Better Dressage

Well... it started out better! We had our second dressage lesson today and we talked about stuff and what the plan for the lesson was.... and our plan was to see how the counter canter was. She said that the counter canter would help strengthen his canter and help us prepare for lead changes. Yay! So we warmed up at the walk and trot and did some trot half pass, which was passable. Then we went to the canter. And Dan decided that while he could canter, and could even canter a tiny bit collected, he still felt really heavy on the right rein. We did manage to get him and me both from hanging on it. The whole half halt and release trick. Ha! Trick! You mean basic dressage?? That?! Yes.. it works. If I focus on making sure I release, then he can't hang on me either. Duh. But yes, much improved from Tuesday. :) We could actually canter like a proper horse and it actually felt really quite nice at times. Very bouncy and buoyant and if I dare say, sitting!!! 

So anyways, then we tried the counter canter. And dude.. it's hard! I mean, I'm pretty sure we can counter canter because we did what felt like a fairly decent 3 loop the other day. But perhaps it's because he was on the forehand and running through it at home. Anyways, he couldn't do it. He would swap in front or prop and break. OR.... he'd come off the rail and then careen madly back to the rail. It's that blasted right shoulder. I couldn't figure out how to hold him up off that right shoulder and keep him from falling onto it, while simultaneously asking him to go to the right. Sigh... We tried. We maybe sort of eeked out some miserable accomplishment of the loop pattern but with zero sense of balance or true dressage connection. Sigh. So then we tried a different approach. I believe Rana even said.... "Or we just skip 2nd level and skip the counter canter". Which, yeah... we've got those scores, but... don't we have to do that in 3rd too? Maybe not that stupid loop. Anyways, then we tried to half pass from quarter line to centerline and then leg yield back to the quarter line. That worked a little better and accomplished somewhat of the "counter canter loop" but.. yeah.... 

So anyways... it was a frustrating lesson because I *know* we can do it... we just couldn't today. Sigh.. Maybe we can't do it in that frame or that level of collection... maybe he just wouldn't? Maybe my aids were off?  But we do have our homework now.... working on that as well as working on the half pass to leg yield. 

And the other good part about the lesson is that Rana did say that she knew Dan could do a change. And she said if it weren't quite so hot and humid out and Dan wasn't quite so tired, we would try one real quick. But it was better left for another day. He was lathered and dripping, as was I, and he was blowing. He cooled off quickly and was grazing before he was even bathed, but still. A better bet. Especially because we were still a little bit in that frazzled place. But yay for getting close to doing them!!!