So I had my first real lesson back with D today. I was a little nervous but I know in my heart he would never put me in a position that I would come to harm.
We started with some small figure 8's and working on keeping his inside shoulder up and keeping a good rytham at the walk and then the trot. Then we moved on to using the whole arena, but still doing the 8's, but using it as an opportunity to allow him to stay correct for a larger circle. Then we added halts, walk steps, and turns on the haunches in the middle of the 8's.
After we were both warmed up and working we started throwing in some 1/2 circles of lope in the 8. Our transitions were rough which is to be expected, but this work of short burst of lope gave me a chance to work on them. Once we had mastered the 1/2 circles of canter we started throwing in some complete circles of lope before changing direction. Again we reinforced the 'keeping up the inside shoulder' at the lope. We did try a change or two (on purpose this time!) but didn't get them this time LOL.
We also did some two tracking to get my leg pressure even and correct before working on loping large around the ring both directions. This was the hardest because Oscar gets 'hoppy' if he gets too tense (and I don't help at times). But D and I worked on tweaking my position a bit to ride more defensively and not so much like the equation rider I try to be. We've decided to think about letting my legs go foreword a bit, to keep my top from swinging it foreword. So were going to give it a try, and I'm going to think about keeping my legs more toward the girth.
1 comment:
It's hard to go back and forth between different riding styles. The majority of my training is dressage but I have been riding in a close contact saddle for over five years. Now I am in a dressage saddle again riding horses who need me to sit up and balance them. I keep finding myself leaning forward like I am in a hunt seat saddle.
Post a Comment