So, this blog was primarily created to allow my readers to access my stories. However, I have much to say and not much impetus to go out of my room and find somebody who wants to hear about my day. That happens after three days of working 12 plus hours in grossly hot weather at a job that is both physically and mentally demanding.
See, for those of you who don't know, I work with horses. This week is CHA week, aka death week. I will grant that this year is ten times better than last year. I won't go into the issues of last year. Suffice it to say that this year I was mentally prepared to be shredded into pieces and thrown to the wolves, and this year our clinicians are actually quite nice people. That makes a world of difference.
Thus far, my lessons have gone quite well. I taught a lesson on bridling. That could have gone better, but I had a hard time controlling my "18 year old boys" who are really my coworkers plus a few others who flew in for the clinic that are role-playing as though they are whatever demographic I give them for my lesson. We were all a little nervous that first day. I have to love them, bless their hearts. Still, my explanation was good and everyone was introduced to my "teaching personality" which is, I have discovered, quite a bit louder and more flambouyant than my normal personality. Overall, it wasn't bad.
My second lesson was on the posting trot. This is one of my favorite lessons. I have a great explanation. It's easy to understand. It's clear. It's simple. I was able to explain both theory and practical application. The activity I chose was slightly chaotic, but I adapted it and it ended up working quite well. My students were quite complimentary of my teaching and found very little to either trap me with or critique me on. It wasn't too bad.
Today's lesson was two-pointing. I can do this. I'm even fairly comfortable two-pointing on my own horse. But the explanation I received for it, and the one I teach to my kids, was a grand total of about 3 sentances long. Try stretching that out into a 15 minute lesson that is supposed to stretch easily out into an hour! But I did my best, and I think everything actually worked out fairly well. I chose younger kids to teach, and so the explanations I gave were naturally and understandably very simple, which nicely covered up the fact that I don't know much theory behind two-pointing at all.
I also received a couple lessons on cantering today. Now, I realized during my evaluation ride on Monday that, while I can canter, I've had very little instruction in the art. I know what the correct lead is, and I've heard that you use the opposite hand and leg to ask the horse for the correct canter, but every time I've tried it, it hasn't worked and I've had no idea why. After my poor friend got massacred after her "first canter" lesson, the clinician came in and fixed everything and in the process gave us an amazing lesson on cantering. This was the first real, practical lesson I've ever gotten on why the horse's weight works the way it does and how my weight works with the horse in asking for the canter.
Another lady in the clinic gave us a great lesson, too, about how to ask a horse to lift his shoulder while going around turns-particularly tight ones. It was a great lesson. I learned a lot. A few lessons later we learned how to put the two together and lift the horse's shoulder while pushing on that outside hip to ask for the correct lead in the canter. It was amazing! I don't remember the last time I've learned so much about riding and horses and what I'm supposed to be doing up there! It was so cool!
Tomorrow, I'm supposed to teach the pole-bending pattern. Granted, this is mostly just the pattern, so I probably won't worry too much about theory- just reinforcing the aids. We'll be doing a sitting trot, so I won't have to worry about diagonals, but the clinicians wanted me to have my students canter the home stretch. That means that as they come around a tight turn, not on any rail of any kind, they'll have to pick up a canter on the correct lead while maintaining a straight line when the horse is going to by hyped up and wanting to weave around those cones some more. Do I use lateral aids? Do I use diagonal aids? I just learned a bunch of this theory today, and have not gotten a chance to practice it much, nor to use it myself. However, this is what I think:
I already have my arena set up. I'll have them wait on the left side of the arena and go through the pattern one at a time. As they finish, I'll have them bring their horses down to a trot and turn to the right and trot down the long rail of the arena. This is actually brilliant, I think, because I'll be waiting in between the cones and the right side of the arena and I'll be able to catch them just in case their horses freak out. I'll have them trot to the left back corner of the arena, then walk up to the back of the rest of the line. As for that last turn... I think I'll have them use lateral aids. They'll use their right leg to swing the horse's hind end around that turn. As they finish it, they'll use the rein to pick up the horse's right shoulder and keep the right leg on them and kiss to ask for the canter. I'll just have to remind them to use that outside rein to support the horse and ask for a straight canter, rather than asking them to go through the cones again.
*sigh* I hope this works. Wish me luck!
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