What? No reins???

Indeed my friends, today my teacher decided to make a huge knot out of my reins and told me I couldn't touch anything BUT the knot. No steering, no brakes, no hanging on to my horse's mouth for dear life, nothing! This could prove one of two things: she absolutely doesn't read this blog and is oblivious to the fact I am terrorized, or on the contrary, she reads it inconspicuously, saw yesterday's bit about fear and decided to play a nasty trick on me (of the very efficient kind, I must admit).

So there I was, trotting in a circle, with a knot both in by hands AND in my stomach, instructed to lengthen and collect the trot solely with the use of subtle cues from my body... Would you like some hash browns with that coach??? But even if I'm sounding a bit frustrated here, in fact It brought out all the determination I had mustered writing here yesterday and I willingly accepted to try the exercise... not that I had much choice mind you... 

I tried but at first I had no control whatsoever on my mount, neither in terms of direction nor in terms of length/collection. It was disastrous. Then, Cynthia told me that one sentence that really triggered something (she always has a very good one-two-punch up her sleeve): there is one very important rule that is well known in the dressage arena, the horse should be following YOUR gait, not the other way around. Really? How could that be? All right then, let me try... 

So after lengthening the trot on the long side of the ring (easy, no steering involved), on the short side, where I was instructed to collect, I locked my pelvis, tightened those abs and started to post the trot at a slower gait than Meeka. It felt awkward at first as I kept hitting the saddle, but after two or three beats, she actually adjusted to MY gait. It was (to me at least) nothing short of a miracle! And soooo much easier than the usual tug-of-war between my hands and her mouth! I could have asked my coach in marriage had she not been... a "she".

And after fifteen minutes this exercise, I was riding with the knot in one hand, the other relaxed on my thigh, sitting the trot like a champ... who would have thought this possible from me? Well, SHE obviously did because she actually had a plan: relax me for the next exercise in line, you got it, CANTER! 

Full of my newly found confidence and sitting on my super-collected horse (I must say Meeka was top-shape today), I started to canter. She had asked me to remain as relaxed as possible and to make a down transition to trot if I felt myself stiffen the least bit, in order for my brain to stop associating canter with something terrifying. Well, good idea. And everything went just fine: I breathed like I said I would, I relaxed like I said I would, I refrained from singing like I said I would, and where I used to canter three of four beats then panic and brake, now I cantered two or three circles at a time without stiffening. My down transitions were better as well. Hey y'all! I just might be getting somewhere!

Praise the Lord for great coaches!