Lesson #164: Insisting Leadership

Remember when I said that I spoke too soon about spring being here? I had to dig into the closet for my puffy riding jacket and my down vest to head out to the stable today. It was freezing. But it didn't matter because I was on a mission today: I was going to be the leader today. I got Ariel from the paddock this time, without her racing around and we went straight in to get tacked up. Mare's shedding (surprise!) and I was covered in white hair/fur like it was going out of fashion. Other than the weather, her shedding points to the fact that spring is here!

Getting on Ariel, I made sure that I was the boss of our little herd and that she would move only when I told her to. The warm up was pretty good, as a result of me putting my assertive hat on. We were trotting around relaxed and content without any speeding or any fighting. Relaxed and long and low were our aim as well as keeping deep in the corners. I'd say things went quite well and each time she wanted to deek into a jump or otherwise, I was sure to bring her back and remind her that we were doing what I wanted.

Then we were asked to get into the c-a-n-t-e-r. If you say it aloud, Ariel understands what's being asked and actually responds to Sheri's command! I had to get her back down and under control and try it again on my own terms instead. We went round and round a few times to get them warmed up. I was bring reminded to sit back and as I persisted a few strides, Ariel actually collected her body. I have to remember to keep my chest open and shoulders back and down... like Sheri said last time, my arms are not to be tense, the muscles in my shoulders and back were meant to do the 'work'.

Today was a jumping day and we went over some of the jumps already set up. We did a single horizontal jump at an undetermined height (couldn't have been more than 2'3") going at it in the trot and as usual, Ariel speeds up into the jump. I'm told that there is a point of no return and at some point, I'm just going to have to accept that Ariel didn't listen (or more likely, I wasn't assertive enough) and just go through with it. Then we took the opposite jump the other way too. Our last jump exercise was (all done at the trot) was a line on the diagonal with an x and then a jump filled with 2 barrels. The first go at it was me letting Ariel take over and totally panicking and thus doing the "gah!! I'm falling forward and want to hug Ariel's neck to hold on for life". Ariel totally did a fight at one point and was trying to turn around but I had to pull her into a circle to regain the control. We did get through the line after all that fuss but it certainly was a pain to deal with!