Aim of this lesson was to sort out a Medium choreography and do a bit with the flying changes. Had him in the snaffle bridle today as don't want to be relying on the double all the time. He was much softer than he has been in the past though. Sara-Jane said often this will be the case - a little work in the double just helps to establish the softness.
Started with canter half pass into simple changes which seemed to work pretty well - kept the canter collected and the simple changes were nice so he is more than capable of us including this in our floorplan. Canter half pass varied between being pretty good and quarters trailing. Need more bend, softer to the bend (although he is way better than he was) and remember to half halt and use the inside leg. To the right I need to watch my position as apparently it's very good to the left but because he finds it harder to go right I let my left shoulder creep forwards and get a bit wonky which blocks him a bit. When we ran through the music I let his canter get too onwards bound which made the changes impossible so must remember to keep it collected (I think the music is too fast for his new collected canter so need to sort that asap!) There is a way I can make the choreography a little easier by putting the change in a slightly different place so I can always do that if I feel the canter isn't good enough to get a good change as pointless having degree of difficulty marks if the quality of the basic compulsory movement isn't there.
The other thing I wanted to include was counter canter to counter canter via a simple change and he did this straight off both ways with no hesitation. Just need to remember to do the downwards transition early enough so as not to be rushing him into the new canter and straight round a corner.
My trot floorplan worked out well and he managed a counter change of hand in half pass with no dramas at all. He also let me sit to his medium trot which is still nothing special but he tries hard and it actually felt less messy with me sitting than rising. In the counter change of hand I need to think about staying just behind the imaginary diagonal line I am following then move the forehand back to straighten him so I can then create the new bend in front and start with the forehand leading. If you try and change everything at once you end up with quarters leading which given that is his tendency in that direction I will have to be quite careful for that not to happen. Never done changes of hand with him so will probably take some practice to polish that one but definitely capable of doing a good job eventually.
Walk is the easy bit as I can just alter that n various ways to make sure we end up in the right place for the final trot.
Just did a bit of work on the trot afterwards as running through the test he got very heavy in my hand which is what he did in the double bridle in our Mediums at Crofton. Sara-Jane asked me how many times I half-halted him and there lay the obvious answer. Er, none! He leans on my hands for balance, I let him and down the poll goes. We did a few half halts and suddenly a rather impressive trot outline appeared. Must must not let the reins get too long and must remember how important the half halts are, even if at this stage he might give me a reaction that doesn't look so pretty it is better than him leaning on me and running onto his forehand.
We finished with some changes. Every single left to right one was clean and soft and through and apparently worth 7's!!! And yes, I did say left to right - given this was the way that initially he couldn't comprehend for love nor money it's quite amazing that he is now just flicking easily from one leg to the other with no drama at all! Right to left weren't so great, quite often being late behind - sadly only worthy of 4's. New things tend to go through phases like this though - one bit comes then another bit and the original bit goes. I feel confident by next year we will have both of them for 7's! Then it's Advanced Medium here we come! To get the right to left better I need to half halt before the change and be careful not to block him. Be quicker to bring my new inside leg forwards out of the way as soon as I change the bend and ask for the change. I think my timing was a bit out on this rein which is odd as it was always the better one to start with but I think he anticipates more going this way which makes it harder to coordinate everything when you're just learning. It's like the blind leading the blind but we do seem to be getting places slowly but surely. Can't believe it was only February he was winning the Prelim Regionals! Next weekend Medium Freestyle and next year Advanced Medium. He is such a little cracker!
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