It's Not You, It's Me

Have you ever ridden a different horse and discovered that the problems that you have on your regular horse also happen on the new horse? Thus the problem is you, and not the horse as you hoped thought?

Yeah, so apparently I can't see a distance when cantering on the left lead.

I've had this problem on Phantom for a long time. I thought it might be her as she prefers her right lead and will land right lead 90% of the time - well, she will until I start getting super worried that she's about to go permanently lame. Then she'll land left lead.

There was a pile of feathers in the arena - I think a pigeon flew into one of the ceiling fans again. This guy was hunkered down outside the arena after my ride, so I'm guessing it was him. I couldn't really generate any sympathy for the feathered rat. He wasn't there in the morning - not sure if he became someone's snack.

Surprise, surprise. I have the same problem on Cisco. So it looks like it's all me.

I set up a pole on the center line on Saturday's ride for Cisco. We haven't really done it at a canter yet, so I wasn't sure how it would go.

I went to the right first. Nailed it. Perfect distance 3 or 4 times in a row.

I left Cisco loose to graze after our ride. When I went out to check on him about 10 minutes later he had wandered down the laneway to hang out next to his buddy Blue.

Then we went to the left.

Split the front legs the first time and came back to trot. I thought he was going to go long the second time, but nope, he went short. Swapped leads on the landing and ping-ponged because I couldn't decide which way to turn.

At this point, I realized that the problem was the monkey flopping around on the back of the horse. Crap.

Blue's forelock got pushed back when he stuck his head through the fence. So much cute.

I decided that I just needed to ride forward to the pole. See if that got me out of trouble. Stop trying to make the distance happen.

Third time was better - I was at least with the horse. Still not good on the landing side. Cisco landed on the right lead, and I should have just let him canter to the right instead of using the wall to stop.  Apparently, I also can't think fast enough anymore when doing jump work.

Fourth time - nailed it. I consciously thought about not pulling on the inside rein and not locking my inside elbow on the approach. We also landed on the correct lead so we were able to have a lovely canter away from the pole.

Apparently, the horse is not going to mask all my issues and I have to learn how to ride properly.

Or I just jump off the right lead for the rest of my life. That sounds way easier.