Finally a Lesson

It always seems that having things to blog about is feast or famine! There's so much to write about but there is also less time because, you know, riding.

I tend towards 'overscheduling' lessons because they can be cancelled for many reasons. My strategy is that I will end up with the right number of lessons. Of course that doesn't always work out but I won't complain that I'm getting too many lessons. With Shanea travelling she needs a critical mass to make it worth her while and I understand that completely. But it's meant that I haven't had many lately.

Carmen is so keen on lessons. or maybe that's me...

I was happy that we were able to schedule for this Friday. I kept a close eye on cell all morning in case she cancelled. I decided that if that happened I was going to put Carmen on the trailer and bring her to Shanea. But that didn't happen- our lesson went ahead as scheduled. (thanks to Julia who took the videos and some photos).

The focus of the lesson was on getting Carmen adjustable over her back- I was concerned that when I asked her to lengthen she was just speeding up. We worked on the warm up getting her soft and listening. We had a bit of an issue as Troll Corner has emerged again. I'm not going to write about that now but there will be a post on it and ow we're dealing with it.

You can see how the tension is affecting our leg yields toward troll corner but we're getting there.

We did a lot on transitions to get her coming from behind. I can really feel that she's understanding this idea.

I could feel how this was transferring to the lengthens. We started off asking for a few steps and then increasing them. I could feel how she began to stretch and lift her back.

The nice thing about such a lesson is that Carmen not only starts to understand the work but also to enjoy it.

We finished up with some canter work that was some of the best we've ever done- The transitions were spot on and forward. In the down she can fall on her forehand and get a little fast but even that improved with practice.

uphill canter anyone?