaining the energy, which was the whole point of the exercise.

It was exhausting, and Molly really wasn't in any mood to co-operate.  My canter transition was hit and miss, but this time there were more hits than misses, and I wasn't losing my balance in the transition, so it was a major improvement,  But I was concentrating so much on what the horse was doing tonight that I think my position was going to pigs and whistles.  All the cries of 'Toes!' from Sunday's session were forgotten...

And the good news?  After realising how difficult it is to get Molly to do anything these days, I understand all the more how miraculous that moment with Molly was a few weeks ago, where we actually got it together for a couple of seconds in trot.  It's an unfortunate thing, but I think Molly lost the desire to be an equine athlete years ago.

That is, if she ever had it at all.  Which is debateable.  All she wants to do is hang out with her pals and eat hay/grass etc,

Can't blame her, really...