Virtual slap needed!

B

BBP

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17 July 2008
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My last post (i think in CR) was about what a terrible lesson I had with my lovely pony. He has been going beautifully lately, soft, forward and eager to please (albeit not yet working into a consistent contact in canter, but this was improving), but in the last lesson he was tense, resistant and unhappy. I embarrassed myself horribly by bursting into tears in my dressage lesson! I know exactly why he was getting worse. My back injury (prolapsed disc) had been massively aggravated by me being a plank and trying to get in 400 bales of hay on my own, and then trying to go running. I was in massive amounts of pain, tense, tight and crooked and frustrated, so getting angry with myself. Poor pony, who can blame him for not relaxing into a contact when I wasn't working him into one. I decided I needed a break so after leaving it on a good note (took him SJ for the first time at 2'3'' and he was brilliant, followed by a 3hr hack), we have both had nearly 2 weeks off. Ive also had my back seen to by a chiropractor and its much less painful.

But i'm being a pansy and putting off getting back on because I keep thinking i'm a crap rider. I just couldn't keep a good contact in my lesson. My instructor was trying to get me to be a little tougher in asking for him to work rounder but softening when he did and I just didn't have a feel of it. I would get tight instead of soften and then throw the contact away when really I needed to be firm. My timing was all wrong and I had no leg strength to really ride him forwards.

He's a lovely pony, so any virtual slaps or advice would be much appreciated to get us going again. I keep joking about getting him to grand prix, but we'll never get there whilst im being a muppet!
 
{{slap}}

I too suffer from a back problem that at times means I am in pain riding and as such make a right hash of it and worry that I am stopping my boy. I talked about it with my instructor and she said to work him walk on those days doing lots of bending, flexing, lateral work etc so he is keeping supple and correct but I'm not stressing my back.

I find this really helps me as there can be weeks when I'm not up to full strength and this helps me to not feel guilty - the boy thinks its great ;)
 
Thanks! Much needed! The work in walk seems a good idea as I can't always go for a chill out hack which would be my preferred option due to traffic/lack of daylight/all the usual excuses.
 
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