Schooling 24-03-12

More sideways stuff for the Montster.

He was pratting around in the field when I got there so obviously feeling full of spring grass.  Marched around the school when I got on him - he has got such a huuuuge walk!  Picked him up into a deeper stretch and we did some walk lateral work then a bit of trot and canter on each rein just keeping it all nice and relaxed.

Then we did a bit of trot leg yield down the long side flexed to the outside which he seems to find quite hard - harder than leg yield across the school bizarrely.  He just wants to scuttle sideways like a crab rather than actually step underneath himself.  Tried to get him to slow down and step sideways properly.

Then we did his favourite exercise of SI on the 20m circle in trot - cue more scuttling sideways.  Started on the left rein concentrating on trying not to have too much inside bend.  Didn't do too much then tried to encourage him into a bigger, rounder stretchy trot although he seemed to just want to curl up and not stretch down, plus was losing him through his outside shoulder.  Sorted that out then picked him up into canter and he felt a lot lighter in my hand and was going forwards nicely, brought him back into a lovely collected canter and then forwards into a bigger canter, then back into collected and a nice canter to walk.  Large turn on the forehand then walk to canter on the right rein and again a couple of on and backs.  Then canter to walk - not bad for right rein.  Moving on to SI on the right rein - even more scuttling but I do find it easier to ride him on this rein.  So we worked on an oval letting him do SI down the long side for a bit before asking again on a half circle as he finds it much easier on the straight line.  He does find it really hard but it does seem to really help the work we do afterwards as he's stepping under better.  Did some trot work where I felt he was escaping through his outside shoulder again so had to correct that again before getting some nice trot stretch where he felt like he was really working through rather than running onto his forehand.

Finished with a good walk stretch and then the lights went out all of a sudden so that was perfect timing.  55mins of schooling.  More tomorrow and another lesson on Wed to check on progress.