I've been discouraged with riding for a few weeks following one really spectacular ride, after which I've had less-than-ideal rides. The last two days, I haven't really wanted to try to push my way through another ride. However, I also know that if I don't change things, things won't change. So, I decided to just show up, even if I ended up half-assing the ride.

I've been looking at Working Equitation for a few weeks, and have fallen in love with the canter necessary for this discipline. I know my mare has this fabulous canter in her, but it's just been really difficult to gently extract it from her.

More and more as I'm developing my body, my horses, and my riding style, I'm riding with a "whole body" idea, where I'm thinking more about the holistic effect of my body on the horse's body, rather than thinking about the aids as separate pieces. As a musical analogy, it would be chord changes rather than single note changes, if that makes sense. 

Along with this, I have envisioned what it feels like to be the kind of rider who can produce and ride this "WE canter." This was partially brought about by an article I read about goals in which the author suggested that, rather than say you will accomplish x, y, or z, think of yourself as the kind of person who does x, y, or z. It's a small shift, but it takes the pressure of achievement off while allowing you to identify as someone who currently does something, rather than someone who will someday be something after an arbitrary achievement.

Yesterday, I just could not get the feel I was looking for, especially in the transition from trot to canter. My mare is smarter and quicker than I am, and the instant I thought about asking for the transition, she shrank away from me before I could ask, making any attempt to actually ask a useless endeavor. Her mission of self-protection was accomplished.

 For whatever reason, that seemed like the perfect time to ask from the walk, which I've avoided with her because her MO can be this shrinking action whenever she's asked for something she feels is difficult or doesn't suit her mood at the moment. She has found the walk/canter idea rather repulsive, to date. I tried anyway. While the depart wasn't technically correct, with some very conscious body management it actually did result in something closely resembling my beloved WE canter! And, it happened more than once, so I know it was intentional for both of us.

So, the lessons learned were:

• Just show up. Give yourself permission to suck, but show up.
• Get creative and non-linear with problem solving. Seems sort of cliche - think outside the box and all of that - but sometimes a problem can be solved even with a previously-failed solution.
• The last one is a line I will probably always feel the need to tread carefully: sometimes it's okay to make someone uncomfortable for a moment if you need to tactfully make a change for the better for both of you. The trick is preserving the goodwill so no one gets hurt.