And no, not the first thing you think of when you read that word.
This weekend of lessons was interesting in very unexpected ways. Good though. I feel like we made some steps forward and we also had some moments where we struggled to connect. But I’m happy those happened while we were in a lesson. That’s what the lesson is for right?
Friday I had to rush as I was trying to fit the lesson in during my lunch hour. I got to the barn maybe 15 minutes before my lesson was supposed to start so I was a bit stressed while grooming and I’m sure Ezio fed off of it. He was a bit more bratty but we both settled while walking to the arena.
When we got on, it was clear he didn’t hold a grudge. The walk was pretty nice and forward from the beginning. We’re settling into the walk more quickly each lesson and I’m having to remind him to lower his head and relax less and less. Its pretty nice to feel and see the progress.
We were on for a bit and really relaxing into the walk when it happened.
We got buzzed.
By a huge ass fire dept helicopter. This thing was loud. I saw it flying back later but in the moment, I obviously could not see it as I was dealing with a baby horse who was taking great exception to a helicopter flying around 40 feet off the ground. I’m still so proud of him for holding it together as much as he did. He did buck for sure. I was focused on getting his head back up and pushing him forward so he couldn’t continue bucking. I even heard Trainer J saying something to me via the headphones but I couldn’t hear more than her voice was saying something. It’s not like she could have given me any advice in that moment than what I was already doing.
Ezio didn’t escalate past a few mild bucks and when the helicopter passed, I immediately circled him and asked him to bend while moving his hind away from me. He actually settled very very well and it didn’t take very long for him to get back to walking in a relaxed manner. Very proud of him cause that was scary for any horse.
We did have a bit of a rough time starting to trot. He had some feelings and did try to pull some attitude the way he did before we started the training. But we worked through that and did several trot transitions that while not great, were not bad either.
Saturday we did have to deal with some residual feelings about the helicopter. He was spooky in the corner where we’d been buzzed and he was a bit more difficult to settle than the day before. But honestly I wasn’t upset with it. It was understandable and the fact that we could work through it and get past it was great.
Trainer J and I had also had a bigger discussion on which aids to use when asking for the trot and how long to hold them. I’ve been trying to make sure that we have very clear discussions about these things because I want to do everything like she has been in order to get the clearest results. With a better understanding of my asking for bend and forward, we tried trotting again. We did three transitions, each one better than the last.
On the third, he gave me a very relaxed transition and then trotted several steps with his head stretched down and relaxed. I basically threw us into a halt and patted the crap out of his neck before throwing myself from his back. We couldn’t have possibly gotten a better ending point for the lesson.
Unfortunately, Sunday didn’t happen as my trainer had a dressage show that day and her and her client’s rides were stretched through out the whole day. She said she’d owe me a lesson and we’d figure it out at some point.
I was really hoping we could get the trot more confirmed after this weekend but you roll with what the rides throw at you. We’ve got some lessons coming up this next week, and then Trainer J and I need to talk about what we will do the following month. I don’t think he will need another month of full training. But I do want at least weekly lessons and she did suggest we talk about a weekly ride from her for another month. We will be discussing that during the next lessons.