I was really pleased with today's session. Xaile was much calmer to begin with which helped. I lunged him first and then did some inhand with him. This wasn't quite as good as yesterday's, he felt less smooth but this may have been because he wasn't thinking as forwards.
We started off in walk and then I tried to keep everything as calm as possible. I was softer with the reins and tried to let him take the contact whenever he asked. We worked mainly in trot and walk, but after a particularly nice bit I let him have a canter as a reward. In the canter I had to take a firmer contact as there is nothing he loves more than a good gallop round the school. I tried to get the canter as slow as possible without breaking to trot. He did break occasionally but only for the odd stride and straight back to canter. Towards the end he really relaxed and dropped his head down so I was very pleased with him.
From the video I'm still not very happy with my hand position. So I'll work on that next time. They look a bit restricting, but in practice they weren't as my contact was very light. I'm also most unhappy with my lower leg position. I think they'd gone a bit further forward again as I was concentrating so hard on slowing him with my seat that my hips probably tightened up. More to work on!!
Oh and the pro photos from Monday's show are up - not as good as I'd hoped- Claire's are better!!! My face looks soooooo fat. Here are a few I dislike the least:
Oooo sounds like you're making great progress!
ReplyDeleteI love your costume! You look great! Did you buy it in Portugal?