Andrea and Pro - Breakthrough(s)!

I bet Kate is freaking out right now just from that title ;).

Everyone but Big Horse was outside when I got to the barn so that put me in a good mood (not having to clean 6 of the 7 stalls? score!) so I was all set to give Pro as much time as he needed if he had issues. He started off sort of resistant and was doing the counter-bending trick when I held the outside rein and let go with the inside rein. But then two things clicked in my head "hey, wait a second, outside bend means his butt is swung to the outside" and "Kate said you have to control the outside of the horse." So I put my outside leg back a couple of inches and held it there strongly but passively and anchored his head and neck with my outside rein. A couple taps with my inside spur to tell him to pay attention and suddenly he was a straight, balanced, soft pony! He worked great at the walk, trot, and canter. I was particularly impressed with his trot-canter transition, he just stepped up smoothly and with no head/back tension. Pro didn't even get upset that I'd figured out how to counter his counter-bending (haha), he just did that "Oh, why didn't you say so sooner?" thing they do that makes you feel like you've wasted several weeks.

So we turned around to repeat this breakthrough in the other direction and then I had my second breakthrough/realization of the ride. My left leg is no where near as strong/solid as my right leg. So when I tried to use my left leg as the outside solid wall it was sort of more like a sand dune than a rock wall. I eventually bribed myself into one really solid circle at the trot, but I clearly need to do some strengthening exercises in and out of the saddle to improve that leg. Kate's letting me go back to 3x per week rides so maybe that will help. I was very happy with the way the ride went though.