Nice to have a lesson in an indoor school given the awful weather - high winds and rain - yuck!
MW had the 20x60m arena set out ready for their show the next day so we worked in that space on their lovely surface. So much better than our tiny arena at home.
Started with walk work - I was doing my usual walk squares and he was being wiggly as he was anticipating the next exercise where we do travers/SI/renvers on a square. She said have to be a bit careful with that as he is anticipating so much so maybe not do that exercise so much and think about doing half pirouettes. We worked a bit on those. Must remember to look where I'm going, move the forehand round, not sit to the outside, keep the activity and the flexion. Not too much then! She did say he did a couple of them really really well and would give 8's for them so that was encouraging. Some of them were terrible though so lots to work on there.
Moved into trot and got told have too much flexion to the inside on the left rein so need to have him straighter into the outside rein and give away the inside rein regularly. She said he's got good activity, is obedient and willing.
She asked me which rein I thought he was better on and I said I would always have said left but now thinking right as he is so tending towards over-flexion on the left rein he's actually straighter on the right rein now. She agreed.
Did some work on improving his medium trot - she suggested we did medium up the long side then continue it around a half 20m circle and then keep going down the next long side and should really feel him opening up there. Did it several times and definitely felt him opening his shoulders on the second long side. She said he's definitely got the potential to produce a good medium.
We did lots of counter canter which seemed to really help get him back on his hocks and connect him better. Canter work started a bit long and strung out but really improved with the CC. Started with loops and moved onto changing the rein across short diagonal and maintained the CC round the arena. His CC has really come on last few months and he did this well. Lost a bit of impulsion round the short side as he finds that hardest so just have to maintain that. She said his canter started off as a 7 (maybe a 6 if she was judging Regionals level) but finished as an 8 :) Again, must make sure he's equally into both reins not overflexing to the left.
Onto leg yield. Started in walk and he did it beautifully so moved into trot. Had to go across the whole arena on the diagonal line and forget looking pretty - need effective aids and a good response. Tap him up if he isn't listening, keep legs long and half halt. She said it wasn't as bad as I thought though.
One big thing to remember is my half halts - I don't use them nearly enough. I need to use them after canter-trot transitions, in the leg yield and lots of other places - they really help to rebalance him.
Overall, she said there was a lot to like and it was just refining the little things to pick his marks up. She said I rode really well and had a lot of feel which was lovely to hear :)
Back again next month for more.
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