[I am trying to clear out notes on my lessons this week]
Sunday I had another longe lesson, this time we did a bunch of canter on the longe. One thing of the things we did was making the walk-canter and trot-canter transition using only my seat bones (and possibly a little help from the longewhip...) . It really worked perfectly one time from the walk, and in general it was a good exercise.
Monday, I was horribly tired, and I asked L. to ride Odin. It is nice to watch her ride him from time to time. She spend a lot of time working lateral movements to get him more supple, he is has trouble reaching latitudinal suppleness before he is completely worn out.
I expressed some concern about being able to ride him well enough while she is gone over New Years, so we agreed to work on that in the coming week.
Tuesday, I then had a lesson off the longe. It is always very nice to work him after L. has ridden him, I can really feel him being easier to ride. We worked on my position when riding and not just sitting, and it was actually feeling really good. I also did leg yields, and used the canter to get it trot better by doing lots of transitions between movements. It was very helpful, as it is a log easier for me to get him to come together a bit in the canter, and I can really feel that my seat is much improved especially in the downwards transitions.
This morning, we worked some more on the same, added in some haunches in and walk pirouettes, which helped my to make him supple and straight.
I really have to feel like I am pushing his right shoulder on to the track all the time, otherwise he is not straight.
A very nice exercise was going in a square with turn on the haunches/quarter pirouettes on the corner in walk, then going to trot between the corners, and then trotting through the corners turning his shoulders and haunches.
I did some really nice canter too, where I could get a good quality canter for a few steps, but it really requires me to be vigilant about not letting him fall on his forehand, keep pushing him up to the bit and keep his shoulders on the track.
This a was a really great lesson, I hope I can remember it all!
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I always feel like I have to ride Echo's left shoulder onto the track, otherwise it just escapes! I guess eventually your body just sort of expects the shoulders to be where you want them and everything about your body will put them in the right place without having to think about it. Things always feel unnatural for a while then it's a mixture of him getting more supple and you getting stronger that makes it become second nature.
I love lessons like that, where you come out thinking really hard and hoping you don't forget!
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