Building Better Habits from the Ground to Saddle with Griffin

The asks 

For this session, I had two big goals:

1. Teach Griffin (and eventually my other horses) to “come to me” at the mounting block—or stump, log, rock, whatever’s handy.
2. Gain more finesse under saddle when asking him to move different parts of his body, especially since Grif is a serious lefty.

*Thanks to Jen for the photos used in today's post!

Mounting block help

As I told Kate, the teenage and twenty-something version of me had the flexibility, patience, and general lack of concern to tolerate horses who didn’t stand perfectly still for mounting. Mid-30s Liz, however, has less patience, slower reflexes, and cares a whole lot more about safety and good manners. Kate nodded knowingly, and we jumped right into building a better habit.

Observing Kate's every move

We began with the block against a wall, narrowing the options so the horse only had 180 degrees of “wrong” answers and one clear “right” one. From there, the ask was simple: extend the left hand along the wall and use the right hand with a dressage whip to gently tap and invite the horse to step closer. The process mirrored the groundwork I’d done with Stan - ask, wait four seconds, then escalate pressure if needed. I watched Kate’s timing and release carefully, knowing that precision makes all the difference.

Grif, unsurprisingly, caught on almost instantly.

Having a Ricky Bobby moment, "But what do I do with my hands?!"
Grif seeking sympathy from the audience for his luck of having me as his stupid human

Then it was my turn. Classic Liz move: I don’t ride with a crop or whip, so suddenly managing reins in one hand and a whip in the other scrambled my coordination. My timing with the ask-pause-release felt clunky at first, but after a few tries (and some patience with myself), I found the rhythm. Grif met me halfway, and soon we were working together smoothly.

Encouraging him to remain immobile

Once we had it, I mounted. Predictably, as soon as my seat hit the saddle, Grif walked off. This is his standard response anywhere outside of a Very Boring, Very Familiar Place. With Kate coaching, I asked him to stand quietly, dismounted, and reset the exercise.

Zen in our immobility

On the second attempt, I slowed everything down and mounted as if I were working with a green horse. I focused on keeping my energy calm and grounded, hoping it would encourage him to stay rooted. The results weren’t perfect, but there was definite improvement. At that point, we decided I’d continue refining this at home and moved on to under-saddle work.

Under saddle work

My goal for the under-saddle portion was simple: refine my communication with Grif and build more precision into my riding. Grif is very left-side dominant; he’ll always pick the left lead canter if given the choice, and he’s much more supple bending left than right.

Telling that inside hind to "get under there"

Kate started us on a small 6-8 meter circle with shoulder-in. As we fell into line around the circle, she had me turn my body and focus my eyes and energy on the inside hind, asking it to step under. The circle itself forced me to get into the correct position: inside leg at the girth, thigh light; outside leg wrapped around his barrel; hands slightly to the inside; body turned to focus on that inside hind, encouraging it to step under. While this wasn’t the most beautiful or classic position for riding, it really did the trick helping Grif and I to communicate from the same sheet of music. Once we mastered the task at the walk for a few reps, we picked up the trot.

The most sluggish of Griffins

This is where things got… sluggish. Grif was dragging his feet, so Kate had me “throw a coil of rein at him” and ride like we had an urgent destination - almost a faux emergency. Sure enough, he perked up immediately. Mental note: this is now a great tool in my back pocket for those sluggish moments when I practice at home.

Stretching through all this hard work

Once he was moving with more energy, we rode a “diamond with urgency,” then went back to circles to work on lengthening the outside of his body through the bend. From there, we moved into serpentines, bending with the direction of travel. Except… I managed to get it backwards and bent him the opposite way. That mistake fried my brain quickly, and I had to stop for a few minutes to have Kate demonstrate what I should be doing. She was able to get my glitchy brain back online quickly, and we set off to execute the exercise with more success.

Bend *with* the direction of travel not opposite it!

Kate reminded me to sit deeper on his hind legs, encouraging him to shift more weight behind. In the moment, though, I was so overwhelmed by the constant directions that I couldn’t really feel what was happening. Later, watching the video back, it was much clearer, and I could actually see Grif’s body shifting in response to my aids and realize how my position influenced him. That review was invaluable, and I know it’ll carry into my rides this fall.

A moment of canter

We circled back (literally) to shoulder-in at the walk to touch base once more on the exercise, then moved to square exercises: asking Grif to step left, back, right, forward. The big takeaway here was to slow everything down. I needed to be so slow and deliberate with the ask that he had time to process it correctly instead of overreacting into the wrong answer. While both Grif and I were mentally exhausted by this point, we still managed to end on a really positive note. And since then? Wow. Asking with that kind of slowness has completely changed the quality of our work. It’s like unlocking a new level of communication, and the horses (yes, all three of them in their separate rides) seem genuinely happier for it, too.

Smiling despite my brain oozing everywhere

Getting back into the swing of lessons was no small thing for me! Despite Kate’s approachable, encouraging style, my brain felt like it was short-circuiting trying to put everything together. None of the exercises were crazy, but it felt like jumping into a cold pool after too much time away. Watching the videos afterward has been a lifesaver. It has not only helped cement the concepts, but gave me language for writing about them here.

Stay tuned for the grand finale to my posts about my clinic rides with Kate: Q’s session!