Apparently I had some sort of weird premonition about working on the simple changes through trot on the diagonal because that's one of the things that we worked on with Katai in my lesson this week.
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All our crazy weather caused this
humidity cloud inside the arena the other night |
We started off with a slightly stiff pony so our main priority was getting her loosened up through her shoulders. We did some leg yield at the walk (I'm STILL on the struggle bus with these) and then did some work at the trot. We didn't do much before we went to canter since we're still trying to mix things up with Katai and the last couple of times we've ended with canter.
We did a lot of canter in this lesson and Katai just kept right on going! She only broke once and then when I cued for her to pick it back up she went right into it. We started with some 20 meter circles and spirals in. Then Jane had me do some simple changes (very simple ;) since we trotted almost all the way across the diagonal).
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| On our way to this ;) |
Katai did SOOO well! I was able to get her to pick up the canter at the letter Jane wanted with very few extra trot steps and she never once got sassy or picked up the wrong lead. She did get more forward and started rushing a bit but with some help from Jane and better riding from me we got it contained and just had more energy which was good. Then we went straight to counter canter and again Katai kept right on going and let me figure things out without ever saying no or putting a foot wrong. We did some shallow serpentines in each direction, I did better going to the right so I have my homework, and then she got a well deserved walk break.
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| My tiny dog is even cuter when he's sun bathing |
I was already SOOO proud of her but then we went to sitting trot and did some shoulder in. We finally NAILED it in both directions. We had everything right, she wasn't fighting me, I kept her round and forward, and didn't flop all over the place. IT WAS AWESOME.
Finally we did some stretchy trot and quit. It was a fairly short lesson since we spent so much time at the canter and knew that she'd be a tired pony but it felt great.
Sounds like an amazing lesson! Good pony!
ReplyDeleteShe really was such a good girl :)
DeleteGood pony and rider. Leg yields at the walk are not easy- it's too easy to bend the neck and get crooked. I find trot leg yields much easier. For Irish doing turns on the forehand and then leg yields help him to loosen up
ReplyDeleteYeah, so much tougher! It's also important for me so that I can break down the cues. Then when I get back to trot I can get the cues right :)
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