After the fact I realized it was essentially all a physical issue on my part, which didn't really help with my emotional butt kicking. His back used to curve to the right, so his hips were always trailing to the right. My tendency is to collapse my right side and I really sink my right seat bone into him. Which was magnified when I was trying to correct the haunches. Now that he is straight, I can't break myself of the habit.
Sometimes I do better than others, but when I sit too much at work (especially when I am doing technical things that require full focus) I start sitting heavier on the right seat bone and it spirals from there. Poor Stinker was suffering from me telling him to move his hind to the right while shoving it to the left with my seat bone. He did not appreciate my mixed signals and got quite frazzled (I don't blame him because I get quite frazzled when I get opposite instructions).
I got a lot of inverting and flailing as my poor horse tried to tell me he wasn't capable of doing what I was asking. If I get my butt out of his back and give him room to work he is totally capable. But he is not the time to ignore one signal in favor of another one, he tries to do any and all plus some extras most of the time.
After much struggle we finally got some semi ok work and let him end. After we talked a bit I suggested that the next time trainer gets on him, since she is crooked in the opposite direction going to the right is much easier for her.
On Tuesday I schooled at home and really focused on getting my right hip lifted and coming forward and the work felt really really good. Hopefully I am able to recreate that feeling this weekend and find out if it looks as good as it felt.
I get bummed out after a bad ride even though logic tells me that they are inevitable. My inner toddler just yells at logic to go away. We are all crooked in some way and we have to accept that we likely never be perfect while still striving to improve. You have done so much with him and it shows.
ReplyDeleteThat darn inner toddler. Such a pain 😂
DeleteIt's easy to let a not-great lesson get you down, but just think about where you guys were 2 years ago! You're making so much progress :) and knowing what the problem is is the first step to fixing it, right?
ReplyDeleteI would really rather not think about two years ago 😂
DeleteTraining is going to be ugly sometimes! Have to go through that to get to the pretty! Keep up the good work. I am also crooked, I always sit on my left seatbone though. Really screws up some movements. My poor horse.
ReplyDelete#ISofeelThis Working at a desk all day can really screw up biomechanics, I feel like I am constantly battling as well.
ReplyDelete