Pro was fairly good last night. He did throw a fit by Erik sitting on the bench, but only threw his head up once. Then he still wanted to be defiant by prancing and swinging his HQs around...but he kept his head down!!! Obviously I corrected him by booting him forward with my inside leg (pushing my inside rein forward as well) but I was pretty pleased that he kept his head down.We managed to get a good walk fairly quickly, and he seemed to know that he had to behave. Except for fussing at Erik a few times, he was decently good. I again focused on keeping my outside rein steady in its new role, and only moving my inside rein when needed. I think he's catching on to my inside leg as the "new" form of saying "You will go forward and drop your head - NOW!"
However, due to his fussiness, I did have to put him a little deeper than usual. This is all Gayle approved...she said once that if he's bad, make him work harder. Still fussing, get him rounder, put him deeper, no excuses. He actually seemed to settle a bit once I put him a little deep, so I relaxed it into a little bit longer frame as a reward. Even deep, he got a lot of "inside rein reward" and liked that (chewing!!). His canter was better, more up and balanced. I'm still mystified as to why it changes day to day...oh well.
I also tried to remember something that I didn't think I put in my lesson report...Gayle talked about keeping the "stuffing" in front of my leg. Like to pretend that Pro is stuffed, and I want all of his "stuffing" up and light in front of my leg. Neat imagery, and it helps me keep him really in front of my leg.
7 comments:
He's learning! At least he's fussing now with his head down!
I like the stuffing imagery...like he is just light soft fluffy stuffing in front of your leg! Very cool.
I like the stuffing image too...my trainer always tells me to think of the horse as a tube of toothpaste -- gotta squeeze to keep it in front of your leg, but not too hard or it goes everywhere!
Yep, the stuffing imagery is neat! Like the toothpaste! :)
Actually I'm a recovering "squeezer"...Gayle's changed me to using my lower leg in a whole new way. No squeezing - it's either "on" (WHOMP) or off. He's much more responsive to the leg now, so it definitely works for him.
dressage today always has a page on imagery for dressage.
The pictures looks good, there is a cantering one!
YAY! He kept his head down!!
He looks GREAT at the canter, very balanced and using himself.
Neat imagery, thanks guys!
And Kate, I absolutely love that first picture! Pro looks so shiny and handsome. :-)
I've used the stuffing image before, and it really helped me out a lot Kate. That's a good thing for me to remember when I start riding Pepsi a lot again!
Didn't you know- fussiness is the middle name for ALL Arabs. No really...it's on their papers! ;)
As always, love the pics!
Post a Comment