Flunking Geometry

For the longest time I have not really paid attention to the shape of the figures Carmen and I were doing.

I was more interested in whether she was soft and listening as opposed to whether we were riding an actual circle.

But now those chickens are coming home to roost and I need to address the issue of geometry. The judge at our last show made the point a few times that I needed to work on accuracy. Which was totally fair. I wasn't really worried about that at the show but it is important and it's stupid to give away points like that.

Carmen is definitely ready for me to be more clear on this, so in my last few rides I've been really focused on making sure I hit my tangent points on the figures.

Turns out that if you don't work on this regularly your horse gets the opinion that the octohexazoidgon pyramid thingy is perfectly okay. And she is resentful that  I would think otherwise.

my head hurts

I'm trying to keep it simple: circles and serpentines. But it's becoming clear to me that I need to work on this quite a bit more.  This is me crossing the diagonal with the full intention of hitting S with our shoulder.

me: we totally have this!
Carmen: maybe. maybe not. 

 This is us missing S.

also, what am I doing with my right side? 

That we missed S should not be surprising. This is going into Troll Corner after all and Carmen has it well entrenched in her brain that she needs to be looking out for things to run away from, not listening to my leg.

And while it is true that we spend at least some time every ride discussing our right bend along this side of the ring, it is also true that we can should fix this.

I think it's time to dust off this book:

And start using poles and cones to find our way.

The frustrating nice thing about riding is that there is always something new to work on.

Right?

Do you have some favourite exercises to work on geometry? Feel like sharing?