I've lost my finesse

In the process of training (I use that term loosely) Kiki, I have apparently lost my finesse. I am not really sure I had much to begin with and now, it appears it has completely disappeared. I started adding a lesson on a school horse to my regime because I suspected that something like this might be occurring. I knew that by getting on a well trained horse, all of my flaws would come to the surface...and quickly! So, Tuesday I had a lesson on Bucky. He's a fantastic school horse, but not an easy ride. He's a bit of a grump and will expose your shortcomings if you don't ask him for things nicely. That being said, you could put any beginner on him and he'd trot around without a care in the world. He raced for 8 years and was a fox hunting horse in VA, coming to us from Betsy and Jackie who I spent a week with back in June. Jackie still talks fondly of Bucky, aka...King of Thunder (we all get a big kick out of his show name).

I digress...I rode in a lesson with some of the younger girls and we worked on a few exercises that would force us to use lots of small aids rather than big movements...I had a really difficult time adjusting myself to a new horse even though Bucky and Kiki are fairly similar in shape and size. I've always prided myself on being a fairly quiet rider with light hands, asking only for the horse to meet me half way. I guess after 5 months of riding Kiki around and holding her up, I have become a nagging, flailing, leaning, unbalanced mess. Everything I was doing on Bucky was TOO much...save for the fact that he needs a lot more "go" leg than she does (she need much more lateral leg aids). He kept looking back at me in frustration, but as the lesson progressed I got lighter, asked more quietly and responded by being softer and more forward. And then, our canter exercise...ahem, it was a disaster. I know Bucky can be a little goofy picking up his left lead (as in, he sort hops into it) so I figured we go in that direction first. The exercise was a 20 meter circle with 4 poles at 90 degree angles to each other around the outside


So, simple enough...trot the circle, pick up the canter and canter the circle...ha, I almost got bucked off goosing him into the canter. He's like, "oh, you want to ask me with all that leg, well...ok!" Hop, buck, canter, trot, hop...ugh...messy...try again, hop, lose my right stirrup...what the hell...I was riding like a beginner. I regrouped and asked nicely, and we stepped off into a beautiful canter, completing the exercise with no trouble. But what a mess! It was then that B told me I had lost my finesse. Hopefully I can regain some of it...I mean, how am I supposed to go in the Hunter Show ring riding like 13-year old on a bad pony? That's never going to work.

Tonight I have a lesson on Kiki and I am really looking forward to it. I am a little nervous since I haven't ridden her since Saturday, but I think she's keep it together. Our Smartpak order just got here! So we have a new adjustable Mattes pad to try, and...a SHOW HELMET & gloves!!!!!!!!

Finally, here's Bucky looking handsome at the dressage show just before he took home reserve champion...he's also our trailer buddy, much to Lindsey's chagrin as she'd rather jump off a cliff than be anywhere near Kiki. We'll win her over soon enough -- she's our semi-private lesson partner now!