Was hoping to show Simon how well Monty had been going in the last week and he didn't disappoint.
Started with a warmup trot and immediately he was soft on both reins. We did the LY to centre line, 1/2 circle back to the track and then SI down the track and whereas before xmas (&physio) when we did this he was swinging his bum all over the place in the 1/2 circle right, today he was fab. So then we did some work on trot-walk-trot transitions and what we could do to improve them. We used SI on the circle in walk then we did SI down the long side with halt transitions still in SI positioning. We did SI down the long side then a 10m circle in SI positioning. Really seems to help get the inside hind engaged and get him to soften to the inside hand. We also did outside bend, LY spiralling in on the 20m circle then HP back out and into trot. All about having him soft and into both hands before the trot trans. Not perfect but definitely not hopping as much as he can do. Must make sure to always give clear trot aid so he doesn't get confused with a walk to canter aid. All this also helped us get a really lovely trot.
Did some walk HP into a smaller circle then pirouette and for the 1st time he stayed soft on both reins and performed a correct working walk pirouette on both reins! Also each time he really was just gagging to go into trot afterwards - it really engages his back end so well.
Then had a little play with the canter and it was fabulous. Started on the right rein and immediately it felt so full of jump it was amazing! We spiralled in to a smaller circle collecting the canter and then leg yielded out to the bigger circle before asking him to move on round the bigger circle then come back again which is very similar to what I was playing with yesterday. He then did the most perfect canter-trot transition where I just breathed out, thought trot and he slipped back into a lovely, powerful trot :) Repeated the same work on the left rein and it was just bliss!
Finished up with final bit of trot work, riding him a bit more up and together, bit of forwards, bit of more collected trot and when we changed the rein across the diagonal (remembering not to change the bend till the end as per last lesson) he felt like he wanted to give me medium - it just felt like there was so much power there waiting to come out.
So chuffed with how much more equal he felt and how much softer, esp on the right rein. When I started the lesson 2wks ago I was despairing of him and the lack of softness and thinking we'd never get anywhere but today had me dreaming of Ele tests.
Still need to work on the basics lots - must improve those upwards transitions on the right rein and need to do some work on centre lines still. Going to try and hire out Merrist Wood's arena sometime this week or next and get him happier in there and also enjoy having a lot more room to play with.
Today's only blips were still struggling to get him soft and listening when something upsets him. At one point we were doing lovely soft forwards stretchy trot circle when something moved behind the hedge and he did a huge teleport spook and shot off across the school! Then really struggled to get him to pay attention round that bit of the school. And even at the end after all his good work when we were asked to go large up the long side with the hedge alongside it he was tense and above the bit, tight through the back like he can be at an event. Need to work more on getting him to listen to me not gawp at everything else. Also do need to do some more straight line work. I do so much stuff on a circle it's some kind of novelty to go in a straight line!
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