Fine Tuning

One of my teaching mantras is "Every horse will teach you something new or different."

After a four year break, I recently started taking riding lessons again - a perk of my job. Though the concepts are familiar, I'm always learning, and in this case, gaining practice on technique and application. Whenever I ride other horses, at other places, I'm more motivated to come back and work with Ransom.

My lesson mount for this week was a big palomino named Sunny. Initially, he pulled against my rein pressure as we trotted a circle, but then he softened and yielded his nose, bending his neck. As I brought him down to a walk, I thought, "I can't wait to work on this with Ransom."

I stopped by my barn on the way home, despite the fading light of the evening. With the lesson still fresh in my head, I hopped on. Ransom responded beautifully. I felt strong and he felt light. He moved off my leg, floated through a canter, and softened to my touch on the reins. The small changes in my technique made a difference. We were more productive in twenty minutes than we'd been all week.

I've gained valuable experience from riding lots of different horses. But sometimes it takes a horse of your own to learn what fine-tuning feels like.