28th May- Lesson with Marcia

Neither Xaile nor I were in the best frame of mind.  He was tense and spooky- possibly because of the Enigma/ Enzo/ Sidney situation, possibly because I was not in the best frame of mind.  As a result his walk was tight and tense, but Marcia commented that his neck it looking a much better shape, and stronger where it comes out of the shoulder.

We worked on getting him soft on the left rein without conterflexing him.  Marcia pointed out that he doesn't accept my left legs, so that I have to flex him to the outside to get him to soften on the left rein, when I should be able to do it by using my left leg.  So we got him soft and even on the right rein (yesterday's work had paid off and it was much easier to get him into my left rein and keep him there) and then changed the rein keeping the same contact using my left leg to encourage the change of bend.  Initially he stiffened and raised his head, but didn't drop the left contact so I didn't fiddle and just kept the left leg on and after half a 20m circle he softened - what a revelation.

A relatively even contact, and a bit of bend to the left.

Relaxed and accepting the left leg and hand.

On the right rein we concentrated on keeping him straighter with less bend in his neck.  This is getting much easier now I can get something in my left hand.

Stretching into an even contact.  I need to sit up.

The wintec Isabel seems to be really helping my leg position.

Marcia commented that he tilted his head to the left when I dropped the right rein, but I said that I felt it happened when I had too much contact on the right and was forgetting the left and so I was correcting it by dropping the right a bit.  She agreed, we also agreed that it would all be a lot easier if I didn't drop the left in the first place.

I've dropped the contact on the left, and he is diving down through the left side and tilting his nose.  I think he's looking for the contact I've dropped rather than trying to evade.  The result, though, is that he blocks through his right side so it's hard to sort out.

Dropping the left contact again.  This tends to go with me holing too much on the right as  well.

Better, even contact.

I then pointed out to Marcia that despite the fact that I'm sure I'm not raising and tightening my right leg the upper inside of my right thigh begins to really ache.  She walked around me and pointed out that my right hip was significantly further forward than my left.  When I concentrated on really pushing my right hip back, so it felt really exagerated, Xaile softened through his right side and clearly found it much easier to take the left contact.  Poor boy- he's been struggling to cope with my twisted position.  I need to go to the chiropracter! SOON!!

The canter transitions were much better from the start as I didn't fiddle and hold onto his mouth through the transition.  They improved even more when Marcia pointed out that be was struggling to maintain canter because of my twist so I cantered out of the saddle and he found it much easier.  When I did the whole transition and canter out of the saddle he found it really easy.

Not our best transition of the day (I've GOT to stop leaning forward) but SO much better than last week as I'm not resitricting th forwards movement.

Cantering out of the saddle- much easier for him.

Then we did a little spanish walk.  Need to start with a really slow walk with a higher head carriage to lighten the weight on his shoulders.  I clearly have no sense of timing or rythm, if I mananged to count three strides in and then half halt with the leg I wanted him to raise then it worked and totally understood what I wanted.  However 90% I didn't manage to get the timing right.

Jambette

Getting the 1, 2, 3 timing right for once

On the whole it could all have been a lot better, we definitely lacked brightness and sparkle.  But given the mood I was in and how very tense Xaile had been to start with I think it was really quite successful.  I think he was the most consistent he's been so far.  I'm pretty sure he was lowering his neck from the wither rather than higher up too, and he was less wobbly in front of the wither too.