Tuesday 2nd June Trot Halt Trot

Just a short session today as I had to ride in the middle of the day so it was terribly hot, and though Xaile seems to be relishing the weather I find about 1/2 hours work in it just about finishes me off.

I asked Edward about my concerns with Xaile's halt transitions and he suggested that I try trot halt trot transitions as the extra impulsion would help.  Well he was spot on, we did a normal trot then collected a bit for a few strides then halt.  They were still wobbly and hollow for the first few.  We had a little argument about his desire to do half pass instead of halt but having got the message through they got better and better.  Bizarrely they were much better (actually genuinely quite good) on one side of the school and still with a desire to half pass on the other side of the school even if I didn't actually let him do it.  I found that if I asked for a flexion to the inside before asking for the halt then he was less inclined to wobble.  The upwards transitions got so much better by the end, real power from his back and quarters and much less inclination to fling his front end in the air!!  It also improved the quality of the trot which had much more impuslion and was as a result easier to keep straight.

I just love learning about all these things- it never occurred to me that it would be easier from trot- I'd been trying from slower and slower walks- but now I think about it it's so obvious.