Are things.... Clicking?!?!

Lesson #1

We started just by warming up at the walk, we each had half the ring to walk a figure 8 on, we did that both ways and the picked up the trot, working on setting our line and riding it. He was definitely stiff to the right, but I think as we worked on the figure 8 it slowly got better but he was still way softer to the left. 

After we did figure 8s we worked on a small middle ring circle over three trot poles, we started to the right and worked a lot on finding our bend and holding it. We did the same thing to the left, he was definitely softer through his bend but had a bit of a quicker pace through the circle. 

We cantered next. We let our trot get soft and then picked up our canter. We started to the left, adding in circles and working on our bend. We changed direction across the diagonal with a simple change and did the same thing to the right, Chloe told me that when were on our right canter circles he tends to fall onto his inside shoulder which results in my ribcage dropping to the inside, so I worked on lifting through my hip, ribs and shoulder and in result of that I could feel him lift off of his inside shoulder. 

The final thing we did was a pattern, trot up the centerline, halt at x, continue at the trot and turn right, come down over the poles and make our pole circle that we did during warmup, then pick up right lead canter at the gate, and cantered a circle, trotted across the diagonal to change direction did the pole circle the other way and cantered another circle at the gate on our left lead. After our second trot pole circle to the left he actually went into a really nice dressage frame before our canter transition where i didn't hold my outside rein enough and he picked up the wrong lead so that's something I'm going to work on in my rides this week.

My plan for my next lease rides is to work a lot on our flatwork/dressage parts since we have a bit until our next jumper show.

I feel like I learned a lot about bend in this lesson, and I thought I knew a lot about it already! About a year ago I started to learn about bend and leg yielding, I remember Jenna telling me how when your taught how to ride, they tell you pull the right rein you go right, pull the left rein you go left... and that works up to a point, but when you start to get more experienced and want to improve (especially in dressage) you learn bending and yielding. She then taught us to use inside leg to outside rein, opening your outside rein as a space for them to shift there shoulder into as they bend to the inside, and our inside leg would keep them from coming off the rail. I learned how to do that and thought "oh cool, so this is bend" little did I know it would go deeper than that, and I learned that today... Chloe kept telling me to half halt with my outside rein and hold it even more than I was, so I did and I didn't understand why it worked but it did. He became softer through his bend and his head shifted into more of a round headset, I was stunned. After my lesson I went and asked her why it worked so well and she was able to explain it really well for me. Basically it gave him more direction because it gave him a "lane" and his head came down into a frame because his back lifted into the frame and bend i was asking him for and it controlled the balance of the bend I was asking him for.

Sorry I didn't have any videos to add, I wish I had the videos to show the difference in when I took what Chloe was telling me and put it to work in my riding, compared to before she helped us because it was amazing how quick he responded.

Lesson #2

We got to do another lesson with Chole and we had a very good lesson!

We started by warming up walk-trot on our own, doing lots of circles changes of direction, serpentines, ect. He felt really good at the trot, moving forward without being strong, and keeping a consistent pace. We each cantered individually, and Sindri felt really round in his frame. we started right lead with a walk to canter (I'd never done a walk to canter with him so it had a few trot steps in there) I worked on keeping my inside hip from falling in during or right lead canter circles, and it helped him not fall onto his inside shoulder. We changed direction across the diagonal with a simple change, and did the same thing the other way adding in some circles here and there.

Once we were warmed up, we did an outside line of trot poles, doing a halt to trot transition then trotting through the poles and halting straight. We did that both ways before adding the judges line of two cross rails after our halt.

 We trotted through the line both ways before moving on to adding in cantering the line of cross rails. We picked up canter after our trot poles instead of halting straight, and then cantered down our line of cross rails. Chole noticed that he tended to swap out to his right lead over the first jump when we were tracking left, we tried a couple of times to correct it but she didn't want it to take away from the rest of the ride so she told me to work on it as homework. ( I started to connect that he did this at the jumper show as well)

 We did the same thing off of our right lead (he didn't swap out) and he rushed a bit the first time we went through so she told be to sit up a little taller but get off his back, she thought when i was sitting down in the saddle and pushing myself taller it might be driving him forwards rather than asking him to come back to me and get under himself, and it worked.

Instead of rushing for the 4 strides
he sat back for the 5

I feel like Chloe has helped me so much with figuring out my horses, last year in may she's the reason i actually was able to start having good rides with Brooks, she explains things so well and she has SO much knowledge. It's so helpful to have her and she's fun to hang out with, so that always helps. Chloe is a dressage rider so she helps me so much with dressage and flat work, and Jenna helps me so much with jumping its like having the perfect team behind me!!