I had my first lesson on Dusty this past weekend with a new coach. To say that I am proud of my horse is the understatement of the year. I went into this new adventure with Dusty with little expectation and some small goals, I was just hoping to have some fun with my horse and get both of us into better shape.
Within one hour, my extra long Quarter Horse proved that even I've been underestimating his abilities. On the lunge line before I even got on, he surprised me by becoming soft, relaxed and balanced. I've never acheived even 1/3 of that in the 9 years I've owned him. All I did was put a side rein only on the inside instead of on both sides. This made it next to impossible for him to lean on and resist, as long as I kept him moving forward, he began to realize that it just made more sense (and less work!) to carry himself properly.
Then I got on, and had him doing a shoulder-in in a square, where he also became completely soft and using his hind end, and eventually we even TROTTED the shoulder-in! That was all something beyond what I thought he'd be capable of doing and looking like we had it together. He's just so impossibly long, I've barely been able to get him to shoulder-in at the walk when I ride him by myself. But this actually felt good, and LOOKED good (or so I was told). I could have cried! And that was just the first lesson!
My coach seems to "get" why I'm wanting to do this, despite having so many people tell me that I should move on from Dusty and ride other horses. People even went as far as trying to convince me to sell him, or lease him out. If we were able to do something like a shoulder-in at the trot on the first lesson, I'm extremely excited to keep this whole journey up. My coach put it as we are starting a new chapter, and asking Dusty to forget about how I've been asking him to do things in the past. He's so hard mouthed, and dead-sided. She told me that we just need to ask him things at the whisper instead of "yelling" because eventually he'll start paying attention and going "what are you saying?". I was hesitant that it would work at first, because Dusty is typically is so stubborn that no matter how much leg I put on him to move over, if he doesn't want to, he just doesn't. But it WORKED. I learned that instead of holding him up and in the position I feel he should be in, I need to ride his hind end first, to ensure that he is under himself properly, and by doing so I'm "inviting" him to "rise" to the occasion and carry himself in front of me. The way my new coach explained all this made so much "click".
I went into this thinking that my biggest challenge would be getting my body to do what I already know needs to be done. To build that muscle up and get myself into better shape. For the most part, I already knew the things Dusty and I needed to work on and fix, but I assumed he'd have a harder time "getting" it then I would. I was so very wrong! My body the next day was very sore, which I was expecting. But the way I was looking at my horse and what he's capable of was also so very wrong. He's been underestimated so many times in the years I've owned him, and looked at as the super long, bombproof, slightly rude, pushy, built-like-a-hunter Quarter Horse that wasn't capable of much and I always stood in his corner. After years of people looking down on him, I just stopped ignoring what others thought of us and our riding relationship. It turns out I really wasn't in his corner as much as I thought and that all those nay-sayers got to me more then I thought. My sweet gelding proved me wrong, and I could totally feel him going "I told you so, mom!" this past weekend when at the end of the lesson I showered him with praise.
I'm so excited to continue this journey with my boy! I've started writing our progress at the end of each ride, just so that when we rock next year's show season, I can look back at where we started and be that much more proud of both of us. I know it's baby steps, and that to most people a shoulder-in, walk or trot, really isn't that big of a deal. But to me, who was told my horse was "worth his weight in gold" and an "awesome school horse for beginners", it's so much more then I thought we'd be capable of in such a short span.
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