Help has arrived...

One of the best things to happen with the switch to the new barn, is that I was able to start taking riding lessons.  I found a classical dressage trainer that also traveled to give lessons.  He had his hands full with Shamrock and I, but he did a fantastic job of getting through my ill conceived notions on how dressage should be ridden and how to deal with my very spooky gelding.  I highly recommend you check him out if you are in the San Antonio area, his website is www.skeletonkeysporthorses.com  His fiancee is a fabulous trainer in her own right as well!  And not to skip ahead too far in the story, but they are so amazing I did everything I could to make it possible to move Shamrock into their barn...but that's two years from this point!

I had two big issues with Shamrock when we started lessons...my position and his unwillingness to accept contact.  Oh, and his spookiness.  Can't forget that!  My first lesson was in the midst of a very, very wet month.  So wet that I couldn't ride in the "arena" and took my lesson in the courtyard.  My trainer had a lot of work to do but he was definitely up to the task.

The first issue he addressed was my constant gripping with my knees.  Unfortunately, due to the spooking I was losing trust in Shamrock and started gripping with my knees...leading Shamrock to slow down and become unwilling to move out.  Once I stopped gripping he started moving forward.

To work on his unwillingness to accept contact we varied between raising my inside hand to maintain contact with his mouth despite his evasions and pushing him forward to my hand as well as opening the inside reins and encouraging him to release his jaw and stop holding and bracing with it.  Eventually he got to where I no longer had to raise my hand, just push him forward with my legs, hold with the outside rein and vibrate my fingers on the inside hand, releasing when he gave instead of bracing.

He also started developing the ability to stretch down and reach...which soon became his favorite thing ever...then it became a new problem.  He would constantly ask to stretch, and then throw his head when I didn't allow him to, I would get him soft again, he would try to stretch, he would throw his head...and so on.  We also didn't canter much because his canter was an imbalanced mess.  I spent a lot of time riding Jessie, because he was much more fun and in fabulous shape.  Shamrock was improving, but inching along.  Lessons were sporadic between my trainer's schedule and my own budget...more like one or two a month even.


See his eyes?  Poor horse looks half crazed!  And yet he tried his best...even though everything around the arena scared him and made him want to bolt.