Lesson Re-cap

Well folks, since I last posted: The clinic was rescheduled for June due to the clinician being flooded in out in Kansas Mort spent that weekend running around like a fool, throwing a shoe and earning a few days off But we've been back to our regularly scheduled programming for the last week, so I opted for a lesson Monday night with my regular instructor. Mort and I have been working more on our canter. I've been throwing in shoulder-in and lengthenings as well as our regular circling and figure-eights and leg yields. I've been trying hard to maintain a good connection through it all without over facing him. We're slowly starting to step back up into dressage land. The good news is that Mort and I were much more prepared for this lesson than the last one. We're both in better shape mentally and physically. We went back to the beginning and I believe that our connection and forward are even better than they were before. We were actually able to work on things and she was able to push us without anything breaking down. The lesson was fun and challenging and gave us some homework--all things that I look for in a lesson. We started off on a loose rein where I filled her in with what we'd been doing and where we'd been struggling. We did the "systems check" and Mort was good for moving forward/stopping, moving off either leg, and suppling to the rein. Even in that loose rein walk she wanted me to throw in transitions, so I halted him from my seat a few times. He wasn't 100% sharp, but he responded decently. Working on halting from my seat with no hand for back-up is on the homework list. Since all systems were go, we moved on to a loose rein trot. He was forward and would yield from my legs. I played with turning him from my legs and seat. She again asked for more transitions than we're used to doing, so there were walk/trot transitions in there as well. Since we had forward and sideways and supple, it was time to start picking up contact and asking the hind-end to do more work. We started doing smaller circles and figure-eights, all while still doing transitions. My homework with this part of the warm-up is a million more transitions and to start asking for more sooner in the ride. She kept repeating to let the smaller circles and figure eights challenge him while I stayed steady and was there for support when he asked for it. Once he was starting to be more reliable in the contact we threw in some canter transitions. The point of these wasn't to work a lot in the canter, but to keep him thinking about me and what we were going to do next while challenging his balance and hind-end. We'd canter for a little bit, getting him over the topline then go back to trot, only to re-balance and ask for canter again. We did this a handful of times each direction. Tracking right was a lot easier to rebalance and go than tracking left. Homework here is to do more transitions (again) and to make sure that he stays off my inside leg in the transitions. I need to get comfortable with getting him a bit uncomfortable so that he starts looking to me more for guidance and balance. After our warm-up, he got a long rein walk break. I re-checked our systems and he was good. We've really improved tracking right, but still can get a bit sticky tracking left. It may be time for another spur ride to get him a bit sharper off that leg. I also have homework to almost constantly think about sitting harder on my left seat bone when tracking left because I have a tendency to let his crookedness make me crooked. Part-Two of this issue is my uneven hands. My left hand is too timid to take enough contact with the left side of his mouth and my right hand tends to be too high. This creates a lovely little head tilt. These homeworks aren't anything new, but they're definitely still homework. We then got into the meat of the lesson. She had an exercise where we'd start down the centerline and leg yield off the right leg, when I got to the end I'd keep the feeling of leg yield but I'd do a small circle by changing my outside aids to turning aids. We worked on me maintaining even hands while weighting the proper seat bone then making sure that I used my outside leg to do the turn. For him, it made sure that he was listening to my sideways aids and my turning aids. Eventually this exercise can transition into leg yield to: shoulder-in, lengthen, or canter. It gets his hind-end stepping underneath and preps us for whatever I want to do next. Once I start introducing the other items, whenever we feel a loss of balance or through-ness we just go back to the magical circle. Mort did better than I expected. Leg yields have never historically been our strong suit. I know that I tend to lean to the outside and he'll get crooked (obviously) and lose power. The first attempt was a bit crooked but once I started using my outside aids correctly we got some good work. He felt powerful but focused to the right. The left wasn't as steep and we did need the circles at the end to rebalance, but they were still pretty successful. He actually does listen almost too well to the outside turning aids there, just need to work on me maintaining the bend through proper riding. My homework here is to start to start playing with more complicated items after the leg yield like I mentioned above. I'll be looking for the feel he's ready and waiting for me to ask for whatever and he'll be game. The canter was a ton of fun. I expected it to be better than the trot and it didn't disappoint. We started off on the right lead canter. The leg yield was good, though the shoulder led a bit. I haven't done a ton of leg yield in the canter, so I was just glad that it was working so well. We did some smaller circles at the end and he kept cantering and coming under himself though I could tell it was hard. The right lead was fun and successful--the left lead was even better. Again, our steepness wasn't there as much and he struggled a bit more with the small circles but it is such a better canter when I get it where I want it. On our last attempt she told me to get my shoulders above my seat more and I moved them right a fraction of an inch. Immediately Mort lifted more and felt straighter. It's amazing what a small difference can make. Our homework in the canter is to focus more on my upper body position; I need open hips but with a tight core and more even shoulders. We need to do more small circles to build his hind end strength. We'll also use the exercise to transition into lengthen canter or counter-bend and leg yield the other direction. In doing the counter-bend, I need to always have a feel that we could go back into a circle of true bend at any time. We ended with a little stretchy trot after Mort's final canter circle. We were both so happy with what he gave me that it was the perfect place to stop. We, of course, walked on a loose rein to let him mull it all over and relax before hopping off and giving him his well-earned treat.