Coming through

I thought we were still trotting but evidently not. It turned out for the best though – he finally got in front of my leg after this spook.

Progress continues, but some days it seems painfully slow, while on others I can see improvement and am encouraged.

We’ve been working on reconnecting me to my inside leg, and also improving Derby’s response.  While our lesson last Wednesday wasn’t anything to really write home about,  we were able to achieve a degree of throughness  after a couple spooks and after using simple leg yields to get my inner leg working, and Derby connected into the outside rein.

In addition to riding Derbs, I’ve also picked up a partial shareboard on my little buddy Tucker.  We had a nice ride over the weekend, after I had one a fellow rider take a quick look and offer me some advice on how to get Tucker to stretch down into contact (he’s happy to give you a headset.)  I did a lesson on him last night, and then rode Derbs (and then went home and collapsed.)

Happily, Tucker is telling me that my position and strength are both getting  back in balance. He’s sensitive and has a lot of training.  I got on him a couple months ago and couldn’t ride him in a straight line.  My last two rides, while far from perfect, have been better.  He’s not staggering like a drunk across the arena and I’m able to actually get him to go where I want to go with my seat and legs, which is a nice change of pace.

We’re picking at my position again, as I’ve started clamping my knees and closing my hips.  Riding forward with legs draping, hips open and hands steady is the focus this week.