Dressage

So.... I finally got a dressage lesson with Kelly today. Yahoo!! Poor Kelly..I should have paid her twice! We started out with a quick warm up and then we went right to work on the canter. And then, we got stuck. Doh! But we did get some good canter work before we attempted the counter canter and things fell apart.

Cantering Tips:

1. Don't let him get too deep. He needs to be up in the withers, lift my hands if needed and sit back and lift my seat and lift his withers
2. tracking right: he wants to fall in, and throw that left shoulder out. So I need outside rein, inside leg, and really get more bend so that he bends around my inside leg. Almost ride a little haunches in (I think!). And weirdly I need that outside rein to keep him from falling to the left... but I can open it so that his shoulder has somewhere to go.... but keep a steady connection. 

So then we tried the counter canter. Tracking left is fine. Tracking right... not fine. I am back to barely able to get him on the straight line without him swapping in front. He gets tense and then up and braced in the neck and then he swaps. Sometimes quite cleanly today. :) It was like any excuse to swap and he would. So... I have to really work on getting that inside bend.... keep my outside leg WAY back into his stifle and ride haunches in... almost a half pass, but... don't block him with my inside seat bone.. keep that lifting... and still.. I could really only get 5 meters worth of counter canter. Sigh... even Kelly got on him and tried and he just.... he's looking for ANY excuse. I don't know if it's pain... resistance... ??? 

So.. my homework is to work on that inside bend on the right ribcage.

Also... at least 5 of the 95 transitions in a ride.. I need to FOCUS on not letting him pull me forward... that allows him to fall on his forehand and poop into the transition rather than glide like he's supposed to. SO... SIT UP AND HOLD THE REINS CONNECTED... :) 

So... we had some really nice canter. It's getting much more third level. Especially to the left. To the right.. he still wants to dive a little and not bend. Maybe Dr. Molony will see something in 2 weeks. He feels good though otherwise.. even Kelly thought so.