It’s Almost All About Me

I love Tumbleweed and I’m so thankful for opportunities to be with him. We had a lesson this morning, and he was so happy to be caught and load away. He was Mr. chill. No warm up necessary. 

That shows willingness and it also shows “try.” He has a lot of try. 

However, he can also get frustrated when I don’t get my part right. Today was almost all about ME. We were doing a continuation of the clinic, but breaking it down into much smaller parts—mostly, my body parts. 

While I did set the rein again, just to the inside eyelash, I also twisted my hip (to move his hind end) and my upper torso (to ask for front end). However, and this is the big difference, my hips and torso do not open up to the same degree. My hip is wider than my torso, which is only signaling an eyelash of a turn from the front end. The hip is much more open to signal more power from the hind. 

I had been twisting my whole body equally, and that was signaling Tweed to fall into a tight circle. 

Another issue: when I twisted, I moved my outside leg up. Regina caught that and told me to keep it long and strong. Big difference. Tweed stopped tripping. 

And last, when Tweed ambles, he moves my hips right and left. Regina wanted him to lengthen his stride and pay attention to my seat cues. She asked that when he pushed me left or right that I would then move my hips forward and back. Wow. It worked. 

I will say, we were a hot mess out there today, both of us trying to figure it out, but we finally did and called it good. It was humbling to see how much I have to retrain my own body. I have some serious work to do this week. 

Tweed, on the other hand, is practically becoming a reiner, if I can get my body to behave.