I've returned to riding Ellie the One-Eyed Wonder after taking off the summer. Riding her is not as fun as it once was, because I've been spoiled by the Taskmaster's horses. She's just not very well trained. She's just a basics horse: go, stop, steer. She does leg yield, but doesn't have one of her canter leads. However, because she's an Icy she does tolt and that beats out a lot of her missing training.
I ride Miss Ellie bareback for the most part. 1) I'm lazy 2) It's good for me to ride someone bareback. I have noticed in the last two weeks a big change in my riding that developed over the summer. I am absolutely balanced on her without needing to clench my legs. I just sit up perfectly vertical regardless of what she's doing underneath me, legs loose down her sides.
This week I rode Ellie Weds and Bean on Thursday. Bean and I were working on our Secret Project and I did some trot that was so collected it was almost piaffe. As I sat there, my hands up, totally balanced on Bean I realized it was exactly how I sit on Ellie when she tolts.
The moral of this story (which I was already quite aware of:) every horse can teach you something.
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