Lesson with Terri

Great lesson with Terri but every bone in my body aches.  She took one look at me today and said that she was going to be particular...with me!  We set off to get Jack more responsive to his porcupine.  He tends to brace and fight pressure and push against it, and this needs to change.  We started off with some simple pressure and release on his face, and chest, and moved on to the more difficult areas like his chin and ears.  He needs to learn to follow a feel.  We progressed quite well and I was given techniques to get him more responsive.  Terri also showed me how to start Jack off with getting the lead by the tail backwards by threading the rope through his legs and using the rope pressure of a yoyo on his nose, whilst pulling him back.  He got a bit confused, but after hanging in there we managed to get a step.....and quit.  Now time for him to think it over and digest his learning, so tomorrow we get two steps.

Moved on to improving my draw, by using a slide and grip technique with using a stick and string slapped hard on the ground to increase the pressure. Terri expected Jack to get 'emotional' and he didn't disappoint but wasn't unmanageable, though I did take a little sand skiing trip!  I found this quite difficult. Definitely got some improvements but I need to think about my body position and my timing is not great.  Another porcupine area was the figure 8, falling leaf and 's' pattern.  Terri gave me a technique of crossing my arms putting the stick under the rope to disengage the hindquarters, and then following the feel through and across. ......difficult to describe.  It was awkward at first, but once I got it, it was great and Jack responded well.  With the figure 8 I need to push Jack out wider on a circle so he has room to move, and push him in zone 1/2, not 4/5 like I was doing.  Then as he comes into his figure 8, I need to move directly backwards and get him to follow the feel through and take up any slack in the rope so I don't allow him to drift.  All complicated stuff in higher gaits!

Moving onto my freestyle, I had my first carrot stick ride.  It all went quite dandy until I upped it into trot and Jack started to want to come off the rail.  The stick, reins, horse, and speed all seemed too much and I got in a muddle, then Jack started to lose his confidence and got faster, and then I started to lose my confidence.  But, that aside it all was fine, and in the lesson I pushed myself.  I can now go back to my comfort zone, now the learning has taken place and practice and refine.