5th April Back in the School YAY!!

Xaile discovered his lickit last night- and demolished it!!! And was banging it against the stable wall asking for more.  Naughty boy.

I think he was bored- yesterday was his day off but I don't think he likes days off.  He was very enthusiastic to get out of his stable and be doing things.  I sent him round a few times on the lunge but he was very quiet.  I took the schooling whip with me to the mounting block, but only needed to show it to him to remind him to stand still for his stiff rider!

He was ever so whizzy to start with so we cantered and cantered.  Slowly getting more work in- circles and transitions.  I've been thinking about his canter and he's inclined to run away slightly and finds collecting more difficult so today we did lots of canter/walk/canter transitions.  This got him very VERY excited but was ever so good and it did get him sitting down on his hocks a lot better.

Then I set off on a serpentine in canter.  We halted on the midline each time and then took the other lead.  He was very good going onto the right lead but onto the left lead swung his quarters in a bit.  We then progressed to a flying change on the centre line.  This got him even more excited but went well.

Then onto something he enjoys less- trot work.  I worked really hard on slowing the rate of his trot and increasing the cadence.  At first it just went a bit slow and flat and lacking impulsion so I added some transitions to reinback and then to trot.  This worked really well and we ended with a lovely bouncy cadenced trot.

Meanwhile I was also having slight straightness issues- he's great on the centre or 3/4 lines but sings his quarters in on the track so we did lots of shoulder in and leg yielding to the track and demi-voltes followed by shoulder in etc this got him nice and straight.  I also think I hang onto the right rein a bit so I'm making a real effort to keep my contact even.

Then we did a few trot canter transitions to carry the cadence into the canter and get some of the canter impulsion for the trot.  This worked very nicely.  

We were both getting quite tired by then so I got off and did a little Spanish Walk in hand to finish.  This went better than ever and we finished with a few really smooth strides with both legs working together, not enormous steps but definitely the right idea.  Very exciting.

Then I went off to watch Ali and Edward's dressage demo at Asti which was fascinating and inspiring.