Mo the Teacher

Mo has, and will always be one of my most influential teachers, but today was especially poignant for me.

This morning we had a great play online after a slightly mopey catch-me time. Yesterday I let them out in the very grassy back pasture, so this morning when I called them up for breakfast, no one was interested - surprise, surprise! It was pretty funny really. When I went down to walk them up, Zephyr came over from about 100 feet away, said hi and do you have any cookies, but left when she found out the answer was no! Mo was over behind her, and when I started to walk to Mo, Zephyr got re-interested, but when I ignored her she got offended and left [the indignity of it all!] As Mo figured out that I was talking to her, she came over and we walked together up to the barn for her brekky. Zephyr only noticed that Mo got food about 15 minutes later as I was brushing Mo. So she did get hers, just belatedly - silly goof.

So me and Mo headed out to play, on a 22' with some zone five driving, that is always something Mo seems to worry about. It is not my strong suit, and though I know we have enough of a foundation in it to make our L4 audition pass, I have decided it might be something I would like to refine a little more. I had the line draped over her back, and I was really looking for her to tune into where my belly button was pointing to direct her, and then I could support with the stick if I needed to. I kept it simple, just a few circles or a figure eight near to the barn. Something easy and confidence building. There was lots of licking and chewing, and even a few blow outs. I was happy with that!

From there I played with refining my communication with zone 1 in the send for sideways. Mo got really energetic about that and trotted and cantered sideways a bunch. Then we played with extension/collection on a circle. That was super interesting! She got some really cool extension AND in our collection portion - we almost got piaffe!!! just a half step or two, but it was almost there! Definitely something to keep playing with.

I decided that today would be bareback balance day. The last few times I have actively ridden bareback, things felt iffy, so I thought today would be a good chance to assess that and check out whats really going on. I got some savvy strings for reins - because I still want to play with lightness, and hopped up [from the fence]

We walked and trotted, I checked my balance point, I made an extra effort to check and make sure I wasnt gripping with my knees and everything felt great. Mo felt good, I felt in sync with her, I was really happy with that. When I felt good with everything at low speed, I asked Mo up into the canter and then she got all weird. I was really confused at first. She got her neck all curled up, she wouldnt move forward, it felt like she was bouncing on the spot, and she actually did buck for real at one point. I kept just using one rein to shut it down and asking her to go, but still trying to figure out WHY she was doing that. Something obviously wasnt good for her in the canter.

I tried to figure out if her back was in pain - but no, that should show at the trot more for the bouncy. Maybe my locked hip was blocking her? Again, no, nothing at the trot. And then it hit me - The canter transition had me gripping with my knees!! I told Mo that I wanted to work on my bareback balance, and here was her feedback! So up into the canter we went again, with me consciously trying not to grip with my knees and leg, and there was less of the 'cant go forward'. Excellent.

So we played with that, until we could transition and canter without my brain being useless. And then when I got off - the swirly hairs I usually find under my legs werent there! No brace-no rubs !

Once again, Mo has been my wonderful teacher. How I love my pony!

:)
S