2 Key Words from this lesson (which are actually the same as the last lesson):
1. Neck
2. Hindleg
- Neck – put his neck where I want it. Outside rein establishes the consistent contact and puts him where he needs to be. Inside rein establishes suppleness and flexion. Play with both to ensure he doesn’t get fixed and can maintain focus. BUT ALSO – think about the first plait (behind the poll) and make sure that anyone standing in front of me cannot see it, I need to have the feeling of ‘riding him up the mountain’.
- Hindleg – I need to encourage bigger steps (“the bigger the step, the higher the mark”) NOT faster steps. Jane told me to imagine him wearing a tight miniskirt – restricting his hind leg from taking big steps; then put him into a big ‘A’ line skirt where he can take bigger steps. BUT ALSO – thinking about being able to ‘feel’ sideways movement in the hindleg and through his body. I tell myself that I’ve lost my ‘feel’, so we did quite a lot of moving straight, moving sideways, moving straight, moving sideways on a circle. Which I was able to feel, but we did struggle with the moving sideways….
I asked Jane if she would mind having a sit on him next time to see if it was just me.
We discussed my rider assessment and goals (which she loved). However, Jane thought I was being a bit hard on my self (not a new story) and corrected some of the Current State Assessment positions upwards…