Tuesdays rock!

I love these lessons... a good combination of hearing that I am sort of a crappy rider and a freaking awesome one for getting anywhere at all! ;D

Lola is really good when I just ride correctly. The rest of the time, she is patient, which I appreciate! We had some good break through's tonight. She is really trotting well now with bend and suppleness and rhythm and she responds to my seat to slow down or step out again. She also is starting to learn to stretch her neck down at the trot. I love when horses know how to do this because its such a great warm up and cool down exercise.

We also succeeded in a balanced relaxed canter depart while staying on the bit! WOO HOO!!!! We had a great canter for a half a circle and a good transition back to the nice calm trot, without loosing contact. I was amazed how different it felt from her uncoordinated attempts to figure out what I wanted as I was half running her, half dropping her into the canter like I have been. This was wonderful. Now lets hope I can recreate it alone this week!

The trainer also recommended lunging as little as possible now that we are building her idea of a "tick-tock steady clock" trot and canter rhythm. The lunging just wasn't helping. So instead of warming up with that each ride, we'll save the lunging for the handful of times that I lunge or free lunge over fences. She's not a hot horse that needs lunging before riding... I've just always done it as a courtesy to the horse to allow them to warm up their muscles. But as it is we're spending a half hour undersaddle doing warm up exercises, so I guess we'll be just fine.

Man oh man that canter depart was good. It was the kind of ride that lingers with you. I'm looking forward to cantering this week!