It's not you it's me

This blogging thing is harder than I thought. Everytime I think about soemthing to write I getr worried that people will judge my opinions or that I might seem stupid. But no one reads my blog so I guess I am just being stupid. I have real fears about pouring my heart out into the ether though, its just spooky...

Alright, so Stormy pony. As of late I have been trying to develop more contact. Stormy is short bodied and compact and easily goes into a frame, I just have trouble keeping him there. He bobs his head and swings it back and forth and routinely pops up and hollows out. It doesn't seem like he's avoiding the contact. He's not upset, nor does he do these things suddenly. It's like he just can't keep still. For the past weeks I have gotten more and more concerned. I checked his tack, his back, his bit. Nothing was physically wrong and I really believe mentally he's ready to start going in more contact. He cheerfully drops down onto the bit when I ask and relaxes his back, he only does it for a few seconds though.

But I rode in a lesson the othe day. I had taken a month off lessons because I had been writing exams and then it was Christmas so riding sort of fell by the wayside. But my nose is back to the grindstone and me and stromy were ready to work. So we spent an hour following orders, working on my position, his steering and pace, we did tonnes of different exercises and I had little time to think. I just rode. Alas, 15 minutes after our warm-up and I have quiet, light, consistent contact with the corners of Stormy's mouth. He was relaxed and his head was still and I could feel him tracking up underneath me.

I took from this that I need to not worry about my horses head. I was told a long time ago by a clinician long ago that you do not ride the head. You ride the feet. When I was distracted telling my horse's feet where to go everything else feel into place. When I rode with my whole body, I had control of his whole body and my quiet hands made for quiet contact.

This is not a great break through in my horsey knowledge. I knew this before. It's so easy when riding to lose the big picture and get stuck on a tiny detail that really isn't important or will solve itself as long as you take care of the big picture. Which really is true about most things in life.

So thanks to my pony and my coach for reminding me about the big picture.