Ground poles
Woke up this morning to Tony smootching me on the arm, Formula 1 qualifying for the French gp was on and I'd asked him to wake me for it. Since it was live from Europe it was on pretty early (early on the weekend for me being 8 in the morning). It's supposed to be pretty freaking hot for the duration, so after it was over I debated for a while as to whether I should ride then or wait until evening. Well, hell, I had nothing better to do (vacuuming?) so might as well ride.
The weekly lessons with Michele have really made a difference with me--what confidence I had is back and my seat is improving, and now that I'm riding regularly again and with more frequency Clover's strength is coming back and we're at the point where we can start to make progress. It's hard, I have constantly to fight inertia, but when I feel progress it's worth it.
Today I threw 4 ground poles into the routine. I warmed up--I've developed a consistent warm up that will go from schooling to show--and did some canter work (in last Tuesday's lesson, Michele said it was time to start working on the canter), then trotted the poles several times in each direction. I'm developing an internal monologue that's picking up where instruction leaves off, something I've never had before. It seems to be working. It's making my flatwork more focused. Anyways, the trot poles were cake for Clover, so tomorrow night I'm going to set up a simple gymnastic and run Clover through a couple times to see where we stand. I signed up for a cross country/stadium clinic with Amy Barrington in two weeks, and two weeks after that there's the Kingsbury Hill Horse Trials. So I guess it's time to bone up on jumping.
The weekly lessons with Michele have really made a difference with me--what confidence I had is back and my seat is improving, and now that I'm riding regularly again and with more frequency Clover's strength is coming back and we're at the point where we can start to make progress. It's hard, I have constantly to fight inertia, but when I feel progress it's worth it.
Today I threw 4 ground poles into the routine. I warmed up--I've developed a consistent warm up that will go from schooling to show--and did some canter work (in last Tuesday's lesson, Michele said it was time to start working on the canter), then trotted the poles several times in each direction. I'm developing an internal monologue that's picking up where instruction leaves off, something I've never had before. It seems to be working. It's making my flatwork more focused. Anyways, the trot poles were cake for Clover, so tomorrow night I'm going to set up a simple gymnastic and run Clover through a couple times to see where we stand. I signed up for a cross country/stadium clinic with Amy Barrington in two weeks, and two weeks after that there's the Kingsbury Hill Horse Trials. So I guess it's time to bone up on jumping.
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