Horse sitting

Looking after the horses in the mornings for the next week while my instructor is away.

I haven't written up the last two rides. Partly because I was busy, and partly because there was nothing really standout about them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not downplaying them at all. Riding a horse is always a "standout" experience, but for the purposes of this blog, they didn't offer any major revelations or developments.

Today I rode alone (obvs, coach away!). I had new rubber boots on instead of my usual boots and half chaps, and I thought I'd be fine in them (I was in the spring) but apparently I've become a boot snob because they felt terrible. Okay, okay, I know what's actually happening is that, as my riding is improving, the way I'm using my body is getting more specific, my feel is getting better, and when my equipment is feeling or performing subpar, I really notice it now. At least, let's go with that.

Otherwise, things felt good. And after a while, I stopped really noticing my boots squeaking and sliding around. :/ Though I did notice I wasn't keeping my lower leg on as much as usual.

Didn't do anything particularly fancy today. Bunch of walk and trot work, a serpentine or two, couple of passes over the (straight) trotting poles. Skipped the curved ones because the horse was a bit slow and stumbly today and I didn't want to risk her tripping while I had no one else around.

I did some canter work, mostly focusing on getting my transitions where I wanted them. I wasn't sitting as deep today for whatever reason. (Can I still blame the boots?) But felt good otherwise, even though the horse wasn't as on her game. She wasn't "off" or anything. Just didn't have much pep today and needed a few long walk breaks.

One thing I did that I'll definitely try again was to count my strides up the long side at a regular canter, then push her up and try to cut a stride or even two off that count by lengthening her. I was surprised that, at a slower canter, I actually got 13 strides down the long side. Could get her to about 11.5 by putting more leg on. At this point I was kind of half-seating it but... ahhh, whatever. It's hard to concentrate on more than one thing some days. :D Plus... maaaaybe I'm only used to thinking about strides that way while jumping? Maybe? So my body wanted to assume that position? Eh, whatever. It was fine.

My sitting trot work was NOT in that magical sticky place I found a few weeks back. I hope I can get there again. So, after a few bouncy attempts at it, I dropped and crossed my stirrups and did some sitting trot work that way. Thought not so much about tucking my tailbone. Instead I thought "long hip, squishy butt" which was actually more helpful. By "long hip" I mean letting the joint open and lengthen in the front. The "squishy butt" part I think helped me relax into the motion a bit. Haha, whatever works. I also did have a few "go to war!" moments at the canter today to think more about forward and stop breaking to trot. But didn't REALLY push the canter work today. She just wasn't that into it so I let her have an opinion about it.

I even attempted a bit of posting-trot-no-stirrups though I really didn't get any air. Still, I suppose the motion helps to strengthen anyhow, even if it's minimal. I figured, I'm going into the weekend and won't ride again until Tuesday, so might as well go for maximum soreness/strengthening. My crotch REALLY hates me. It has for a lot of rides this fall. I think I'm keeping more contact with my seat now that I'm riding deeper. Which, while good for my riding is not helping my parts. I have one pair of breeches that is basically the devil. :( Going to look for some with MINIMAL seaming when I go down to the Royal. Maybe some better underwear too. Ah, the Inverness problem...