Learning....

Last night as I was laying in bed thinking, an interesting question popped into my head. What is lightness? I'm talking about connection when riding here. The immediate answer that came in was what a read in the Savvy Times under "Education with Linda". She says, "Think about lightness as harmony rather than a light touch on the reins." I realized I had been striving for a very different kind of lightness when I read this, "Sometimes when your horse is light in your hand he's actually avoiding the contact and his back is hollow." Aha! Then she said, "There is a positive and consistent contact that your horse needs in order to be round, connected and powerful. Sometimes this connection form the bit in your hand may feel quite strong." So lighter in responsiveness (leg ques/go and whoa/turning) to be striven for but lighter in the reins in not necessarily the goal. Totally what I needed to hear. Cricket, Leah and I have just started dabbling in the game of contact (we're all unofficially level 3/4 in different areas) and before I got to far I wanted to read up on it as much as possible. I'm so glad that I was able to catch this.

So after this week is up (this is Cricket, she's still healing from the tendon issue), we're going to start up again playing with flexion and contact on the ground and riding. It's perfect because it's not very physically demanding and you're starting really slow.

Leah is really taking to the game of contact, she really loves it and rounds so easily now. No more inversion, Yay! Yes, she's still sensitive but she becoming a lot more trusting. I can do things with her now that she couldn't even think of 2 months ago, she's such a fast learner.


Thanks ya'll!

Elrohwen