Lesson # 18 Straightness + Halt

Last night i had a new girl join me in our lesson with her spunky little mare that used to be a reining horse, so this mare was doing lots of spins and FAST... the rider thought that would be a good way to get her attention back on the task.... it wasnt overly productive but it was pretty neat watching how fast this little mare could spin.

Anyways last night i got on G and he was a bit of a brat, not listening to my leg or my seat or my hands... or anything... as my coach said he was being a "tourist" looking at everything and completely ignoring me. It took some serpentines and some 20m circles with a bend to get him focused on the task at hand, all and all about 5 minutes for his brain to get into a "time to work" mode.

My coach wanted to work on staying off the track to force me to learn to use my legs to keep him straight and how to properly get to the wall. Usually when G and i come up to a wall i would use the wall to force him to turn which is VERY lazy of me but it is an effective way of turning a large animal *ha ha*. So we worked on a few serpentines with a pole on the ground the goal was to try to keep G nice and straight while coming accross the arena and before i hit the end of the pole (which was just before the track) to have him bent around my leg starting the turn so i could then push him over with my inside leg to the wall, sounds simple huh?

Once the other girl was ready to join the lesson we worked on getting a steady rhythem and getting a nice bend on a circle while maintaining a circle... not a Squoval... believe me.. G and i are the champions of the Squoval... if there was a squoval competition we would win the olympics... just saying...

We also worked on going up and down the quarter line focusing on straightness and again turning just before the wall and pushing the horses over. My Dressage coach has completely changed my riding position so for me i also had to work on keeping my legs back a little more (i have a tendancy to push my legs forward like im riding downhill constantly) and slow my posting as well as the amount im posting.

Then we worked on the halt down the quarter line, typically i will ask for a halt and it goes like this

ask--ask----G continues to walk forward---i ask again---he takes 2 more steps----he turns --- stops for a second ---walks off without me asking him

Last night it was like this

Ask--halt...... ask to walk on---walk on

He was even squared up and everything.... needless to say G got tons of hugs and kisses and face scratches and loving, he was perfect.

Friday- off
Saturday- ride deworm
Sunday - hoping for another ride