Andrea and Pro (7/24)

Well, my ride wasn't nearly as good as Kate's, but it was much better than Sunday, so I'm still happy with it. :) I think the past couple rides have got Pro thinking that he can ignore some of my commands, so I'm prepared to have an uphill battle about them for the next couple of rides. One thing I really like about Pro is that he'll test you every ride, but he usually only tests once or twice and if you win those tests, you're forgiven for previous failures.

Well, we started off having to really demand giving to the bit. Kate says we're now supposed to use inside leg first, then inside rein only as a last resort. So he'd get several big kicks and if his neck didn't soften I pulled his head around. As soon as the tension left the inside rein it was send him forward and rub with the inside hand. As the ride progressed there was noticeable improvement in that I could just lightly tap with the inside leg to get the softening. What was great was that he'd stay soft, but was honestly, truly collected, not just posing. I could send him forward in a frame or collect him back in a frame all without even really touching the reins. He was a little fussy and sort of tuning me out until I did some leg yielding and as soon as I started asking for lateral work his little brain clicked into overdrive mode. Did some canter work which was decent, but not his best ever.

I got out to the barn on the late side on Thurs so I didn't ride for as long as I would have liked to considering how good he was being. I'm planning to go out fairly early Sun morning, so I'm hoping I can get a good solid hour in and really push things. I desperately need to schedule a lesson of my own with Gayle, but until my committee meeting on Aug 12th that probably isn't going to happen.