Once again, like you mean it

This is a better trot.

I really appreciate Christy’s willingness to grab video for me in my lessons.  It’s so helpful to see what I’m doing and what we look like.  My reviews of the last couple nights’ work weren’t terribly encouraging.  On the up side, during the spooking episodes, I could see that my lower leg didn’t move and my position remained solid, enabling me to stay firmly in the tack – which is why I wasn’t bothered by Derby’s antics.

I was able to do a better job of capturing the forward energy tonight.

However, there was a lot not to love.  I am not holding the outside rein.  I’m letting him steal rein length from me. I’m collapsing in my core.  The result – we’re going around in a nose-pokey-outy hunter frame.  This won’t cut it. What energy I manage to generate behind I lose out the front end.

Tonight I told Christy what I had observed, and she nodded in agreement.  She also noted that she’s taking the gloves off because we showed her last night that we’re ready to work harder.  She started us off with an excercise that improved the trot right off the bat – having me do very brief walk transitions, at A and C, which we then turned into half-halts. As we proceeded, Derby became rounder, the contact got better and his responses improved.   This was a fantastic exercise for us. Christy continued to fine tune our work, reminding me to keep my inside leg busy (“Come on hind legs! Tap tap tap with your spur! Tuck that hind leg underneath!”)

Later in the lesson, we took aim at another issue I have – I need to soften the inside rein rather than pull it.  Christy had me make a point of giving the inside rein – and the second I did, Derby rounded.

It was a good ride – the quality of the work improved, and I’m going into the weekend with some tools to use to keep encouraging Derby to work over his back – we need to build those muscles.  Lessons start again on Monday!