Shoulders & More

First, let me say, things are getting better. Native is learning that I am not here to eat him alive, and isn't so spooky when I ask him to send around, and I have found that when I get his hind quarters disengaged enough, with his feet reaching under, his head tends to lower, and he becomes more relaxed, so I am working with this. I have found that he does have a really bad trot...so there are some weird movements there, and I just have to ride them out and relax. (working on it...getting better.) My legs? They're still screwy...Once I figure out how to relax and loosen them...a lot of other things are sure to fall in place. I am always conscious of how they are hindering me, so I modify and try to fix them.
During last week's tutoring session Native and I worked on trotting (which will be an ongoing thing thing, but is getting much better.) I have a little Marina in my head who is reminding me to set my shoulders back "Be proud of your pony" and Remember that "inner core". The little Marina in my head tells me when I try to lead with my supporting reign (There is a little Chuck in there yelling at me too.) All these little things that i need to be aware of, and am trying to train my body to take care of this stuff so I can move onto other things.
Another thing I wanted to work on was moving his shoulder over while keeping him soft. I no success in a previous class where Chuck asked us to walk forward with the shoulder over and the hip reaching to the eye (a lead departure exercise) I thought i could get Natives shoulder ok, but when i asked for his hip, I'd lose the head. I was told to move his hip more...I wasn't giving him enough pressure, but I couldn't get my body to hold the Rt. front shoulder and pressurize the left side of his hip enough to move it...and to hold this awkward position to wait for the right movement was impossible for me.
Marina and i worked on it, and had some little bits of success when I removed my feet from the stirrups to exaggerate the forward & back pressure...and waited for the right movement.... realizing all the time I needed spurs. We did get a couple of good steps and called it a day.

In the colt class, students who are actually starting colts are doing a lot of groundwork with their colts. They are moving hind quarters, forequarters, backing, and preparing the horses for pretty much anything they will encounter during their first few rides. Jaime is a teacher helper who is helping with one of the sale horses, Simply. He is a bit green, but has had a lot of Clinton Anderson Inspired groundwork. I was warming up Native...getting ready for a lesson when Jaime was reveling in the wonders of groundwork...saying how easily he moves his shoulders over, because he was so well prepared.
I spent my "groundwork" class time on Thursday "groundworking" Native's shoulders and everything else I could think of. Id send him by, ask for a yield of HQ, back him up 2 steps, then move his shoulder over. Then I'd switch to the other side. I found that on one side he was much more reluctant to move his shoulder easily (his off side) I also was reminded that he would prefer it if I didn't stand on that side either...always moving to get where I'd be standing where he wanted me... Of course, being the Horses behavior expert I am...I knew what he was pulling before he did. I did a majority of my work on that side...leading him off at a walk until he accepted the fact that I was just going to be there. I was still having trouble moving his shoulder though. I asked Jaime to watch & tell me what I was doing to make it go so badly....Because if we have learned nothing else... we know if things are going badly, Fix me = Fix the problem.
Stemming from ME trying to show Native that I was not going to eat him, I was being too cautious when moving to his off side. He thought I was pushing him. I needed to just walk to where i was going. Thats it... not be careful. Just do it. When I quit being so careful, he knew what to do. I walked to his shoulder, blocked his head and moved his shoulder. When I got a good step or 2, I rewarded him. I got to watch it get better.
I look forward to my next ride. I hope the groundwork shows up!