Sunday lesson
Once again, I have been riding, but have been too lazy to update beyond a blurb in the blog. Emma had a jumping lesson on Clover yesterday, they looked great and Clover was really pulling to the fences.
Today I had a dressage lesson on Clover, and although she's not swinging through the shoulders as much as she could, she is definitely moving better, and ticking along consistently again. We spent quite a bit of time working at the walk, asking for more bend and stepping away from the inside leg aid in the corners, then at the 4 points in between the corners, and finally asking for a couple of steps of counterbend in the corner. The counterbending around corners was hard, I don't know if I got it entirely right. I did start to feel when I lost the bend and Clover would push her side against my inside leg, so it's a start, really feeling that.
We also worked on turns on the haunches at the walk, more work with controlling the shoulders. Basically walking a square: ride a straight line, 2-3 steps of turn on the haunches, moving the outside shoulder over, and continuing on in the straight line. A couple of times I had to reach forward and tap Clover's shoulder with the whip or even my foot a couple of times to reinforce the aid.
In the trot work, we worked on centerlines, using the turns on the haunches as a way to keep the turns onto the centerlines clean and accurate. It was hard to maintain the bend, forwardness and use the outside aids all at the same time, I could either be accurate and lose forwardness, or maintain the bend and lose accuracy. We'd go from the long side and turn down the centerline, turn left or right at X to E or B, and go down the centerline again. My trainer would have us continue all the way down the centerline every few passes to get us forward again. The exercise can be frustrating, especially if Clover is handling like a mack truck, but it does help us nail the centerlines when it counts.
We actually did a lot of canter work, preparing for transitions, up and down, half halting several strides before and after. Clover was really carrying herself in the transition, now that I don't let her head go during the up trans. My trainer noticed the improvement, I told her I'd been working on the during the week. I'm just amazed at how much improvement there is in the canter since last fall ... and now Clover's really starting to jump through at the canter, and I'm starting to be able to keep her together. We worked on some simple changes up the diagonal (need to work on more organization and prep for the change), and also up transitions from sitting trot to three strides of canter back to trot, using only the seat! Ok, so I'd get more like 4 or 5 canter strides, and would use the rein aids, but it was getting better. Somemore home work to do.
Clover was fine, she's fitter than I realize--it's me who got pooped out. I thought all the running I've been doing would help?
Later on, I also got on Areana for the second time, she's just being started under saddle. My trainer works with us on the longe line, and we worked on steering a bit more today. Areana had some kind of bug up her butt today, she gave a couple of big spooks that I considered bailing out on, but didn't. We finished up on a good note, more trotting without her petulant head tossing.
Today I had a dressage lesson on Clover, and although she's not swinging through the shoulders as much as she could, she is definitely moving better, and ticking along consistently again. We spent quite a bit of time working at the walk, asking for more bend and stepping away from the inside leg aid in the corners, then at the 4 points in between the corners, and finally asking for a couple of steps of counterbend in the corner. The counterbending around corners was hard, I don't know if I got it entirely right. I did start to feel when I lost the bend and Clover would push her side against my inside leg, so it's a start, really feeling that.
We also worked on turns on the haunches at the walk, more work with controlling the shoulders. Basically walking a square: ride a straight line, 2-3 steps of turn on the haunches, moving the outside shoulder over, and continuing on in the straight line. A couple of times I had to reach forward and tap Clover's shoulder with the whip or even my foot a couple of times to reinforce the aid.
In the trot work, we worked on centerlines, using the turns on the haunches as a way to keep the turns onto the centerlines clean and accurate. It was hard to maintain the bend, forwardness and use the outside aids all at the same time, I could either be accurate and lose forwardness, or maintain the bend and lose accuracy. We'd go from the long side and turn down the centerline, turn left or right at X to E or B, and go down the centerline again. My trainer would have us continue all the way down the centerline every few passes to get us forward again. The exercise can be frustrating, especially if Clover is handling like a mack truck, but it does help us nail the centerlines when it counts.
We actually did a lot of canter work, preparing for transitions, up and down, half halting several strides before and after. Clover was really carrying herself in the transition, now that I don't let her head go during the up trans. My trainer noticed the improvement, I told her I'd been working on the during the week. I'm just amazed at how much improvement there is in the canter since last fall ... and now Clover's really starting to jump through at the canter, and I'm starting to be able to keep her together. We worked on some simple changes up the diagonal (need to work on more organization and prep for the change), and also up transitions from sitting trot to three strides of canter back to trot, using only the seat! Ok, so I'd get more like 4 or 5 canter strides, and would use the rein aids, but it was getting better. Somemore home work to do.
Clover was fine, she's fitter than I realize--it's me who got pooped out. I thought all the running I've been doing would help?
Later on, I also got on Areana for the second time, she's just being started under saddle. My trainer works with us on the longe line, and we worked on steering a bit more today. Areana had some kind of bug up her butt today, she gave a couple of big spooks that I considered bailing out on, but didn't. We finished up on a good note, more trotting without her petulant head tossing.
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