Sunday, June 20, 2010

Cantering and my awkward position.

I seem to be in a permanent somewhat almost half-seat. I need to learn to sit up. This explains so much.


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And there, you can see our difficulty. Although, she is looking much better since I've been letting her sort her own balance out. WAAAY on the forehand, but I think she needs a lot of transition work before I can expect her to legitimately collect (or even be on the bit...) She is lacking in booty muscle, anyway, as she *is* just a baby. (The best baby ever :D)

She's so friggin smart. It is just blowing me away. Man, she comes across so easy-going, but the better I get to know her, the more surprised I am. And bless her heart, poor girl gets so worked up when we mess up, and she tries to fix it and just falls all over herself. I am having to learn not to push her- she does better when I introduce her to something and then let her sort it out. But when she sorts it out, you can see the lightbulb. Like, in our trot-halts. Just a few, and now I say "and whoa" and she comes to a screeching halt, square and as on the bit as we can ask for right now.

On my side, I am so irritated about my position. Grr! I still have "the hunch." Oh, the hunch! The bane of my equitation classes! Mreh, I need to shove a crop down my shirt and take some dressage lessons. Also, I've started collapsing my entire right side (My mum, of all people, noticed that today.) Hrm. Stuff to work on, I guess.

Oh yeah, and we were doing long serpentines (like five down the long side), and I noticed. Mare doesn't like to go straight (even after I fixed my Pisa-esque tilt). I add leg, and she moves her barrel and goes crooked. You can literally feel her barrel shift from one side to another. I guess it's good that she's responsive, but it makes life difficult. It also explains why, when we leg yield, I have to reaaaally focus or she'll lead with her shoulder. Hrm. Circles are in order.

That said, GOALS:

*Sit UP!
*Fix knee wonkiness
*Circlescirclescircles
*Work outside arena so she doesn't anticipate
*Improve engagement in upward transitions.

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