The Leaning Tower of Pony

Have you ever tried to hop on one foot, rub your head AND your belly all at the same time?  And stay upright?  If so, you know what it's like to ride a balanced canter on a green (at the canter) horse. Or, if you were unsuccessful at doing all those things at once, then you know what it's like to not be able to ride a balanced canter on any horse.

Tonight, Nova the Battle Ax and I achieved the impossible.  Bent the rules of time and space.  Literally turned Physics on it's side and made Newton's apple float back up into the tree!  We cantered, upright, slowly and balanced.

What!?

About a year ago, our canter looked kind of like this:

If you think that looks terrifying, it was.  And so I had partially resigned myself to the fact that we would be trotting and stuck at Intro for the rest of our lives.  Time passed and I looked on longingly as my friend's horses floated about the ring like large furry ballerinas.  Nova and I instead trotted to all my destinations.

Enter Dom Schramm:

The horse trainer equivalent to Cesar Milan. I start taking clinics with the man and my world is changed. I think, my gosh, with this Australian's help I may actually be able to canter this horse. Literally the best trainer I have ever had.  I now consider him "my" trainer.   I will save further gushing for a Schramm Equestrian dedicated post, but for now I will tell you what I did to achieve the miracle canter.

First, with Dom's help, I discovered my outside rein.  It's really always been there, kind of like Jiminy Cricket, but I never really listened to it or acknowledged it's existence.  The outside rein is key, it's the brakes! Who knew!?

Then, with Dom's help, I discovered my butt.  That sounds really bad, but it's true.  The way I place my butt in the saddle is very important.  No wonder I was offending Nova when I was just plopping down in the saddle with no real plan.  He was probably thinking "Gah! What is that lady doing with her butt!?"  So now, I place my patoot with purpose.

Then with Dom's help, I rekindled my relationship with my inside leg.  We broke up for a while, but now we are back together and loving every minute of it.  (I really just wasn't fulfilling my inside leg's needs, which is poison to any relationship).

So I had been combining those things and the canter was getting better and better albeit still a bit of a hand gallop.  But for the last two weeks, I've been riding with my new secret weapon.  And that is-MY INSIDE SHOULDER!  I just point it up to the sky.  This in turn, puts more weight in my outside seat bone and sets the leaning tower of pony upright.  Which makes him balanced and able to SLOW. DOWN.

So there are a few morals to the story.  First, finding the right kind of help is priceless (awww, thanks Dom!!!).  Second, working on the building blocks of the bigger issue makes everything fall in place eventually.  And third, never give up!

1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 :)