Falling In: A Work in Progress

Yesterday, I got to ride this really sweet 20-something pony named Jo that was MAYBE 14hh and was once legendary in the short-stirrup hunters (rumor has it, she occasionally comes out of retirement to sneak-attack a win at local shows).

Joy is not a complicated a ride, but she falls in to the left all. the. time. Walk, trot, canter, it doesn't matter, why go straight when you can have diagonal swag? I did serpentines at the trot (I was going A to V to B to S and then along the rail back) and I kept missing the mark at B because she would fall to the left. I was told going from V to B that I should be able to see her left eye, which only confused me more, doesn't seeing her left eye mean she's turning left even more?! But keeping my left leg on was supposed to prevent that.

Joy was also good at teaching you that you can't rely on your reins for stearing. If you pull on the right rein, she'll go left, because to her that means you are closing the right rein. I had to bring my left elbow back so that she wouldn't fall in to the left, but it felt to me like I was asking her to turn left. Not the case, once I trusted D's advice, I felt her butt swing right when I brought my left elbow back. Keeping my left leg on and my left elbow back allowed me to finally go from V to B able to see her eye and hit the target.

A work in progress! I also got my own riding crop. I was skeptical because it was a little longer than what I wanted, but I choked up on it and actually found it helped me to use it when I needed (I was pretty whimpy with the crop and this was just easier to use because I didn't have to move my hand back as much. It's the Fleck Soft Grip Crop in case you are curious - it's the only one they had at SmartPak that wasn't sparkly...I also got treats and am finding having an arsenal of treats is pretty awesome for showing lesson ponies love.