Everything but the Kitchen Sink: Lesson Recap 12/20

Katai got her second trainer ride on Sunday and it was amazing! I had mentioned that I was a little concerned because I hadn't been riding regularly last week but Katai actually did really well. She was tense and a little reactive at the beginning but didn't end up actually having a tantrum, she just threatened to have one :-)

At one point Katai was doing everything she possibly could to get L's weight to the outside but L, being a much more experienced rider than me, wasn't moving and Katai was getting frustrated. She literally was stumbling around like a drunk and L made the comment that Katai was throwing everything at her but the kitchen sink.

Eventually Katai realized that she was making choices that were making her life tougher and started to cooperate and then, once a few good moments happened L dismounted and handed her off to me.

I so love this little mare. Once I was on board she was so honest about what I was doing that was different than L. I again had an amazing lesson and where to put my body to keep everything that L had accomplished together. I got some really good trot by the end and we called it a day.

It's great to watch L ride and see how she handles Katai's various evasions. Unfortunately Katai never threw the stuff at L that she had at me on Saturday but I wouldn't be surprised if that's because L started out the ride in a different mental place than the one I was in on Saturday. At any rate it was an amazing lesson and again I was impressed by how lucky I am to have ended up with Katai.

A couple of take aways are that I need to be more stable with my hands. I noticed how bad I'd gotten in the video and was really careful with that during my lesson and of course it made a huge difference. It's not that I wasn't being soft before as much as that I just kept moving things around so Katai never had any stability. I also need to remember to use both legs. Baby horse just needed one leg, more advanced less babyish horse needs the support of both legs to do things right. I also need to be sure to more actively keep my weight to the inside. Finally, I need to work on teaching my body how to firm up my stomach muscles without firming up my butt. L pointed up that I tend to both simultaneously so instead of just lightly slowing Katai down I'm making her freeze up and get uncomfortable. Until she said that I didn't even realize that it was possible or necessary to do one or the other even though obviously I only use my abs when I'm doing crunches.