Rough Day

I've had a rough couple of days, so I was looking forward to relaxing and having a good lesson...but was I expecting a lot.

Lesson started out really rocky, it took a while for Jessie and I to relax, him due to his new buddy constantly calling for him and me to get over my bad day and being tense about Jessie's lack of attention. Long and low was not happening, so we worked on side passing in the corners and transitions to warm up after a bit of attempting long and low at the walk and trot.

Kim came in as we were working on canter to halt transitions, so she had us do some more canter work. I have been trying very hard to sit up tall and straight with my shoulders back and chest open. I know I'm improving, but it's taught me how bad my position was because Jessie canters in a perpetual state of readiness for a flying lead change when I sit upright. His hindquarters are cocked and ready to switch at a moments notice. I need to evaluate my position to ensure I am sitting evenly on my seatbones and then I guess he'll just get used to this being the normal way I ride and that it doesn't mean we're going to do a lead change. We got a couple of nicer than normal transitions, and also worked on encouraging the *jump* in every stride with my inside leg. One of the hardest things for me to remember is that I need to lower my outside hand a bit and keep the inside hand raised up a bit more. He was very stiff so I was doing lots of playing with the reins and my inside leg to keep him round and bent.

After that we picked up the trot and worked on some trot to walk transitions. We attempted a shoulder in, but it just wasn't happening because I didn't have it together with trying to soften him and refind the proper position. So we went back to the walk and tried it with moderate results and then were able to retry successfully at the trot. Doing shoulder in at the walk really improved his trot and softened him to the point where we ended up having a very nice ride.

We took a short walk break following trying shoulder in in both directions, and tried a couple of test movements (turn left at E and then right at B). Then we went large and worked on leg yielding from the quarterline to the wall, as opposed to the 1/8th line where we normally do it. We did quite well going to the right, barely any bend and stayed very straight throughout. Going to the left was a bit trickier, he kept falling over with the shoulder so I had to use my right hand to keep his shoulder over and remember to move my inside leg back further and hold my outside leg steady to keep his shoulders from moving over too quickly.

We tried lengthening our stride on the diagonal at rising trot a few times, there was some change, but not a whole lot. We finished up with a turn down the centerline and halting. It wasn't the best halt ever, but pretty good for us.

I finally got my other dressage saddle back, and gave it to Kim to try. She is looking for a new saddle and I'm trying to sell this one, so it works out. I'm hoping it works for her because I would love to trade it for board. If not, she has a friend that is looking for a new saddle as well, so hopefully I'll get it sold one way or another. She commented that I take really good care of my tack too, so that gave me a warm fuzzy.