Balance
I think I might be growing as a rider since I rode a challenging horse today and want to ride her again. Unlike alobear I don't really get on with Flossie and the last time I rode her ended in disaster and depression due to over-tugging her in her very sensitive mouth. Today I may have done to the opposite extreme and not really used the reins enough especially since she needed pulling back as she was up weaselbitch's horse Martini's arse all lesson which contributed to Martini not being a happy mare. That said it really made me work on using my legs and position and I found myself practicing controlling Flossie's speed through slowing down my rising was seemed to do something. I did practice leaning back in walk which seemed to help slow here down but after discussions in Windsor Park left me worried that doing this might be breaking the poor creature's back. It's a part of the balance of steering a living animal you need to show it who's boss but without brutalizing it and it's something that I continually worry about if I'm getting that balance right which is thrown into particularly sharp relief on this horse.
What makes Flossie especially challenging is that she also has some of Dolly's lack of steering. If you tell James to walk on the outside of the school he will do it with very little need to keep correcting him to do. Flossie ain't like that - she will naturally walk inside the track and sometimes if she's out in front will cut across the school (although she's nowhere as bad as Dolly). Like Dolly she doesn't like being in front either and will often stop when there. She doesn't like going over poles either I had to do that exercise four times before she stopped veering around them. She quite strong too and so it's hard to get to do what she wants especially since I'm nervous about pulling her in the mouth after last time and you can't really get much contact with the reins due the sensitive gob. She's quite nervy too I think she seemed to spook when siroswold rode Ben past her.
I felt that my position is improving and I feel much more steady on the horse when training myself to get my legs back although was losing it in trot and especially at the end when abrupt stops sent me lurching forwards. My leg control didn't seem to work as well in trot as in walk on Floss so maybe I need to work on maintaining position in trot. We did a lot of trot today and I was getting quite tired by the end of it and relived to get back to walking.
Matt is I think a stablising factor at times like this. He admitted that Flossie isn't his favorite horse either (which I wish I'd followed up by saying which was - mine is probably James followed by Jim and Hughie) or the easiest to ride I think having him being positive means that even on lessons that aren't ideal I feel like I've got something out of them and am not demoralized by them. I think I'm over the barrier of under-confidence I had for a long time. Although I really want to ride Flossie again to see if I can manage to work out how to find that happy medium and actually want to get her next week. I think she's a horse I can learn a lot on and I'd like to see how far I can get with her.