Dec 3 - Side Passing/Side Stepping

Today Dawn and Russell taught ways to improve with side-stepping and side-passing. Dawn helped give us ways to work with our horse better on the ground before getting in the saddle. We went on the wall and would pressure the hip then the should and back and forth. Chester tends to walk forward when I presssure his shoulder so Sylvia came in and advised that I pressure his head more and it really started to work. He moves slowly but he did better as we kept practicing it.

The saddle... was a complete different story. Russell showed us how to use the wall to help prevent our horse from wanting to move forward all the time. My problem was that I really couldn't get him to turn his hip around at ALL! He just kept running me into the wall. I started getting really frustrated. I was frustrated because I knew it was my inadequacies that prevented me from teaching Chester the proper way to do things. I have a really awkward handle on the reins when I work with horses. My hands are usually almost ALWAYS off balance and I can't quite get how to hold them without making a fool of myself. So was having difficulty with that. Russell helped me as best he could but I think he could tell i was getting upset with myself so didn't push too much.

After class was over I really wanted to see how I could do it better so Russell got on Chester for me and was able to determine how he doesn't turn his shoulder in like at all so he said to try to just going in small circles and getting him to turn his shoulder and then his hip out that before moving to the wall for side-passing. Watching him and the control he had over the reins really helped me understand that I just have to have patience and not get upset with myself because I am still learning.

This lesson was definitely one that tried my patience and my own feelings of inadequacies. I know that I am still learning but sometimes when I look at how quickly other people seem to get the hang of things it just weighs me down but I can't have that attitude. Having that type of attitude will just make my learning capabilites even worse and won't help Chester learn either.

Below is a video of Chester rolling and just really happy after working hard or playing or whatever you wanna call it.