Fancy dressage words
With no shows and nothing else to spend money on, it has freed up money in my budget for weekly lessons. I say free up, but really I have weekly lessons as often as I can and just deal with not having as much money as I would like. The lessons I have had so far provide me with opportunity to forget about what is happening and just feel normal for a couple of hours.
Last Tuesday evening Henry and I fronted up for a flatwork lesson. We have been working hard on our homework after our last two lessons and I have made some excellent inroads into the contact and right rein issues. We had a tough ride on Saturday, a relaxing bush ride on Sunday (where I still made him go into the contact at all times) and then our ride on Monday was super, and it felt a hell of a lot easier to maintain the right rein.
I knew I wanted to do more of the same in my lesson and really try and solidify the correct feeling on the flat. Plus I felt like I needed to be yelled at for my position, and there are always a multitude of other things that need work.
To start Bec had me flex Henry right and left at the halt. Seems basic, but he clearly isn't solid in what flexion means because he moved his feet when all I wanted him to do was turn his head left and right and relax his poll and jaw. A few repetitions and he started to relax and understand, and then we took the same thing into walk and trot. He was pretty good, and it got him relaxing into the contact well. It was useful because I also needed to use my legs to keep him straight.
Once we got the flexion down, we practiced shoulder in. Henry was pretty damn good, I just need to keep him straight and not let him bulge through the right shoulder. My right rein is crucial, but I also have to remember to keep him flexed to the left on the left rein. The left can't just do nothing. We also had a go at Renvers, and that helped keep him soft too. It was the best lateral work we have done to date, Henry was soft and didn't change his temp at all. Gold star for the perfect pony.
To continue suppling him, we did an exercise where we did a half 20m circle, changed reins onto a 10m circle, then change reins again back onto the 20m circle. This went ok, but I needed to prepare earlier, change diagonal before we changed direction, and keep equal weight in both reins
We finished the lesson in canter, first up playing around with the transition a bit to keep Henry round and into the contact. It worked well when I did shoulder fore in the circle, then renvers, back to true flexion and then asked for the transition. He needed to be prompt off my left, if he stalled he would chuck his head and evade me.
Immediately Bec said his canter was so much more up hill, and he felt just lovely to ride. We played around with flexion both ways, then had a go at counter canter. Henry was awesome, he killed it! Shallow loops are easy for us now so we challenged ourselves and managed to do a full 20m loop. It was nice and balanced and it felt easy. the right rein wasn't as soft but it was an excellent attempt.
Such a clever pony!
Last Tuesday evening Henry and I fronted up for a flatwork lesson. We have been working hard on our homework after our last two lessons and I have made some excellent inroads into the contact and right rein issues. We had a tough ride on Saturday, a relaxing bush ride on Sunday (where I still made him go into the contact at all times) and then our ride on Monday was super, and it felt a hell of a lot easier to maintain the right rein.
I knew I wanted to do more of the same in my lesson and really try and solidify the correct feeling on the flat. Plus I felt like I needed to be yelled at for my position, and there are always a multitude of other things that need work.
To start Bec had me flex Henry right and left at the halt. Seems basic, but he clearly isn't solid in what flexion means because he moved his feet when all I wanted him to do was turn his head left and right and relax his poll and jaw. A few repetitions and he started to relax and understand, and then we took the same thing into walk and trot. He was pretty good, and it got him relaxing into the contact well. It was useful because I also needed to use my legs to keep him straight.
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| A little local visited us over the weekend! |
Once we got the flexion down, we practiced shoulder in. Henry was pretty damn good, I just need to keep him straight and not let him bulge through the right shoulder. My right rein is crucial, but I also have to remember to keep him flexed to the left on the left rein. The left can't just do nothing. We also had a go at Renvers, and that helped keep him soft too. It was the best lateral work we have done to date, Henry was soft and didn't change his temp at all. Gold star for the perfect pony.
To continue suppling him, we did an exercise where we did a half 20m circle, changed reins onto a 10m circle, then change reins again back onto the 20m circle. This went ok, but I needed to prepare earlier, change diagonal before we changed direction, and keep equal weight in both reins
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| Like so |
Immediately Bec said his canter was so much more up hill, and he felt just lovely to ride. We played around with flexion both ways, then had a go at counter canter. Henry was awesome, he killed it! Shallow loops are easy for us now so we challenged ourselves and managed to do a full 20m loop. It was nice and balanced and it felt easy. the right rein wasn't as soft but it was an excellent attempt.
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| He's getting so chunky! |
Such a clever pony!
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