A Good Rider is a Good Leader

Have just come back from riding Cruz in the rain. Hey, we're both from England - we can take it!

I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but Cruz is in such a good mood and so co-operative that I'm in high hopes of a good show on Sunday. He's teaching me things he's tried to tell me for ever, but which I am only just now listening to. Poor Cruz has a rather dense mum.

I have a really irritating habit of adjusting my left rein all the time. I don't keep my fingers wrapped round it tightly enough and it gets longer as I ride, necessitating constant shortening. This means the left rein is never steady and annoys the heck out of Cruz. It has taken me years to figure out just how disconcerting it is for him, which is very embarrassing and makes me feel bad for him. So much of his anxiety in left canter can be traced to this one issue, plus not enough right rein.

What it boils down to is that Cruz has never had constant reassurance and true leadership from me. It's like being a girl with a dance partner who is supposed to lead but keeps changing his mind about where he wants to go or how to get there. He sometimes has his arm round your back, supporting it, then takes it away, then puts it back. Can you imagine how worrying that is, having no support from your partner and not knowing what's coming next, as you're never being properly prepared for the next step?

I'm working hard to be the reassuring, confident leader of our dance partnership, and keeping steady contact with my hands, appropriate leg pressure and bend/flexion, forward movement and preparing Cruz correctly and in timely fashion for transitions.

It's really working! 

He went long and low and stretched and bent in walk, trot and canter, snorting away and letting me know he approved of the New Me. His transitions were smooth, and even his first canters were easy to sit to, as he gave in his back early. Consquently I positioned my legs better in left canter, as I am just as right-handed as Cruz is and we both struggle on the left rein.

Once again, the session didn't need to be long. His work was just as good in sitting trot, and with my keeping a firm but soft hold on the left rein, he is happy to give to it in the canter transitions and stay flexed correctly to the left both on circles and on the straight.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of being a good leading dance partner. Even when he heard a deer moving in the woods and thought about taking off, he stayed calm because I kept him between my hands and legs.

Another good day!