Challenging with a capital C
Riley and I during our pole lesson
Riley and I had a fun pole lesson this week although it was challenging with a capital ‘C’. Now Riley always enjoys our pole lessons and is usually a keen partner. This time however, I think he was unhappy about being taken away from his hay and having to work instead, so there was a palpable air of reluctance on his part. Nevertheless, we had a productive and satisfying start to the pole lesson with Laura Parkes, and happily trotted over poles until Laura dropped her bombshell by announcing that we would be cantering. Panic set in and I raised my objections. Currently in my head, the words canter and poles are outside of my comfort zone, and I get scared at the very idea of cantering over a pole.
Luckily Laura wasn’t asking us to canter over a pole, but through them, in order to make a 20-metre circle shape. This did pose another set of issues as currently when I am cantering Riley I don’t feel as though I have productive steering or for that matter any steering and I find it easiest to go round the whole arena, and find we go where Riley wants rather than where I choose.
A game-changer
Laura had set up an amazing looking arena full of poles with a labyrinth-esque centrepiece of poles arranged in a large circular shape with ever decreasing circles sitting inside and asked us to start by cantering around the outside of the poles to make a large circle. This first bit seemed achievable to me although having done that successfully, my next challenge was to then canter through a gap in the outer poles to a tighter inner circle made up of four sets of guide poles which at first seemed impossible. Trying to complete the tighter inner circle was difficult as everything happened so quickly and I just couldn’t negotiate them to begin with, I’d get around one or two or maybe even three sets of the inner guide poles completing a quarter,a half, or maybe even three-quarters of the circle only to fall out before completing the whole circuit and therefore failing to make the full circle. Having the poles to focus on was helpful though and became a game-changer for me. In my head the challenge to get through each set of guide poles to complete the whole inner circle was on. I became determined to get through all of the poles even if was only once.
Breakthrough
When we had finally achieved negotiating the circular maze, I couldn’t quite believe that I had managed to steer and canter and have an element of control. The poles had taken so much of my focus that I hadn’t had time to worry about the canter or how I could achieve an accurate 20 metre circle. Moving forward I see that this exercise could be incredibly beneficial for Riley and I. From initially refusing to canter through the poles I found myself saying to Laura how much I had enjoyed it and could we please do that again in another lesson. What began as a nerve-wracking challenge turned into a surprising breakthrough, leaving me more confident and excited for what’s next.