Connecting

Night Vision

Even though I haven't been riding much this winter, Dino and I have been building our relationship.

He's always been my heart horse since the day I met him, but over the past year we have really begun to grow to be a part of each other. It's come in little bits and pieces, and I really started to recognize it during my rides over the past weekend as my pony seemed to read my mind and react to me before I even gave him a cue. I'm getting about 75% of our up transitions (even canter!) from my seat now, and while some of that is because I'm growing better as a rider, some of it is because Dino and I are working together, listening to each other, and connecting. That whole "one with the horse" thing; we're definitely getting there.

You can see even from the blurry ears photo in this post that he keeps one ear on me. Always. Dino comes to me from the other side of the field now, and watches and whinnies for me from his shed. I'm really trying to take into consideration how he is feeling both mentally and physically, and this "tuning in" to each other is really starting to bear fruit. My pony and I just like hanging out together, working together, and goofing off together.

I have to give credit to Dr. Jenny here, as she is the one who started me on the train of thought that as a rider, my job is to make my pony's job easier, not to force him to do things. This way of thinking has improved our trust in each other tenfold, which goes on to improve our performance in the ring. When we listen to and trust each other, the resulting connection is pretty amazing!

So while I hope and pray for a few days above freezing and footing that isn't as hard as concrete, I'll continue to practice being present and connected.