The Balance Challenge: Lesson Recap 4/4

I'm running out of media again so here's some shiny butt for your viewing pleasure ;)

I had another great lesson this Tuesday! We started with lots of bending at the walk and then before too long went to the trot. Katai was tight and sucked back to start but with lots of bending and some focus on serpentines she loosened right up and started to be more forward.

We did some leg yield and lengthenings and then did some should in midway down the long side, across the short diagonal, and then into canter. Katai did really well, I did less well but after a few times started to get the timing better. To make it even more difficult We added a spiral in at the canter after we picked it up and Jane really had me focus on the bend and inside leg.

I quickly realized that I've NEVER actually used my inside leg at the canter. Let's just say that there's some room for improvement ;) At any rate we got some extremely nice canter and I've got new homework which is always fun.

That already felt like a big deal and like we'd had a successful lesson but then we did some work on transitions. We've only really worked on these once or twice and the goal this time was to do walk to sitting trot to rising trot and then back to sitting trot to walk. With lots of coaching from Jane we got some really nice work. We found that I'm still using my reins too much in the downward transitions, not pulling back but holding to the point of thinking backwards rather than forwards.

Pony is humble about her shininess though

After that we talked a lot about me not being such a perfectionist. Jane told me, and I feel this is a huge compliment, that she's not worried that I'll mess Katai up at this point. She said there's always the chance that during a ride we'll go backwards a bit but that overall she's seen us improve enough and feels that I have enough feel that I'm not going to just keep doing something that is making things worse. Plus, with regular lessons how far wrong can I go.

She wants me to play around with things and try stuff out. She said to keep challenging Katai's balance and playing with things to see what works best for both of us. As a perfectionist that's really tough for me but Jane knows that. Have I mentioned how much I love working with Jane as my instructor?

I've also been feeling better and way more motivated as the spring weather change is starting to smooth out a little which is awesome! I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend at the barn.