Day off.

I love my little horse. She's so sharp- she's started anticipating even after one repitition, so she keeps me on my toes trying to keep her on her toes. Yesterday, we did serpentines on a loose rein. I have to work on riding off my seat, and since she's on a loose rein while she finds her balance, it's an even bargain. (Sorry, it's 12 AM and I'm a little loopy. Ignore incoherence.)

Anyways, I feel like my equitation has improved, at least at the canter. When I give her a loop in the rein, I can sit deeper and focus on my position, since she calms down considerably and will listen to my seat aids. She even lifted her back up really nicely- I can "collect" her off my lower body through corners... it's really neat to feel her back come up and start reaching, even though she's still long and low.

Here are some trot pictures. I don't have any decent stills from cantering. I seemed to pick places my camera was angled away from.

At the beginning: you can see she is a little strung out and not really "with it."


After painstaking trot-halt/serpentines:


Yay, engagement! It still weirds me out for her to carry herself that low. I'm so used to being "on the bit" traditionally, but as long as she's supple and active, I'm not horribly worried. I do ask her to lift up when we do circles and through turns, as when she is that low, we really can't bend.

And, not sure why my cropping isn't working. Dumb photobucket :/