Wrap Around the Inside Leg

On Wednesday, I had a lesson with my old trainer! Since our last lesson, we'd been working hard on getting TC to stretch to the left rein and also working on our transitions so that TC doesn't fall apart during them. I mentioned the transitions to trainer but she was wanting to revisit the lateral work again, which was fine, really. I can do the transitions on my own. 

The balance is getting better I think

We began in trot and chatted about TC's low-tone-ness and how he's lucky to have me, a high tone rider, which I thought was funny. He does tend to want to melt into the ground sometimes. She was happy with how he looked in trot though, so we popped into canter. 

Trainer's main complaint about TC right now is that he doesn't split his hind legs enough, a theme for him (and anything with an ounce of friesian blood it seems). The split of the hind legs is how far in front of the outside hind leg the inside hind leg lands in the second beat of the canter. Friesians tend to land too soon with their inside hind leg and when you collect that, they get together behind and lack correct rhythm. New trainer's technique for more split was to basically gallop him over the ground, which did get him more split but it took him out of collection. She wants to develop the split without losing the collection, which was much harder but the canter we got out of it was AMAZING. 

Shoulder-in

She put us on a 12-15m circle tracking left and noted that TC got a little over his right shoulder in addition to not having as much split as she wanted. This also took him out of the collection, so she had me bring his shoulders in on the circle and ask him to glance outward, not counter flex but not flexed inward either. From there, I was to ride his neck long and focus on the connection on the inside rein. 

The change in the canter was immediate and the only thing I could say was "I can SIT this canter" and explained to Trainer that TC doesn't always want me sitting on his left lead. I really felt like I was on his outside edge and Trainer's directions were to "keep his outside shoulder under himself" which I know didn't mean keep it on the ground too long (longitudinally) but instead it meant keep his right shoulder under him laterally and in front of the left hind leg. 

To the right, the changes weren't as apparent to me because I can sit on him no matter what in that direction. I've been working my ass off getting better plugged in in the canter because I tend to unplug when he gets behind my leg or props. She complimented my seat when I told her that I could sit on him better in this direction, which was really nice to hear. She said that I had no cheese wedge and that even she struggles with her cheese wedge! I've always struggled with it so it was nice to hear that I was doing a good job with that.

Starting to put on some muscle finally!

She then surprised me again by asking to see his changes. Unfortunately, TC is very picky about the canter he wants to change out of and this canter was unacceptably collected for it, so we had two clean but proppy changes. She just kept telling me they were clean which I thought was funny, she said we'd work on them later. I told her that I'd refresh his memory of them and get them a little better on my aids (we haven't done that many since August) and then I'd love some help. 

From there, she asked to see canter half pass! What! I came into my lesson wanting help on the canter to trot transition and she was the one pushing ME along. My how the times have changed. 

The canter half pass felt fabulous (probably because I was surprised it happened because we also haven't schooled it since August) but she wanted him to be more wrapped around my inside leg, my main issue in half pass that I taught TC. She then taught me the exact same lesson I gave one of my clients recently, half pass to the quarterline, then leg yield back to the rail. It definitely helped get TC more on my aids but I don't know how much it helped get him wrapped around my inside leg. I think I need someone to get on him and put their pattern on him because even if I ride it properly, I'm sure TC feels my "fuck this movement" and is like "maybe not this then" lol! 

The smiliest and most obedient

From there, we went to the trot and did some shoulder-in and half pass. Bend was a theme there too (I hate half pass) so we did a lot of shoulder-in to half pass to shoulder-in and throwing in 10m circles before and during the movements. It definitely got better and her reminders to keep pressing his neck forward and out away from me was really great. He's the kind of horse who gets shorter and shorter and shorter in the neck the more he does, so I think I need to implement some new techniques in our test riding. Mainly, ride a movement, lengthen the neck, ride a movement, lengthen the neck, and so on. 

Overall, it was a great lesson and I was glad that she pushed us a little bit. I still ended up working on transitions today, but it was good to get her eyes on some of our actual Third level stuff. I'd like to start gathering scores for All Breeds and Championships in early April, so we have like five or six weeks until our first show of the year. 

Our next lesson is this weekend! But not with this trainer, we are riding in a cavalletti clinic and I'm so excited for that for so many reasons. Fingers crossed it goes well!