Had a lovely lesson on Gracie today. We were working spiral-in and -out and the canter. Shoulder in/haunches out when spiraling in, very straight when spiraling out. She had one kick out on her left lead, then suddenly came through her back and was perfect. Seriously fabulous collected canter. Perfect down transitions. Amazing. And did I say left lead? I had to stay tight around her, sitting on both seat bones evenly, balanced in the middle. It helps to think about tightening my outside hip, although not until I have moved it forward and in front of my inside hip. Felt like she suddenly figured out how to let go with her back and that made it possible for the left hind to come through and for her to sit. (And am still amazed at how much Gracie can sit!)
To the right it was much more difficult. I am still having trouble finessing the outside rein. Helps a lot when I stay turned to the inside from the hips. Left lead was so up hill it made right lead feel flat.
Then we went on to shoulder in on a straight line. Again left was easier. Right I had trouble keeping my outside hip forward. When I did we had much better, more through canter. The exercise was 20 m circle, canter down long side in shoulder-in to middle, 20 meter circle, down long side in shoulder-in, 20 m circle, canter down other long side in shoulder-in, etc. Pretty challenging to get right, but when the shoulder-in works the canter is fabulous. I do the same thing in canter shoulder-in that I do in trot - tend to shut her down a bit instead of pushing forward into it. Need to work on that.
Galloped around with Karen and Demi and jumped yesterday, which might have helped today also. :^)
No comments:
Post a Comment