Clinic with Kenny
I had the opportunity to ride with Kenny today in a clinic about 45 minutes from where I board. Hani stayed home today, so I trailered Gadget up myself. He loaded and behaved like a pro for the entire day. It's a shame he pulled a front shoe earlier this week, as he was definitely a bit off without it.
Ken immediately picked up on my left hand, weird contact issues. To the right, he suggested counter flexing, which immediately changed my left hand from dead weight to active hand. It also added needed starightness that direction. To the left, I need to use an opening inside left rein. Gadget is stiff on the left, but by taking an softening, taking and softening and overbending him a few times, he loosens.
In the trot, I tend to post with my hips landing to the left. I need to think of bringing my right hip forward. Throughout the lesson, using more active hips to help Gadget was a theme.
On a 10M circle in rising trot, tap with the whip in up phase of the post to activate the inside hind. This made an amazing difference.
In walk and trot, Kenny has me lower my outside rein and lift my inside hand. This helped the trot especially.
In the canter, need to use my hips (particularly right hip) to keep him swinging. We did some shallow loops, serpentines, and counter canter.
In counter canter across the diagonal, to keep him from taking over and changing, give a strong outside half halt to really collect. Then, use strong outside leg and rein to maintain the counter canter. Get through the short side and walk to reward.
For my position, I need to lift my head and look ahead. Zip up the vest, so that it reminds me to keep my head up. Across the diagonal in lengthened trot, keep head up and stick chest out to pick him up.
As we warmed up in the walk and trot, Ken asked a bit of background on Gadget and remarked I must be a good rider to have gotten him to second level with decent scores because he didn't give anything away (little does he know I am just doggedly determined). After we worked a bit, I think Ken began to see Gadget wasn't so bad. He actually seemed surprised and remarked we had nice simple changes, and after Gadget gave a number of unrequested flying changes, he said he has nice expressive flying changes. When we talked after the ride, he said that he thought that I understood the type of horse that I had. He remarked that he had a very good mind and allowed me to really work through issues. Amazingly, Ken was right. Gadget was relaxed and never looked at all of the mirrors, people sitting in the corner, open doors, or other things that would usually distress him in a new location. Hopefully, this was not a fluke, but the beginning of a more confident and happy horse.
I had the opportunity to ride with Kenny today in a clinic about 45 minutes from where I board. Hani stayed home today, so I trailered Gadget up myself. He loaded and behaved like a pro for the entire day. It's a shame he pulled a front shoe earlier this week, as he was definitely a bit off without it.
Ken immediately picked up on my left hand, weird contact issues. To the right, he suggested counter flexing, which immediately changed my left hand from dead weight to active hand. It also added needed starightness that direction. To the left, I need to use an opening inside left rein. Gadget is stiff on the left, but by taking an softening, taking and softening and overbending him a few times, he loosens.
In the trot, I tend to post with my hips landing to the left. I need to think of bringing my right hip forward. Throughout the lesson, using more active hips to help Gadget was a theme.
On a 10M circle in rising trot, tap with the whip in up phase of the post to activate the inside hind. This made an amazing difference.
In walk and trot, Kenny has me lower my outside rein and lift my inside hand. This helped the trot especially.
In the canter, need to use my hips (particularly right hip) to keep him swinging. We did some shallow loops, serpentines, and counter canter.
In counter canter across the diagonal, to keep him from taking over and changing, give a strong outside half halt to really collect. Then, use strong outside leg and rein to maintain the counter canter. Get through the short side and walk to reward.
For my position, I need to lift my head and look ahead. Zip up the vest, so that it reminds me to keep my head up. Across the diagonal in lengthened trot, keep head up and stick chest out to pick him up.
As we warmed up in the walk and trot, Ken asked a bit of background on Gadget and remarked I must be a good rider to have gotten him to second level with decent scores because he didn't give anything away (little does he know I am just doggedly determined). After we worked a bit, I think Ken began to see Gadget wasn't so bad. He actually seemed surprised and remarked we had nice simple changes, and after Gadget gave a number of unrequested flying changes, he said he has nice expressive flying changes. When we talked after the ride, he said that he thought that I understood the type of horse that I had. He remarked that he had a very good mind and allowed me to really work through issues. Amazingly, Ken was right. Gadget was relaxed and never looked at all of the mirrors, people sitting in the corner, open doors, or other things that would usually distress him in a new location. Hopefully, this was not a fluke, but the beginning of a more confident and happy horse.
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