Oooh happy day! We got to lesson with Jacel! Daniel missed her! He snuggled with her. Traitor! Ha ha. It does make me happy that he loves her too. (And to be honest, Lyric and Funny do too! It's nice when your horses approve of your trainers!).
We did a dressage lesson and it was super helpful! I really do love how she teaches. She really is so correct and truly classical! I told her that we had been cleared for cantering and lateral work and that I felt like his canter felt a little weak some days and that he felt good but not quite fully bending through his barrel. We were trying to work on "collecting and sitting" in the work vs flinging. And I told her that I was really trying to keep his neck long and open.
We started at the walk and she had me do square turns. At first I tried to just bend him through it, like two 90 degree turns. She stopped me and told me to ride them like turn on the forehands. Oh.. whoops. So I did actually halt him and then move his hindquarters.. then walk on. Then after a few times of that I was able to half halt him and slow the walk and get the turn. And it was cool because as we did multiple turns, he got looser and swingier... his tail lifted and relaxed, and he felt more powerful and purposeful vs just running. And, he started to go more correctly and reach for the contact, although he did lose it in the actual turns. But the more we did, the better it got! Whoo hooo. We did that both directions.
Then we did leg yields. And magic!! She noticed that I was holding with my outside leg. When I took my leg "off"... like, literally sort of pulled it off his side... he was able to swing! DUH! I think I might do this with Funny and that's why she gets swingy. But with him... I've just... kept my leg on and it's blocking him. I resorted to using my leg instead of guiding him with my seat. And when my seat swings, and my outside leg is loose and fluffy instead of "on" him, he really starts to swing through his barrel. AHHHHH!! Magic! He started to bend in his ribcage and his inside hind was coming up and under and crossing over. And he stayed loose and swingy and lifted in his back. Ahhh. This is awesome. Duh! I imagine this will help immensely in the half pass too. Duh. After we got it swingy, we started doing walk zig zags... leg yield in, leg yield out. And then we picked up the trot. We did the leg yield but then she had me "collect" it. Without touching the reins (other than a half halt... I wasn't shortening the reins), I used my core and squeezed softly with my upper thighs, to effectively shorten his stride. And slow his tempo. And he got bouncy!! If I asked too much, he would walk, so sometimes we lost it. But we got some really nice bouncy work! Then we did some lengthens on the diagonals, then back to collected trot ("collected"... just a smaller stride with slower tempo but kept the power), then back to lengthen on the diagonal, then back to smaller trot and then leg yield in the smaller trot and then back to lengthen. Then we did some walk breaks because this is hard work! Leg day at the gym bro! He felt great though. His back was lifting, his neck was soft and happy and long and he was reaching for the contact. It was the lightest of connections too, which I enjoy. And sure, sometimes we lost it and the reins bounced a little, but... so did his stride! Self-carriage! Wheee!
We took a walk break and chatted for a bit and then picked up the canter. We started on the left and it was okay. He wanted to fall in and I was hanging on the left rein. Unfortunately when I quit hanging on it, Dan would fall out of the canter. We decided it was a little bit of both of us holding and Dan sort of relying on it. So I tried to be softer with it and when I did use it, go out to the side vs back. And that helped. We went the other way and he was much straighter in his body tracking right. BUT.. he felt a bit more labored... like he was having to use his head and neck to lift rather than lifting with his front right. Jacel thought it was more stemming from the hind end. Oh... that makes sense. We picked it up again and got a few circles before he wanted to fall out. I was able to keep him going and got another few strides and then pulled him back down. We quit with that because... he was clearly fatigued and as Jacel pointed out... he had worked really hard already. She thought that it might just be weakness in the hind end and then fatigue too. I did mention that he also wasn't on any anti-inflammatory... and had not had any injections in well over a year. I think! I mean... it's been right at a year since his neck surgery, and we've been rehabbing from that and then the suspensory surgery, so I don't think we've done anything. So he probably is a bit weak and maybe even a bit sore. I may end up taking him to Barrow to see if he needs any maintenance.
We chatted for a bit and then I took Dan on a hack to lake to splash. He was so distracted and kept stopping so it took forever to get to the lake. Come on dude, we all want dinner! ha ha. He didn't really splash much. Poor guy is tired! We walked back via racoon loop and up the hill for some hill work. And then a rinse and we headed home for dinner.
So... yay! The plan is to continue to strengthen that sit and then the lift will come. We'll do our homework and do lots of hills too.
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