Lengthenings and Leg Yields

The first show of the season is coming up for TC and I. Our first rated show probably won't be for a little while, but we're going to go play at a schooling show in about three weeks. While we may stick to Training level for our first rated show to keep it safe, I definitely want to see how First level rides at the schooling show.

To be able to ride those tests though, we kind of need to look at movements. I haven't done much work on movements since early October when he was schooling some of the Second level stuff too. We kind of casually throw them in here and there, but most of my work since then has been on getting his connection and impulsion up to where it is now and I'm feeling like he's going around like a pretty solid First level horse now. We're even playing a touch with increased engagement and collection.

With good basics comes good movements, so I wasn't surprised to find out on this last week that the leg yields and lengthenings weren't too bad!

It was windy and cold on Thursday morning and
he was a huge dork about it

The trot lengthening is quite good, he definitely is covering quite a bit more ground than he has in the past, and his shoulders are looser than they've been in the past. I think in the future, he's going to have a really stunning extended trot, but at this point, I'm very aware of his old injury and his tendency to get super tight over his topline. With the topline tight, he'd be easy to teach to fling his legs. So with that in mind, I've been riding it at more like 80% of his capabilities and helping him figure out how to really take the bridle and push over his back a bit better as he covers more ground.

Thursday I decided to do the lengthenings sitting and that helped a LOT in keeping him over his back and into the bridle. We got some really amazing moments where those loose shoulders came up and out more like a medium. It was super cool! But his tendency is still to suck back and drop his back, so we have a lot of work to do until it gets really solid. Just gotta keep plugging away!

He's so cute sometimes

The leg yields are also coming along really nicely, though not as nicely as the shoulder-in, which is a bit annoying since we're still a while away from Second. At least when we get there, we'll have super solid lateral work. I think the reason why the leg yields are trickier are that they don't have the bend that the shoulder-in does to help him really come up and over his back. In the shoulder-in, it feels like his trot gets better and better with every step in the shoulder-in, which it should, like that's the point of these movements. But the leg yield doesn't. It's like I need to prepare to do it and then clean up the trot afterward rather than allowing it to improve his gaits. So he just needs more time in that.

Just like the lengthenings, the main issue (and forever the main issue with this horse) is getting him to stretch more into contact and remain loose in the back. Connection and impulsion. When TC can really press into the bridle in the leg yield, and really push from his hind legs to step over, I'm sure that we'll get to that same point in the leg yield that we are at in the shoulder-in. I think that the lack of bend in the leg yield is tricky for him since it's so easy for him to get stacked up in the straightness, it's similar to the struggle in the lengthening. But we can school the lengthening on the circle for a while, but the leg yield inherently is straight so doing leg yields on the circle won't help much. So we'll just take our time!

Destroying stuff as usual

The canter lengthening is funny. It's probably his best movement of the ones we're talking about today, but it's also the one most likely to lead to him leaping through the air, swapping leads, then running away with me. So I'm going SUPER slow with this movement with him. I have a feeling that we'll have "conservative" written on a lot of our tests until his emotional maturity catches up to his dressage training.

But just like the trot extension, I think his canter extension is going to be scary as fuck really powerful. He's less likely to get short in the neck and braced in the actual lengthening at the canter (vs the trot), but the downward transitions are tricky. As they always are when the horses are learning this movement. He very much thinks that trotting is a good answer, or stabbing his hind legs into the ground rather than flexing his hocks and his lumbar.

So obnoxious, he always does this and I think he
is going to yank his shoe off, ugh

I'm still working mostly on all the Mary stuff and on TC's connection. Just in the last three weeks since the clinic, everything feels so much better. My instability tracking left is getting much better and TC is really stepping up in that direction now that I'm giving him what he needs. There's still a lot to do, but I'm trying really hard and things are starting to feel more normal. I definitely want eyes on the ground soon and am on a waiting list for a clinic coming up, but mirrors and letting TC tell me when I've got it (or really don't) will have to do for another week or two!