10th May - A lightbulb moment.

It was cold and windy, he had a rug on over night.  Sidney was very wound up in the field and calling to him a lot when we left.  We rode with Vicki and Genio.

I had a major position breakthrough.  I had no idea how far I have to lean bakc to actually be upright.  It felt like I was leaning so far back that I would touch his bottom with my head.  I sat how I thought was upright and then leant backwards till Vicki told me I'd eventually reached upright!  And the best bit was that when I was upright my bottom automatically tucked itself in- miracle!!  The bad thing is that it made it much more diffuclt to keep my knees and heels down, which is slightly depressing as I felt I was really making progress with these.

Xaiel was ok, but distracted by sharing the school.  He has got to get used to this.  I was very pleased with the trot transitions.  The left rein seems to be catching the right one up.   The canter transitions now need lots of work to catch up as he still really leaps into canter.  The downwards ones were better, mainly because I'd discussed them with my friend Richard last night.  Xaile normally drops into trot with a few huge unbalanced strides.  R reckons this is because I collapse my core as I apply the aid.  This appears to be the case, as when I tried hard to maintain my upper body tension the transitions were so much better.

I tried to keep entirely to the inner track so we find our own balance and straightness.  He was rather wobbly.