Standouts

I have very little either time or motivation to write blogs the last week. I had a few nights of nightmares and a few nights of evening classes, so all extra time has been devoted to sleeping! I finally caught up on sleep yesterday, had another evening class last night and am now on my day off.

I obviously did a lot of riding (an average of once per day) I'll try to sum up my standout rides of the week.

Last post I mentioned I was to ride Axel next and have a teaching assessment. Lesson with Axel was fine. I feel like I can hold my position in the canter transition better on him, and we did some reasonably nice work. In my teaching assessment I only had 20mins to show myself off, but I think I did reasonably well. Luckily my assessor (Emma) told me I needed to teach more to keep me in practice. Yay!
Next day I had two lessons. First up on Romeo with Joao. I got a teeeeny tiny bit of my confidence back in this lesson. I'm learning Romeo's buttons too, and know that if I can correct my position as much as possible, he is honest enough to give me something in return. We had a lovely forward trot, great walk-canter-walk transitions, and he was becoming round underneath me, which I still continue to be proud of.
Joao said I had improved since my last private lesson on Romeo, but of course I still need work! He mentioned my hands again in particular. Damn my hands. I say that so often.
We did more of the leg stretches to improve overall position and strength, with the focus always on forward. You cannot collect a horse until he is well forward!!

Thursday I had evening class with Nikki on Saffy again. I really do enjoy the Thursday group. Nikki is probably the most understanding instructor in terms of how I've been taught and why it's so hard for me to change. Also after the Thursday group they have a 'Lecture' which is actually just chatting about horses with tea and cake. Cake is always a plus.
In this lesson Saffy was working very well for me.  We worked mostly in medium paces, trying to improve the quality of the gaits and shifting Saffy's weight more to her hind end. This was done by teeny tiny incremental changes in my position. To collect a horse (i.e. to shift weight to the hind) all the rider does is add a smidge of leg, sit taller in the torso, keep the tummy in front and raise the hands a few inches. Half halts as necessary.
Saffy can be quite heavy on the forehand (she is quite long) and extremely difficult on the right rein to the point that if you're not paying attention she will continually drift to the left, so I found it difficult to get medium paces while keeping the purity of the gaits (two beats for trot, three beats for canter) AND stop her from dropping onto her forehand.
I feel like we achieved this in the walk and trot (she was lovely, soft and round) but not so much the canter. Not enough forward, and thus not enough drive from the hind to collect her.
As always position corrections were longer with the leg, more core, and consistent contact.

Regitse

 Friday was fun day!
I had a lesson in the morning on Regitse (the ancient advanced Warmblood) with Joao. In my last lesson on Reg I couldn't get the canter for more than a stride, and struggled to keep her round which is kind of embarrassing, seeing as she is an advanced trained horse and is supposed to be easy to collect. This time she was round the entire time, we did some effortless shoulder-ins and leg yields AND we managed to canter a full half circle on each rein. Reg can't do much more than that as she is about a hundred years old.
I was proud because I know this mare won't give an inch unless you are using your aids correctly. I knew I was riding well because Joao hardly said any corrections to me. Sweet victory.

Friday was the John Adams showjumping clinic! It only cost 25 pounds, so I figured why not. I enjoy jumping and it's a nice break from the dressage bootcamp.
I rode Walter, which was good fun. As a reminder, he is a 16.3hh Irish Draught gelding owned privately by one of the long-term students here, but also used for lessons. In his previous life he was a hunt horse, so he enjoys his jumping.
No negatives for me from the clinic! Just excellent fun. The jumps felt tiny on Walter. It was basically just a canter stride for him, and they were set at a good 80cm by the end.

I feel so much more confident jumping than doing dressage right now!