Past Adventures and Lessons from Greg Best

What I learned from Greg Best:

I have a godawful eye for distance.
So I need to:
Practice jumping every day
use a pole and a set distance to help me find my eye

Monroe gets her confidence from me, and if I'm not confident, she isn't
So I need to:
do the pole exercise every day
be decisive, make a move to the jump and stick with it
forward is good, we need more forward, more impulsion

I lean to the inside of turns over fences
I am a bad girl!!! and it just confuses my lovely darling kind horse
So:
Practice straightness at all times, you can not turn unless you are straight first
in order to counteract her tendency to dive, take her wide to the side she leans to and leg yield as a preemptive strike
look as I'm turning, not before

My horse has a sensitive mouth, and shies away from the bit, not accepting contact, in a strong bit she fusses.
I need:
A mullen happy mouth snaffle
more bit does not fix bad riding

My horse hates flatwork. and does not willingly accept a steady contact. I have two options here:
Don't care where her head is. Just keep that nice steady giving contact at all times, make my hands a safe place for her to sit, DO NOT BRACE
option 2: force her to accept contact. (ie draws, etc)
but, i should try option a for a bit with the new bit heh. Either way, choose a way and stick to it! but no matter what no bracing

My stirrups were too long and my leg was infront of me.
so, ride with my stirrups two holes shorter, tighten up my leg and keep it back, swinging leg disappears :]


Other things I learned:
When stuff goes wrong I have to refocus and LET IT GO
I have to ride like I'm riding Sparticus


And also,
I screwed up my horse. she has no personal sense of distance now, so it's up to me to be the leader and choose the right distance, cuz she'll follow me no matter what
I really need better training, the people I have are nice and I love them but I need the details now. If I want to go far I need one of the big shots who has been there done that


And the final thing I must remember:

"If you mess it up this time i'm going to punch you in the head"


Since that clinic, which was uhhhh almost a year ago I think? We have made fantastic improvements! We had a provate lesson with him 3 months after the origional clinic and he remembered us and complemented us on our progress! YAY! Anyway, since then we have:
-found the perfect bit (a waterford full cheek, which she LOVES)
-begun to teach the horse to think for herself and see a distance, which in the process has helped strengthen my eye
-strengthened my lower leg

We are still working on straightness.... Anyway, post from real time, tomorrow!