Dressage Lesson

We had a great lesson today with Kathy Adams. Today was our first real ride since the incident ;). He seemed a little sore going to the left, so I'm just going to run him on a bute so that if there is any residual soreness he won't associate it with jumping. Anyway, we worked on a bit of shoulder-in and ronvers to make sure that I had control of his shoulders.

Again, the right shoulder is hard for me to control and he is against my right leg and rein. I need to remember not to hang on the right rein and create the same problem I've created on the left. So with my trot work the most helpful esxercise right now is to put him on a 15m cirlce to the left and have a feeling of leg yield in off the right leg while continuing to support his bend with my left calf. I basically have the same sort of ride at the canter....we did some work with leg yielding at the canter to make sure he was listening to my leg...that still needs work. We also worked on counter canter and the lesson learned for the day was that during my right lead counter canter I need to make SURE that I am on my RIGHT seat bone and using my right leg. I am still having issues on getting thrown to the left because he falls out on his right shoulder...but I think it's getting better.

We also talked a little about the free walk since it's become more important with an exponent in the dressage test. Kathy was basically saying to collect his medium walk a bit in order to be able to show more overstep in the free walk. At first at the medium walk, Legacy was overstepping by about a full step and then a step and a half at the free walk. Kathy was saying I would score better if I have him just tracking up at the medium walk and then let him go a step and a half at the free walk...a little helpful insight to what judges look for since she judges quite a bit. She also said she likes to have the withers and poll at about the same height...I feel like most eventing judges want the poll lower, but perhaps as I move up in levels the judges get better and have a similar perspective. Sometimes I think I score better when I throw him away at the free walk, but he typically goes on his forehand....

We ended with a little bit of medium canter and trot work. The main thing I need to remember is to keep the connection and keep the frame and to lengthen within his frame. Kathy said she typically half halts just before the medium. With the trot movement, I would half halt just before the turn and then again once I'm straight on the diagonal before I ask for the lengthen. I just have to remember not to let him get quicker and on his forehand. And at the medium canter he has to be STRAIGHT...

Another really good lesson with Kathy. I really like the way she explains things and her style of teaching. She is constantly talking and it forces me to not override because I just listen to her and let my body take care of the action. Hopefully this is good momentum for our starter trial tomorrow. We are back at Training, but I just want him to attack the jumps and I want my horse back...fingers crossed...