Shoulder in progress!

We had a great lesson today. We rode in the outdoor...first time and it was in the mid 50s so I was expecting a hyper horse since he was calling for his true love, Alando. But he was a good boy, just forward. Not very responsive to my leg though, so Kim brought me a dressage whip and that woke Jessie up. I used it twice maybe, but just knowing I had it got him moving off my leg. We worked some on leg yielding and staying straight doing it, then we moved on to the elusive shoulder in. It actually went very well. I finally *got* my upper body position and Jessie carried himself nicely. I probably should have asked him to be a bit more active, but he maintained his rhythm and forward motion. He was soft and round and bent correctly, so I just let him be and stayed out of his way. It helped that we started in each corner with a 10 meter circle before moving on to do a shoulder in on the long side, so we already had the correct bend before moving "straight". It was like he was gliding...very cool feeling.

I posted about having trouble "feeling" when it was right and this was someone's response, it was a good summary of everything Kim has told me, so I wanted to put it here, for further reference for myself once Kim flys South for the winter.

"Leg yield should be performed with an almost straight body and just a bit of flexion. The rider should think; forward step, sidways step, forward step, sideways step. The shoulder leads slightly in the leg yield...meaning...if you're going from quarterline to wall and someone was standing at the head of the horse, they would see that the horse's shoulder is slightly closer to the wall than the haunches. The horse crosses it's inside fore and inside hind over the outside ones with each step. I've heard different things about the leg aids, particularly the inside leg...some will say that leg is at the girth, others will stay it's slightly behind the girth. The outside leg though is slightly behind the girth. The rider's shoulders and hips face forward, though the aids are 'diagnonal'. The rider may sit a touch heavier on the outside seatbone. Inside hand provides flexion, outside hand controls the bend and pace. The rider asks the horse to move laterally into the outside hand.

Shoulder-in is performed with bend through the ribcage as if the horse is going to perform a 10m circle. The horse's shoulder is moved to the 'inside' track causing the inside front leg to cross over the outside front leg. The hind legs do NOT cross because the haunches stay moving straight ahead on the original track. The rider's shoulders will be turned towards the inside mimicking the horse's shoulders, while their hips remain pointing 'straight ahead' also mimicking the horse, his hips in this case. The inside leg is at the girth to create the bend AND to push the horse laterally into the outside hand which controls the bend. Outside leg is behind the girth to prevent the haunches from fall out and keep the horse moving forward. One might also weight the inside seatbone slightly. "