Simon lesson 22-04-12

Monts was in good form again on Sunday despite the rain.  Immediately he was in a working frame of mind.  His first trot was more like I used to get after 20mins of warming up.

After initial trot round we did some walk work - leg yield in and out, shoulder-in on the circle, half pass in to walk piri.  Then trot shoulder-in on the circle, half pass a few strides in and leg yield out.  He did all this nicely.

Then some walk SI down long side straight into a walk piri - keep it larger if needed to make sure he doesn't get stuck.  V good on the left, tending to get more stuck on the right.  When we went back into trot it was much better.  Piris had worked nicely to engage him.

Did some trot SI into medium trot down the long side and then SI down half the long side and medium across the diagonal.  Actually finding trot SI easier on the right rein as can control the angle better as he doesn't tend to overdo it.  Left is much more wiggly as tends to give me too much neck bend and not move the shoulders then wiggle when I try and correct.

Canter work - some lovely transitions on both reins. Bringing the canter back then moving it on, bring it back, spiral in and ask for canter to walk which he managed on both reins although obviously much harder on the right rein for him.

Still could do with him more in front of my leg - need to be tougher on myself not to nag at him.  Generally going much better though - really coming on.

Schooled him last night with a view to doing BE92 at MK BE90 today.  Did some excellent SI on the circle in trot on the left rein and had a fair bash at it on the right rein.  Definitely improving there.  After doing the SI on the circle the trot felt great.  Canter still needs to be more forward - more energy, more wanting to take me forwards.  He is inherently quite a lazy little monkey and needs an awful lot of motivating!

So, no MK B90 today.  Rain was absolutely torrential.  Would not have been fun and didn't feel I would want to push him for the time therefore no sense in going as he doesn't need to run for the sake of it.  Next event not till Tweseldown - 3.5wks away.  Lots of dressage work to do in that time.  Need to come out for these last few qualifying opportunities all guns blazing.

Plan now is T/down BE90 then Borde Hill BE100 as unfortunately cant get the Sat off to do the 90, then Eridge BE90, BCA BE90 and Rackham BE90.  So, that's 4 more runs at 90 to try and realistically get 2 more qualifying results.  That is not going to be easy.  Even just one more would be nice though.