I had a great lesson this morning. My instructor is really excited with Skate's progress, as am I! He was such a good pony this morning. The horses were left in later than usual, due to the rain. Immediately after pulling Skate out to tack him up, the other horses started getting turned out all around us. Skate fussed a little when I disappeared into the tack room, but otherwise, he paid no attention to all the excitement. The other horses were acting like fools, too! I'm so excited by his excellent behavior - even Hobbes would have had a meltdown in that situation.
I worked on leaving him alone at the walk, just making him do what I want with only my seat. He's such a sensitive horse, this actually works well and results in less fussiness. We did quite a bit of work on me, as usual...gotta sit back! My new saddle (I'm keeping the Albion) does help, but I still have to work harder on engaging my core. Skate responds really well to me keeping my seat plugged in and my shoulders back. This is difficult at the canter, as Skate likes to trick me into sitting crooked so he can lean into his motorcycle turns. He will only balance after I force him to carry me evenly. Last, we worked on our transitions - which my instructor said were painful to watch at first b/c we just sorta fell into our next gait. Ha. Anyway - my homework is to do correct transitions. I'm not allowed to change gaits until Skate is in front of my leg and in no way hollow. Good luck!
So - there's a schooling dressage show Feb 7th at TTC, which is only 10 min from my barn. I might trailer over there to see how Skate does, and maybe do an intro test. I'm a little nervous about taking a new horse to a show (although I really think he'll be perfect), but I just need to ease my mind.
Ooh - and my instructor said soon we'll start working on fun stuff - shoulder in's, leg yeilds, etc. She thinks we're almost ready : )
7 comments:
Yay! I'm so glad the lesson went so well!
And the intro test sounds like fun! You should totally do it!
Its awesome that he is doing so well!
I used to show at TTC all the time. Nice place.
yay for leg yeilds!
Sounds like an awesome lesson and yay for getting to start fun stuff soon! If you go to the show (which you totally should) we expect pictures, hopefully with ribbon attached!
Look at that shiny coat!! He's such a cutie.
So nice to hear you had a great ride and you're feeling positive about your progress. :) Don't you just love homework assignments??
You should definitely go to the show, how neat! Congrats on the great lesson and on the promise of fun new things to come!
Sounds like a great lesson! I can't wait to hear about the show I wish I could come cheer you on but I will be in Raleigh that weekend.
Yay for a good pony and a good lesson! Congratulations on the saddle, too.
I didn't realize you were so close to TTC. I am not too far from there, relatively speaking!
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