AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Derringer and I had a constructive morning session. Mark practiced traditional dressage, and he placed significant importance on the communication and rapport that must be established between the horse and the rider prior to training. Every day, Mark and I reviewed videos taken at the morning session. It was a good tool for me to observe weaknesses in our routine. Mark would point out areas that needed more work, and take me through what movements and aids I should have given to keep Derringer’s gait consistent like a metronome.
Later in the afternoon I brought Derringer back out into the arena. We'd nearly conquered the rhythm, gait, and tempo. Mark wanted to work on the regularity of the gaits; the evenness and levelness of the stride. He wanted me to start practicing the half halt to improve the horse’s cadence. Derringer was sensitive to both the leg and rein aids, he was reaching for the bit. His stride was collected. We both could tell he was more than ready.
I mounted Derringer and put him through the beginning paces. We worked into a trot, circling the outer perimeter of the arena several times. At the third round, second turn, I could feel Derringer sidestep because I'd given too much inside leg in my execution. I over-corrected, trying to align his hind legs to follow the path of his front legs. Mark asked me to halt and walked over to us.
“I’ve got an idea,” he said, “Dismount for a moment.” I did as instructed, and stood beside Mark. He mounted the horse and then reached his hand down, pulling me up behind him in the saddle.
“It might be easier if I show you how the half halt is properly executed, Tylar. To the naked eye, it looks as if the rider applies all three aids at the same time. However, if we could freeze-frame it you'd actually see that the aids are applied separately in sequence. We’ll go through this a few times so you can feel what your body is supposed to do in conjunction with what the horse is doing, okay?”
“Sure,” I agreed.
“Okay, I want you to rest each of your hands on the outside of each of my thighs, as close to the back of my knees as possible.”
I did as instructed.
“Okay, now remember what we talked about earlier, there is no ‘halt’ in the half halt. That's a misnomer. Every half halt should contain what?” he quizzed me.
“The surge,” I answered.
“Correct,” he said. “It will contain the surge, the drive, and the energy from Derringer’s hind legs, just as if you were asking for a medium gait or a lengthening, right?”
“Right,” I responded, “but we don’t want him breaking into the medium gait, until after the surge, correct?”
“Yes,” Mark agreed, “because we know that we always ride the horse from back to front, which is what the surge guarantees.” Mark started Derringer into the routine, my hands placed on the outside of each of his muscular thighs.
“If we’re lucky, you'll be able to feel my calves close first. It will be a steady squeeze for three seconds, just before the surge. Here we go.”
We went through the motions three times and, like clockwork, Mark would close his calves with a steady squeeze; I counted to three in my head and the pressure released. Mark then had me put my hand on his hand holding the outside rein and my other hand on his hand holding the inside rein. Through this exercise, I was able to understand that each of these aids occurred separately, though very close in time. It was a steady squeeze of the calves for three seconds, then outside hand on the reins to direct the horse’s power back to the hind legs, then inside rein held with medium contact to keep the horse flexed and straight.
“Okay,” Mark said, dismounting, handing me the reins.
“Scoot up; my turn.” He remounted Derringer, this time behind me, putting his hands on the outside of each of my thighs and we went through the routine several times. We continued with the reining as well until I was executing the half halt nearly as well as Mark. I was proud of myself. When we brought Derringer back to the gate, I noticed that Trey was sitting in the grandstand. I couldn’t tell how long he’d been watching, but he appeared upset.
Holy Moses, now what's wrong?
Mark set the video camera up and had me take Derringer back out so that he could video tape how a proper half halt should look to an observer. Once finished we called it a day. Mark told me to take the video camera with me to review everything that we'd gone over today.
I dismounted, leading Derringer to where Trey was sitting.
“Well?” I asked. “What did you think?” I was smiling, hoping to be praised for the progress we’d made.
“I think I’m confused as to why Mr. Montgomery needs to have his hands all over you while training you in dressage? I’ve never seen that style of training.”
“Trey, I was having some problems getting the feel of the surge. Mark thought this would help and it did.”
“I felt the surge,” Trey replied, “the surge of my blood pressure.”
“You're being ridiculous, Trey.”
“Oh am I? You seemed to be enjoying yourself trotting around that track with him all over your backside. I was worried Mr. Montgomery might need a hosing off had the training not ended when it did.”
“Stop it,” I couldn’t help from laughing. “You’re being silly and you know it.”
“I’m serious when it comes to you, Tylar.”
When he looked at me with those piercing blue eyes, so serious, so sexy, I wanted to mount him right then and there. I could see that beneath the sarcastic humor, Trey was bothered by Mark’s touching me. I didn’t want him getting in a worse mood. I led Derringer over to him, stood on my tiptoes, and kissed him sweetly and longingly. He wrapped his arm around me, tightly, brushing my hair from my face.
“You've nothing to worry about, Trey,” I told him, snuggling into his chest.
