The last lesson of 2018
Coolie and I had our last lesson of the year on Saturday and it was a good one. I had mentioned to my coach about my loft elementary goal and she took me seriously and our lesson was very much working towards that. It was hard work.
We started out getting Coolie to relax because he was being a spooky twit. You have to laugh at him because he is such an idiot. We got him to put his hear right down and stretch out. We carried that from the walk to the trot and used 10m circles to supple him.
We really focussed on establishing suppleness and rhythm, in addition to making sure my position was good before we moved on to lateral work. Bec had set a line of poles on the center line in front of the mirror so I could see what we were doing. I trotted a half 10m circle then when we got to the poles started shoulder in, using the poles to keep straight and the mirror to check we had 3 tracks. To the right was quite hard, as it always is, but the left was easier. We did a few repetitions on each rein, making sure to refresh the trot after each attempt to keep Coolie forward.
We did the same exercise in travers, which Coolie finds easier to the right. In both shoulder in and travers if we lost the angle we did a 10m circle halfway to help ourselves out. After we got the travers we moved on to half pass. Bec explained the how and the why, explaining we could do it from either shoulder in or travers depending on the starting point, as long as it was correct.
I set Coolie up and had a go across the diagonal, doing a 10m circle at X to break the movement into steps. Coolie found it really hard work, he is not that bendy and would just rather not. We got a few good attempts though, we just have to keep practicing.
After a walk break we moved into canter, getting Coolie to stretch and use himself on a circle and keeping him forward. Self carriage was the aim as always, and making sure Coolie didn't deviate from my line or pace. Once we had the canter we needed we worked on counter canter on 10m loops. We practice this all the time but under Becs watchful eye there were improvements to be made and we worked really hard. It took us a few goes to get it good enough for Bec to be happy. The key and the hardest part was allowing with the outside rein, and straightening for a few strides in the middle.
We finished there and Coolie and I were both so tried by the end. It was a tricky lessons but we have lots to work on now.
 |
| Chickens are scary! |
We started out getting Coolie to relax because he was being a spooky twit. You have to laugh at him because he is such an idiot. We got him to put his hear right down and stretch out. We carried that from the walk to the trot and used 10m circles to supple him.
We really focussed on establishing suppleness and rhythm, in addition to making sure my position was good before we moved on to lateral work. Bec had set a line of poles on the center line in front of the mirror so I could see what we were doing. I trotted a half 10m circle then when we got to the poles started shoulder in, using the poles to keep straight and the mirror to check we had 3 tracks. To the right was quite hard, as it always is, but the left was easier. We did a few repetitions on each rein, making sure to refresh the trot after each attempt to keep Coolie forward.
 |
| Chickens aren't scary at all! |
We did the same exercise in travers, which Coolie finds easier to the right. In both shoulder in and travers if we lost the angle we did a 10m circle halfway to help ourselves out. After we got the travers we moved on to half pass. Bec explained the how and the why, explaining we could do it from either shoulder in or travers depending on the starting point, as long as it was correct.
I set Coolie up and had a go across the diagonal, doing a 10m circle at X to break the movement into steps. Coolie found it really hard work, he is not that bendy and would just rather not. We got a few good attempts though, we just have to keep practicing.
After a walk break we moved into canter, getting Coolie to stretch and use himself on a circle and keeping him forward. Self carriage was the aim as always, and making sure Coolie didn't deviate from my line or pace. Once we had the canter we needed we worked on counter canter on 10m loops. We practice this all the time but under Becs watchful eye there were improvements to be made and we worked really hard. It took us a few goes to get it good enough for Bec to be happy. The key and the hardest part was allowing with the outside rein, and straightening for a few strides in the middle.
We finished there and Coolie and I were both so tried by the end. It was a tricky lessons but we have lots to work on now.
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