I know it's been a few days, but my hectic Finals schedule and Jason's health issues have kept me from blogging about my ride... until now!
As I've mentioned, on Saturday I had the opportunity to ride in a clinic with Lendon Gray. I found out that I would be riding with her four days before the clinic, and in those four days Gali was an absolute demon in the ring, and an angel on the trails. I had no idea what to expect, other than for my eyes to be opened and to learn as much as I possibly could.
A friend from the barn offered to trailer me for less than an arm and a leg, and I absolutely jumped at the offer. Gali was a bit reluctant to get in the box, because he's used to step ups and wasn't really sure what to do with the ramp. When he loaded, he placed himself sideways as if he were slant-loading, and when the person helping me load pushed him over, he decided he wasn't happy. He flew backwards out of the trailer (thank god she has an extra tall one!), broke the trailer ties (my fault for tying before the butt bar was up) and stopped mid-bolt to graze. The second time up, he loaded happily and we were on our way.
Gali unloaded easily and I took him down the driveway to the barn, where I was told to put him in a stall so I could unload my tack. My horse is notorious for not settling down anywhere, so imagine my surprise when Mr. I Don't Like Horses made friends with the horse in the stall behind him and settled right down to eating his stalls' shavings. He tacked up easily and I brought him out to the warmup ring just in time. He was very antsy about things going on in the bushes, and I was ansty about having no walls should he decided to leave, so I ended up dismounting and walking him around the scary items in hand. Good thing, because he bolted around me twice when we were walking, and had he not been in hand, I think he may have gone for a nice run.
He was a dick for mounting in the indoor, and acted like he'd never been near people before in his entire life. We warmed up while Lendon was talking to the rider before me, complete with bolts and ducks and inverted circles because, oh my god, things.
I'll post a video of my ride, (and a highlights video of my ride, once finals are over) soon, so anyone interested can see exactly how 'fun' my ride was. At two different times, Gali grabbed the bit and ran me to the left, switching directions on the circle. Lendon yelled "Stop. Stop. STOP HIM!" each time, and when I finally was able to, she helped me work through not letting him do that. It seems really stupid of me, but when he does that I either a) run him into the wall, and he ducks out because he's a horse and bigger than me and knows it or b) chicken out while running at the wall, and he ducks out because I let him. My correction to this has always been an open inside rein and hard outside leg, but again that whole "he's a horse" thing. She noticed that when I open that rein, I pull and hang and linger and he blows me off. For the rest of the ride, when he'd try to run me to the opposite direction, I'd give bumps with my inside rein to be a bit sharper to him. It worked. Duh.
Another issue I've been having appeared - being "run off" with at the trot. She noticed it right away (which was a relief, because it isn't very obvious from the ground how strong he gets), and she would tell me to walk every time he'd start to get strong. Then she called me back over to her and said "Isn't it funny, you can always make him walk, but not make him slow down. There's a disconnect there." and it was so true. I *can* always make him walk, so I *should* be able to always slow him down. We worked on "walk, nevermind, trot!" a bit, and actually ended up working him too slow so that it would be possible to go back to a working trot without the running bit.
She helped me stop him from falling in when we bend by leg yielding on the circle, which helped get his hind end over. I usually think "haunches out", which just irritates Gali, so the leg yielding exercises did help straighten his bend.
She did get on me about my accuracy and straightness along the rail, which she said is most likely a product of not having a measured arena at home, and told me that before I even think about entering a show ring, I should make sure I can work on my corners and circle sizes.
And, the last point she really drilled home, which I think is going to help Gali and I get along so much better, was that I should focus on asking him to do something, instead of always asking him not to do something. For instance, if we're having a moment and he's trying to take off, I shouldn't ask him to not speed up, instead of I should ask him to slow down. That's a bad example... I'll have to rewatch the video to come up with better ones. Also, when I was standing trying to talk to her and he was fussing and fighting my halt, she told me to ask him to walk a 10 meter circle instead of asking him to not keep walking off when I told him to halt. She said the best thing for a brain like his is to give it something to do and something to focus on, because then he'll be less likely to notice external stimuli and more likely to pay attention to me.
These things are all so obvious now, but I really wasn't able to understand them until working with her. It was an incredible experience to ride with someone of her caliber, and it was even more amazing for her to tell me that my position was generally good, and that when Gali got going, he moved very nicely. She also loved his lateral work, and thinks that with more experience and education, he'll be a lovely horse.
Okay, I've got some finals to study for, but I'm sure I'll be adding more to this later.
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