Rachel & Grandma and Arabian Horses - Salem - Select Rider Part 2

Part One Salem

Lori asked in the comments if the judge had seen me with my Arabian horse on the wrong lead before I noticed. You bet he did. I saw him looking my direction as I was coming down the rail and then making a notation on his card.

It was at that moment the first wave of unsureness hit me. It hasn't been all that long that I've felt comfortable believing I could trust myself to know. There are still those moments in the ring where doubt creeps in and this was one of them. By the time my friend talked to me from the rail, I already knew before the words left her lips.

Stopping the horse and fixing the lead seemed like an exercise in futility at this point but I did it none the less. I think we barely picked up the correct lope lead when the announcer called for a change a gait. It was right about at the same point on the rail I had started off incorrectly.

We broke down to the walk and before long reversed and worked to the left. This was the lead I had been worried about all along. I made sure to keep my horse off the rail just a bit. I wanted to move him off my leg towards the wall before I asked him for the lope assuring the correct lead.

Each time we'd practiced this in the warm-up the horse had gotten done as expected. Now with my shattered confidence, I didn't know what to expect. Just because it "should" work didn't mean it would. I had messed things up working to the horse's good way, what was I going to do now.

When the announcer did call for the lope, I watched for the horses in front of me to go first. But then my horse decided maybe he should go and I found myself holding him until he was set up correctly.

As my horse departed, I heard someone from the rail say "Yes." I sure hoped that was for me but at this point I really couldn't trust that either. I wished that I could tell looking at the horse's shoulder if I was right or not, but I still can't get that shoulder thing.

I still struggle sometimes with my diagonals in hunt seat and that shoulder is much easier to tell on a two beat gait than a three beat one. I'm going to have to really think about it when I'm riding to see if I can get this thing figured out for once and for all. Just knowing by the departure got me into trouble.

Obviously riding down the rail in a class and thinking about fixing something when I'm schooling is not the ideal way to ride in the ring. It's a good thing for me that these thoughts flashed through my mind much quicker than they laid down here. I actually didn't ride the rest of my class too badly. If it hadn't been for that "thing" with my lead, I might have made it into the ribbons.

After the class I wanted to know about that weird thing I felt in the first lope departure. Wouldn't you know it not one of my friends on the rail had seen it. No one had an answer for me. I was so frustrated with my mistake and being left without any answers.

From the very beginning of my career showing horses, it has always been my goal to learn something each and every ride. Making mistakes isn't a problem as I'm learning from them. But this mistake I just couldn't put my finger on what the problem was. I really felt like I'd left myself down.

By morning I remembered about the video that had been taken of my class. Now I was hoping that video held the answer to my question. I couldn't wait to get a chance to review it to see if it held the secret to why I'd screwed this thing up.

When I did get a chance to review the video, I wished I knew enough about the camera to fast forward to the important part. Instead it seemed like it took forever to get all those horses into the class and for me to dink around at the far end of the arena. Why is it that time crawls along when you want it to hurry up and speeds up when you want it to go slow?

Finally it came to that point of the rail where I knew I had asked my horse to lope. I watched closely to see the first beat was right..........and then the second...............but there was no third............instead of the third beat of the lope, the horse switched to the second beat of the other lead.

That funny stall I had felt was a flying change at the most inopportune moment. At least I had called it correctly. The horse had started off right. Why he had changed leads, I haven't a clue. Did I cue him to hard with my inside leg worrying that he might pick up the wrong lead? I'll probably never know. But you can bet the next time I feel that "stall" I will immediately stop my horse and start again.

I felt better when I could see the video and understand what happened. My confidence, while not totally restored, was better than before I watched the class. At least I could still trust the "feel" of a correct departure. That was a relief but I'm still going to have to work on figuring out that shoulder thing. Being able to check going down the rail would be a good thing, I think.

Just for the record, I don't know how to do flying changes. My horse does, however. Although it's been years since he has. It's one of those things I haven't been able to put together in my mind. I've read how more times than I can count but just can't seem to translate from reading to executing. Wouldn't you know my first ever flying lead change would be at the wrong time!

To be continued...........

Select Rider Video

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