Lesson notes almost didn't happen for this month because the lesson almost didn't happen because I am a fucking idiot and wrote down the wrong time. Thankfully, my barn manager texts AND I live less than ten minutes from the barn. I was on and warming up only 30 minutes after my planned start time. Sigh.
What we worked on:
1. Forward. Always. Forever. In this lesson we focused hard on quickness and getting his feet hustling, accomplished at least partly by me posting much more quickly, which frustrated him enough to want to match it.
2. Bending through his whole body. He was actually pretty responsive to softening in his jaw right off the bat, but took longer to convince to yield his ribcage and step through with his inside hind, particularly to the left.
3. Lateral work. In particular, we worked hard on sharpening up my aids for the shoulder in: when I was asking for too much bend, when I wasn't signalling clearly enough with my leg aids to keep his hind end moving. It still wasn't bright and quick but it was a damn sight more through than I've ever had him in the shoulder in. We also dabbled in haunches in, even getting a few creditable steps at a time.
4. Canter. For once, we didn't actually school the canter too much because it was pretty darn good! But I finally got the idea hammered into me that I am breaking too much at the wrists in the canter.
I'm glad you got there! Sounds like you worked on all of the important stuff :)
ReplyDeletei did the opposite recently and showed up a full hour early to my lesson (meaning, had gotten to my horse's barn, loaded up him and all the gear, and trailered over all way too early) without realizing haha. oops. glad you still made the lesson happen!
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