I worked Jackson for about an hour. I first
got him out and did some playing around at
liberty. He did very well at obeisance and
bow on cue! We have made lots of progress
with that. We did a little more work on the
Spanish walk and that went well.
Than I tacked him up. I rode him in the
bitless bridle again. I spent a little bit
of time lunging him with the cordeo. I was
working on having him bring his hind legs
under him.
Then I got on and rode him. I spent a fair
amount of time at the walk. I have been
working on turning just by shifting my
weight to my outside seat bone. Not a big
weight shift, just a tiny one. It is so fun
to feel him start to respond to those small
shifts. Also worked on stopping with a
really light cue.
I made half of an arena with 3 barrels and
some baling twine on the ground. This way, I
have a corner and two straight lines. I
spent a bit of time on the half pass. I got
some very good suggestions on how to improve
on it. Mostly they dealt with my body
position. I worked on leaning less, keeping
my legs draped rather than stiff, and making
sure I was looking where I was going. At
first, I think Jackson wasn’t sure what I
wanted, but when he did get it, it felt
better. I really tried to be relaxed in my
legs and I think it helped. I don’t know if
the half pass was better or not, but it felt
better as I was sitting better.
Then I worked at the trot. I worked on the
half pass and also haunches in on a circle
or trot pirouettes. He did the pirouettes
pretty well. And he had some nice steps of
the half pass.
We then worked on the canter. He seemed to
do better to the right today than to the
left. We just keep going back and forth. He
didn’t do any steps of the half pass, but I
think his canter was more relaxed today. He
didn’t toss his head even once! That is very
good. Going to the right, he had some
strides where he seemed really relaxed.
