Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin
I heard this quote from Benjamin Franklin the other day and it struck a chord within for me . In equestrian sport it is so much easier to talk about how to do something well, than to actually do it well. Sitting in the tack room lots of us can say what should be done when you are riding a jump course or a dressage test. But the theory of how to do it is one thing ,it is another thing altogether to actually get out there and do it.
This past week I had an excellent lesson on Tuesday. No video was taken so you will just have to take my word for it. Usually I have lessons on Thursday and Friday as well but this week my coach Belinda Trussell was teaching a clinic on Thursday. So Biasini and I went for a long trail ride in the forest with Lexi ( Biasini calls her Super Groom Lexi). Lexi was riding the Uber Model, Touch. We went in the direction where the trail crosses a big culvert with a stream running through it. Biasini does not like this gurgling culvert. Touch looked at it and snorted a couple of times and walked on over it. Biasini did not even blink and followed him.
On Friday, we had our lesson with Belinda. Biasini told me, in the warm up, that he would rather go for another trail ride. But that was not on the agenda! So I had to get him going and fire up his enthusiasm! He responded in a begrudging sort of way. Belinda told me I had to ride on! It took quite a few exercises to get him into the right mindset but eventually he was there. She also gave me some tips on how to know how he was going. One that worked well for me was to see how easy it was to bend him in the corners. Was he even and light on both reins? Was he wanting to fall in toward my inside leg? Did he slow down and loose impulsion when I asked for the bend?
Here is a video from the end of the lesson. There had been a lot of hard work that went into this lesson. But in the end it was “well done.”
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