Momentary Magic

Our trainer worked us extra hard in our lesson this week, and I think we had a bit of a breakthrough!  But first we had to get Cupid in front of the leg as he started out a bit lazy.  From the walk give a light squeeze, and immediate tap-tap if I didn't get an acceptable response (a forward walk was what we were looking for).  After repeating that twice more I squeezed and Cupid picked up the trot, and I patted him and told him good boy.  We did a few nice transitions between walk and trot, and Cupid was being very responsive. 

Then we worked on getting the trot rounder.  We started to the right, on a 20 meter circle at A.  Touch the saddle pad with my outside pinky (without lengthening the rein!), my trainer said.  It felt weird, and I had to use some leg to keep the trot going, but it did make our 10 meter circle feel a little easier.  Then we picked up the canter and again, pinky to saddle pad.  Cupid thought this was hard work, and can't we just go back to the longer floppier reins we're used to, so I had to use a lot of leg to keep him going and Cupid kicked out when I gave him a touch with the whip.  (This time I was sure his reaction was just annoyance, not pain.)  But then I felt it, all of the sudden it was like I was sitting on a rocking horse!  I wasn't totally confident when my trainer said now do the 10 meter circle at A, that I could both bend enough and keep him cantering (there was a jump standard there to keep us honest!) but we did it!  We did a few more laps of the bigger circle with the 10 meter circle each time we passed A and we kept that rocking horse canter going.

It was a bit harder left, my weaker side.  Whereas we sometimes overbend to the right, we tend to not bend enough going left so my trainer told me to apply inside leg and move my left elbow back past my sides for a stride.  Not there yet, more!  More!  And release.  =)  The canter was not quite as round and we did break to the trot twice.  But on the bright side we got the lead correct each time, and got a few good 10 meter circles where we didn't break gait.

After a quick walk break we finished with trot work doing some serpentines.  I ended feeling very happy and optimistic, feeling like Cupid is quite capable of being a dressage horse!  And we are both ready to take it up a level.  And also acknowledged that Cupid can be a little opinionated, lol.

The next day I wanted to take it a bit easier, so we mainly just walked around the property, dropping in to the outdoor arena for about 10 minutes of trot work getting that roundness we got in our lesson.  Short and focused - so we can sustain the high quality throughout!  We finished with a little stretching trot, before finishing up with our walk outside.

Tiny visitor last weekend =)

For a few recent rides I put a rubber spur strap around my stirrup leather and girth, to help keep my leg from swinging back.  I couldn't really feel a difference, though I'm not sure it's because the strap was too long or I can keep my leg in a semi-normal position without it feeling too weird!