Those mid-week works

Posted on September 1, 2017 by the_everything_pony

I feel like I have a lot of these and that they’re really not that interesting because…well….it’s dressage, and I feel there’s only so much you can talk about lift and position. But, guess what I’ll talk about today? Yup. Lift and position. And other dressagy things.

One of these days I’ll get video of us riding dressage and torture you guys that way.

But, as it stands, Amber was certainly ready to go yesterday morning. We only had 15-20 minutes for a ride since I got out there a little late, but she walked out with a purpose, accepted contact phenomenally, and is beginning to understand that contact and walk means she can still go forward. But I think we’ll have a nice free walk at least. I let go of those reins and she sure swings!

She wanted to let her shoulder leak out to the left, and she was a little out of the contact, but she was still trying. And she was letting her shoulder go but was keeping her head a little straighter so….progress? I think the biggest progress though is that when I start asking her to pick up that shoulder and go a little straighter, she’s not getting as worried about it. She’s beginning to think that she can fix it while in contact without picking up her head or compensating somewhere else for it.

Her circles were actually great yesterday. She really tried to keep herself straight – or at least not trying to do it a different way so much – and I could really feel that transfer of energy to the outside rein but not to where her whole body was leaning outside of the circle. That outside rein felt really cool, kind of elastic, so I hope that means we’re getting it. I mean it feels pretty good, so crossing the fingers. I’ll nab a dressage lesson one of these days!

We did a teensy bit of canter to the left, and it was good to feel another hole that we have to work on. She doesn’t have the walk-to-canter transition solid at all yet – and it’s hurting the start of our cantering. My body encourages her to go forward, so I come out of that position that’s beneficial to us both, and I just don’t have the strength or ability yet to go back to the good position once we actually canter. Our third transition worked much better, almost no trot steps, and the start of the canter felt really good. I was able to stay in position and it really kept my lower legs from totally having a mind of their own. It was a short ride, but a good one!