So me and Piggles are accompanying a friend on a trail ride. We warm up on line. Once again he was so soft, willing, confident and relaxed straight from the off. Circling beautifuly, moving wonderfuly, listening, asking, sidepassing, jumping effortlessly, i got that gooey feeling inside. That feeling you get when your just seems to float across the ground and melt into different gaits. Loooooovely. I disengaged and we spend some quiet time together, he rested his head on my arm as usual, burying his face in my chest, his eyes half closed as i gently stroked his face. Aahh the best cuddles in the entire workd. By far! We mozied down to the tack room and i tack him up, he even tried to follow me when i left to go and unlock the gate and when he came to end of the line he looked so sad, "Dont leave me! Let me come too!" Incredibley adorable yet heart aching at the same time (i dont like the idea that he thinks im preventing him from following me, id love for him to do that and am incredibely humbled that he wants to!) "Im not going anywhere" i promised and watched him watching me intentily to see where i was going.
The ride was lovely, he was doing really well. He remained calm when the horse infront got further away, he didn't panic and try to catch up. We may have been behind but i was concious to get across that he wasn't following the horse infront but following my direction, which i think he understood, he wasn't mimicing the horse infront for example he continued to walk when the horse infront began to trot, and he was fairly easy to direct when i asked him to weave between tree's and divate from the path that the horse infront was following. Piggles even led the ride at one point, down a narrow path and he was confident and curious, dispite the confined space and the fact he was now infront. He didn't dive for grass very often and when he did it didn't take all my strength to pull up that grass stuffed chops! Infact on a few occasions he lifted his head with my phase one- a smootchie noise.
Im not going to assume because that goes against one of the principles of my horsemanship; Make and Teach NO assumptions. So instead im going to imagine that a few of you are wondering when is it i actually get to experpience the untold extend of my horses athleticism, infact is it even Piggles who gives me a 2 minuets crash course in Rodeo. Well in a word, Yes! It was Piggles that had himself a bucking fit and here are the befores, durings and afters.
So me and Ann Marie reach a long winding hill which we always canter up so it felt rude to just walk on past it! I had never cantered Piggles up here before but his cantering has improved, bucking either only once or,most of the time not at all, so i thought yeah why not! Even if it didnt go smoothly i felt confident to tackle what ever situation he threw at me safely. Royal in front, Piggles behind. Problem number Uno. Piggles found it quite hard to transition upwards into the canter. My focus point was high so as to shift my weight back ever so slightly, giving all the power to the hindquaters and allowing his forequaters to become light. Doing in my body what i wanted him to do in his. Squeezed with my legs, brought my energy up and cantered in my body but instead he just did a really fast trot (he's 13hh, its hard enough to sit to his trot let alone when it a 30 mph one!) I stopped squeezing, brought my energy down and shortened my reins so as to help slow him down hoping that it would help make the transition easier, but he wouldn't slow down, by this point Royal was already cantering. So i thought, ill let him sort it and just make sure i dont get in his way. So i relaeased all contact with the reins and continued to squeeze a little untill he popped into the canter, which is when the bucking commenced.
Buck. Buck. Buck. Buck. Buck. Buck. Buck. Buck. Buck. BUCK. Get the idea? He was bucking every stride and i was quite taken back by this little out burst!
Now it's difficult to tell whether when he was trotting quickly if he was going Right Brain or did he remain Left Brain. Speed normaly indicates Right Brain so perhaps it was. I didnt feel him tense up though, and although Royal was cantering he was still very close infront as he was mainting a nice collected canter so im unsure what could have triggered this Right Brain response. It wasn't fear of being left behind, i doubt very much it was the change in environment because we had been doing unfamiliar routes the whole ride and he had remained completely Left Brain and confident. Was it actually Left Brain Extroversion? His adreniline came up and he just wanted to go but i had asked him to slow in order to transition up. I would have thought that if they were Left Brain Extrovert bucks then the front end would have come up first followed by the back end, what Linda Parelli calls "Riding the Dolphin" but because we were on an incline maybe he was unable to bring the front end up. These bucks were unlike the ones Piggles usualy does. They have very little oomph, kinda more flicky or small hops but these bucks were really prepelling me forwards, i was being flung forwards with far more energy than his bucks usualy muster. Hmmm how interesting.
Whilst he was bucking i had gathered up some of the contact i had dropped when i asked for the transition, and pretty much all the above was running through my head whilst he bucked bucked bucked away. It was like i kinda tuned out "That very nice dear, you do that and ill just have a think about it" kind of situation. I can remember conciously thinking to myself, is your weight in the right place? And actively trying to shift it backwards. Would my posture and balance be helped if i took my feet out of the stirrups? (After riding barback for the past... iv lost count of the years, iv slowly tranfered to saddles but still 99% of the time dont use stirrups i find i have better balance in a bareback pad and with no stirrups!) So whilst he was still bucking i placing my feet in and out of the stirrups. After about a minuet of canter, buck, canter, buck. I brought him back to a walk and he wasnt jigging on the spot or anything. Considering the diplay he had just put on he seemed relatively calm and stood whilst i popped my feet back in the stirrups.
I released all contact with the reins again thinking if he wants to go then we will GO! Focus point high, sat deep on my balance point, squeezed and he went! We had a couple of bucks but i continued to squeeze asking for faster and we went zooming up the hill with not. one. single. tiny. buck! How interesting!? Perhaps it was a Left Brain Extrovert tantrum and he had so much adreneline and energy he just didnt know how to use it, but wanted to goooo!
Once we reached the top he was blowing like iv never heard him before (he is rather portly bless him, he isnt called Mr Piggles for nothing! Plus that is fasted i have ever ridden him!) and so we stopped for a couple of minuets and i reflected on what had just happened.
I remember, not too long ago, sitting on Piggles in the field and feeling incredibley anxious. Sitting on him and dismounting after a few minuets was the extent of my ridden work. Working towards the idea of sitting on him not sending over me a wave of worry, let alone actually sitting on him confidently. As we progressed i remember when he would do the typical Left Brain Introvert "No, i dont want do, humph" little flicky bucks at the walk, trot or canter and i would get off immediately, only mounting again after the anxiety had left and only to go for a short walk, and here i am today, mainting emotional fitness, confidence and a left brain state of mind through the BIGGEST bucking fit i have ever sat to! I came away from that experience intrigued and relaxed. It highlighted just how far my confidence has come in regards to riding my little, sharp, quick, can be spooky, can be difiant Welsh Section C as well as my ability to maintain my balance. Now im not saying that im now the next best rider to Chris Cox. Hell No. Infact i can garentee that you are a better rider than me but it made me see just how much i have progressed. How exciting! Just have to wait fot the rain to stop so me and Piggles can go for round two and hopefully, i ll have a better undertsanding of what is going on and how i can fix it.
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