Flatwork Friyay

I finally had a flatwork lesson on Friday in anticipation of our first competition of the year. It was quite windy, and only got windier as we tacked up and warmed up, but sometimes you just have to get on with it. Henry was a bot spooky and very hot as a result though.

We warmed up and my contact was very unsteady, so my coach got a polo bandage and made me hold it. It made a huge difference, but it was hard work! A real ab workout. We had a really great tune up, looking at a few different areas. The first was to fix my contact, then get Henry more in front of my leg. 

His posture is so different now

We did an exercise where we did a few strides of shoulder fore then turned across the diagonal and asked for medium trot. I kept throwing the contact away because Henry was not off my leg. We had a canter then tried again and he was so much better off my eg and into the contact. I really need to keep working on keeping him in front of my leg and into the contact. Both those things will probably always be a struggle for me.

In the canter we did a bit of counter canter, more leg yields and counter flexion to get him soft and supple. I also thought about riding a 50c piece on a circle, lots of little turns around the circle and then straight, turn, straight on repeat. It was very helpful to get Henry to soften and keep the conversation going as we rode around. 

Looking all grown up and dressagey 

To finish we looked at the turn on the haunches, one of our weaker movements. It has definitely gotten better but still needs some work. Its really tricky to balance the leg and hand and do it all fast enough. We did it much better to the left than the right, but both ways were better when I stayed connected to the outside rein.  

Sitting in the canter, I am working HARD

The main takeaways from the lesson were to sit up, have 2/3 of the horse in front of me, keep him in front of my leg, and stay connected through the reins. All the usual things really but overall the work is feeling  better. In the end, our dressage comp got cancelled, which was a bit sad, but it just gives us more time to work on getting better!

He's the best boy