Clinics

Last weekend I went to a one day clinic with Tom Neel (TN). He is a trainer out of Texas and was in CA to judge a versatility class at our state fair. The clinic was located in the Napa Valley - Wine Country - about 3 hours from home. The last couple of events I have gone to, my husband has come along. The first few because I was still having trouble throwing my saddle up on my horse - how pathetic is that? These last few because I think he is enjoying himself. At least I would rather think that he is enjoying himself than going along out of some sense of misguided pity. My husband is much more social than I am. I talk way more than he does. How does that work out? He isn't much for chit chat, but when in a situation with strangers he is always the one that strikes up the conversation and gets it rolling. Then he sits back and doesn't say much. When my friends and I are together, he just sits back and listens. They all think he is mute. More on my overly social to strangers, muted to everyone else husband later. He really is a paradox.

Back to the clinic - First off it was supposed to be 106 degrees at home on Sunday. At 8 am at the clinic it was 57 degree. Mr Semper thought the weather was wonderful for riding and was full of himself. Of course that only lasted about 5 minutes then he was ready to go back to his stall and finish his breakfast. The first thing we worked on was lead changes. Semper has his changes down but sometimes he has some issues with kicking out and diving in. I chose to work on the diving in part. TN says that he does practice lead changes in the middle. Not all the time but he does work them in the middle. His thought process was that they need to wait to be asked and schooling changes in the middle gives you an opportunity to change or not change and gets them to wait for you to ask. To fix the diving in he said lope the circle ask for the change and then lope straight to the center marker at the rail and stop. Don't go either direction. Just let the fence stop him. That did work but I'm unsure if this is going to make Mr. Anticipation worry about changing leads every time we go through the center. Everything is good in small doses. So I need to remember to do things different every time. Not every other time, but EVERY TIME!. I'll show you Mr Anticipation - if I can think that fast. While working on the changes Semper was getting a little pushy. TN had me (while loping) pick up on his face, pull his face towards my knee and yield his hind quarters around - pretty forcefully, then push him back out and lope again. After a couple of times of this Mr. Pushy got a lot lighter. I have used that trick several times this week since I have been home and it is making him lighter and lighter. After lunch we worked on the turn arounds and the dreaded stops. Our turnarounds are not bad we need to work on starting them from a stand still but overall the are pretty good. We did a few and TN had a couple of suggestions about how I asked for the turn around. I tried his suggestions and they worked out fine. I could hear TL (trainer lady) in my head saying "raise your expectations" and basically that is what TN was saying out loud.

The dreaded stops. It is all about the run down. I think that I have determined that is where the problems start. TN had me do the same drill and TL. Both had said not to focus on the stop itself. They are getting better and Semper is relaxing in the run down. I normally don't ride "in" my stirrups, meaning that I don't put weight in my stirrups leaving me able to move my legs and feet easily. For some reason riding with TN he kept having to remind me to bend my legs. I was stiff and bracing in my stirrups. His comment was "you can't use your legs if your knee isn't bent". I was also riding very forward. Again, not something that I normally do. I don't know if it was nerves or what. After we did the drill for the stops and got Semper relaxed in the run downs we quit - no stopping at all. Next we went to work the cutting dummy. I have a story about Semper and the cutting dummy I want to share but I will save it for another post. He is absolutely scared to death of the cutting dummy. He thinks it is the devil and blows, snorts and won't go within 10 feet of the thing. We hadn't been close to one in months so I wanted to see if he was over his completely irrational phobia of it. NOPE he wasn't. The good thing was that with all the snorting and carrying on he has a ton of energy to direct. His turns are complete, he watches it like it is a man eating tiger. He rates it well because God forbid that it gets behind him, it might eat him up. As we are working the dummy, TN stops me and says "you are riding better than you have all day, you are using your legs better, your seat is better, you are more relaxed, what gives?" I have given what he said a lot of thought and the only thing that I can figure is that when I was working the dummy I let my nervous, over thinking brain shut off and let instincts take over. I wasn't conscientiously making a decision to ride better or different, it was just me riding, focused on the dummy, trying to stay in the center of a rapidly moving bundle of muscle and nerves. Staying on a big motored horse when they start really moving it is like sitting on the wing of a jet airplane when it is taking off. He has power and sped to burn. Lots of G-force. At my Wednesday night lesson I was telling TL about my experience and she said "you don't usually ride like that". Later on when we were going to work stops, I started the drill that we have been working and found myself getting all bracey and leaning forward. hmmmmm.... Maybe the stopping problem is my nervous over thinking brain... not the horse or the run down. It all starts with me. I sat back and tried to focus on being relaxed. Of course as soon as I relaxed, so did Semper. He rated well, he loped straight, didn't try to anticipate, and all in all did a really nice job doing the run downs. Again, we didn't really practice stopping. But when I did ask for the stop, it was boat loads better that anything we have done in recent months. I am still working on it but feel like I am moving forward again.