Wednesday, January 29, 2014

19 March 2013 - Lesson 2

Went for another lesson last night with the new coach so to speak.

I didn't ride at all (not that I cared because my legs still hurt something unreal from Climbing Mt Taranaki in the weekend), and we got dumped on by rain.... so I left Pencil there for 5 days - until Sat. She will school him each day. Last night even in the downpour he was going really really well - he started working evenly into the reins, and engaging the hocks. She still had trouble with downward transition and him leaning on the bit... so I expect that will be something she will work on a lot with him as well as staying even. Once she got a good feel for how bad he leans, and then starts running through the aids - she added in lengthening in trot, and back - because she can boot him back up to the bit when he starts to lean when she closes the rein to shorten again - so it starts with a milder action than a complete downward transition. All the lengthenings I had been doing only last 2-4 strides before he started running - but last night he was flying down the long side the whole way without falling out. And he stopped being such a wiggy butt...

It was nice of her to say to me at the end though, that he probably wasn't ready for this "stage" or for these things to be worked on until recently, combination of strength/relaxation and balance that he has improved with hacking and my long road rides we have been doing.

So will go watch one day later in the week to see how he is going, then will have a lesson on him on Sat before bringing him home. Its going to cost me a small fortune to do this, but I think its worth while seeing the different in way of going under her. Its almost instant.

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