FORWARD.

Charmer and I have our first lesson of 2017 on Saturday, and I have been doing a lot of mental preparation for it, and some physical preparation with Charmer as well. I know there will be exactly one thing that comes out of my trainer's mouth roughly a zillion times. FORWARD. I need to ride Charmer forward. So for the last week or so, I have been visualizing and mentally preparing myself to put my freaking hands up his neck, shorten the reins, use my leg and ride him forward.

*Note: none of these pictures are from last night

That is what our entire last lesson was all about. I am a good enough and strong enough rider to handle my horse at speeds bigger than a western pleasure canter. So I need to push myself and him so that we actually get the canter we are both capable of.

So last night, I had a ride with Jayne to get ready for our lesson on Saturday. And right off the bat, I had a firecracker of a horse. He was very up and excited. So instead of trying to micromanage the absolute crap out of him, I decided to do exactly what my trainer would have told me. Canter. So I rolled him up right into a solid, forward, working canter, and we cruised around the arena until he decided he was a little less silly. And then we kept cruising. This is big for me. Its easy to just get the wiggles out of my horse and then slow down, and stop, but instead I just had us keep going.

We had a little jump set up, so that we could get in a little bit of practice before we have our lesson, and in the middle of cruising around, I just turned on to the line, put my leg on and asked him to go. And the craziest thing happened - we nailed our distance, he did not rush the last 3 strides, and the worst that happened when we landed was some general head flails. He accepted my leg being on and did not get wild or crazy, he just did his job.

Jayne even remarked how surprised she was at the fact that he just popped the jump like it was no big deal. No wild rushing, no bronco bucking, just jumping like a normal horse. 

We are now venturing into new territory for us. Suddenly, Charmer is becoming more and more of a broke horse and it is a huge mental change for me. Last night, we got a ridiculous amount of messed up distances and strange lines (thanks tiny indoor), but instead of him throwing a shoulder out and saying "NOPE!", he was just like "fine mom, I'll save your butt again". 

Always saving my butt

With him starting to become more broke, and significantly braver, I am finally pushing myself to transition to pushing him forward. Every time. He is a big horse, and he has a big stride, when I allow it. His speed and his stride will win us a lot of classes, if I can just convince myself to put my freaking leg on, and ride forward. 

We even threw the jump up to a 2'3"/2'6" vertical last night. I wasn't going to do it, but a little coaxing from Jayne, and I was figured why not? My horse was rocking it and I have to start getting us to real height sooner or later. She had a lovely tone of surprise when I took off cantering, and said "Wait, you're actually doing it?!?!?!?". 

The first time, our distance was a train wreck, and Charmer had some serious doubts about whether or not we should do it, but I remembered this whole "be assertive" thing, and put my leg on. We flew over it. It was a horrible distance, and not the prettiest that we have ever jumped, but there were no poles down and no horribly offended souls - horse or human. After getting it back together, I tried a second time. The distance was significantly better and we both went over it like no big deal.

If I can just remember to ride FORWARD, I think we have some very fun adventures in store this year!