It Really is that Simple: Add More Leg

If you follow along with me on any of my social media platforms, you've seen this photo (and a few others), plastered all over the place:

And perhaps you might be wondering just exactly why. Granted, it's not the most elegant dressage photo, there's still a fair amount of beauty in it. I however, am pretty darn proud of this photo and all the other ones from Sunday's ride I've been spamming the internet with.

When I first started this blog in October, 2020, I promised myself full transparency on this journey. That is the only way you learn. This particular photo is the cumulation of a solid month of commitment to beginning development of contact in the canter. Since his hip injury back in March and our eventual realization that there may be more to it after we fell in May, our canter has been our weakest point. To see how far his remission time set him back has been astonishing, but I would not trade the experience for anything though. Patience and slowly building strength back over all these months proved so much worth it on Sunday. We went from maybe a step or two in a straight line to full 20-meter circles, it was like something clicked, for both of us.

Blue is a phenomenal and talented horse, but he really does have strong opinions on things when he thinks he's got the better way figured out, so there can be periods where we really struggle with getting on the same page and for the last several months as we've been building strength through his back, he's been like most horses, and extremely heavy on the forehand. He'd been compensating for the rotation in his pelvis for who knows how long, but judging from the scar tissue, it was some length of time, by using his neck (explains the massive thing. lol). As I found out, this is a bit of a difficult habit to reset. What this resulted in, as well as my positioning not helping him out much, is an extremely heavy horse on the forehand, prone to tripping. Bad. As we worked through reprogramming this habit and developing his strength and endurance, it was difficult to for me to not become fatigued early on in our work. He's so massive and takes a fair bit to keep together, especially when you're reprogramming bad habits of your own.

We hit a brief period of clashing the two weeks leading up to Sunday's ride. As we are progressing, Blue has to get used to being ridden with slight contact at all times and after a few successful and beautiful walk/trot days, it went south in a hurry. Never does he not try, but his strong opinions of all the other ways we could be doing things so that it's easier were difficult to work through. After having several rides that were less than helpful or effective, it was evident I was missing something, as there was some form of miscommunication happening and I cannot expect him to fully understand and execute what I'm asking if the message is somehow muddled. I myself was having difficulty working through the proper cues, and was struggling to figure out how to practically apply what I needed to. Mind you, we're learning this together, consider it the blind leading the blind. lol. We had some minor success and called it a night. And then I let him sit for a few days (thanks Montana winter and cold, blustery days). In that time, I watched videos of brilliant riders, I read my training books and I still couldn't make sense of it. And then as always, I found a video of Amelia's on achieving contact through effective use of the aids and thought to myself "maybe it is just that simple."

The next day was forecast to be beautiful, so I committed to giving Amelia's advice a try, as it's been extremely effective thus far. Although it was 50F, the wing was cold and relentless and looking at my fresh horse eyeballing the parked trailer in the field that is always there, I was wondering about my sanity and if I would regret this choice. He couldn't have been more of a gentleman. I think he secretly really enjoys the work and the challenges we work through. His eyes are always alight and bright when he sees me coming with the halter. And as we worked through our stretches and warm-up, I thought to myself, you feel pretty great, let's give this a try. We started on his good side and as soon as I asked for the contact, he politely refused, so I did what Amelia said and asked him more forward. Immediately, he came up into the contact and his stride became so much more fluid and energetic. It just felt so nice, effortless. As we started into our circle he was working so beautifully, I decided to try for the canter transition. It was messy, so we regrouped and tried again, and again, and again. After that we went back to walk-trot transitions and trot-walk transitions. We were making some great progress I could really feel a difference and was totally diggin' it, but it was a total surprise to me when I miscued him at the walk (on his difficult side) and he stepped up into a canter depart that was so different...beautiful. We had it for about 5 strides and then we lost it.

Deciding to chase that feeling, we went back to working on our trot-canter transition. About the third one he transitioned semi-decently, so we kept it going and I decided I would try to regroup him in the canter, so I used the same concept we were working with in the trot and to my delight he dropped his head and came into the contact and I felt the surge of his hind end and back pushing me up. He became light as a feather and we continued in this euphoria for two 20-meter circles and then we lost it. I was ecstatic and so overjoyed! WE did it and for more than a few strides! It was like you could feel that he was proud of himself as we went around, it truly was magical. Now, I know he can do it, I've seen my best friend get it out of him, although she says it's not easy, but I've struggled so badly to get us there. And it was so effortless. No struggle, no fight. My original plan was to stop right there, but after I finished beaming like an idiot and brushed the tears of joy from the corner of my eyes we picked up and tried the opposite direction. After a few less than pretty transitions, I just decided to try regrouping in the canter and although it took 3-4 rounds to finally get it, I trusted him to go forward as I added more leg, asking for a bigger canter as I asked him for the contact and once again I was rewarded as he came down into the contact and his whole feel changed. Once again I was riding a feather, effortlessly. And then we immediately fell out of it. So we went back to a collected trot and asked again. Instant and beautiful transition. Beautiful carriage. For a full 20-meter circle. I called it after that. I was so overjoyed and proud. I told Blue what a glorious and beautiful horse that he was and wrapped myself around his neck and got a warm muzzle in the crook of my neck and a soft blow on my ear. I hugged him so tight. We finally did it.

Once the weather turns not blustery, dark and ominous, I'm going to continue chasing that feeling. And we're going to continue making progress.