Roland Tong dressage clinic. Merrist Wood. 09-01-14

Started with working on him not bracing against me in the upwards transition from walk to trot. Not to let him dribble into the transition and take 3 strides to start working in a decent trot, needs to be sharper off the leg and straight into a good trot with no bracing.  Downwards transitions considered good though.

In the walk, lots of picking up and putting down and moving him sideways if he starts to jiggle and wiggle anticipating.

Then moved on to the canter.  Again, 3,2,1, canter and straight into sharp, active canter which must be round and soft straight away.  On the right rein he got me to lift my inside hand rather than pulling back and keep it there until he softened then soften back. Lots of 10m circles to soften him every time he got tense and braced against me.  Need to be able too change the bend wherever I want to whenever I want to, on 20m circles, in the leg yield and HP, along the long side, across the diagonal and all without him trying to change (much easier said than done at the moment - mustn't tell him off for changing but just repeat the exercise).  Don't let him walk, just keep going on whatever rein and keep repeating.

I asked to work on the canter HP as feel that is a weak point.  Showed him on both reins and he said he was surprised how good it was after what I said and was actually perfectly acceptable but just needs to be more supple and accepting of the bend.

We broke it down into leg yield, shoulder-in and travers before doing the HP again.  In the HP to the right if he stiffens then 10m circle, move off in HP again, 10m circle again until he stays soft.  In the leg yield we went from the corner, had to open the rein in the direction of travel and ask for big movement across in a big canter - sharp off the leg, straight across to X and then collect and straight down the centre line.  Move the bend around in this as well - the neck needs to stay soft and able to bend wherever I want it.

Finished with some flying change work.  Warned Roland it was the blind leading the blind here.  I have barely ridden any flying changes before, let alone taught a horse how to do them!  I did one each way on a serpentine and they were both clean and correct.  He said there wasn't much wrong with them and would earn a 7 at the moment.  Just need more expression for higher marks.

We then worked on being able to canter across the long diagonal and change the bend without him doing a FC - this proved nigh on impossible!  We had lots of bouncing behind as he anticipated the change, legs were going everywhere.  Did finish with a very expressive feeling clean change from right to left though.  Roland said nothing to worry about with them, just keep working on them and definitely aim at Advanced Medium this year.  Yay!

Definitely a productive session.  Lots to go away and work on to improve his suppleness and get us some higher marks.  Might have another go at M75 in a couple of weeks, see how things are coming on.  Loving the dressage at the moment!