Jackson did absolutely wonderful today! I
got him out and started riding him at the
walk. Gotta warm up and all that. So I knew
I wanted to work on his half pass. Since he
would often do several good steps and then
get messed up, I realized I should ask for
only 2 or 3 steps and then go straight. I
started to work on this. I tried to keep my
upper body up and open while sitting mostly
centered in the saddle. I weighted my
outside leg and seat bone. I also opened up
my inside knee, while trying to keep it
softly against his side. This seemed to work
well. He was pretty good about giving me 3
or 4 good steps then I would let him go
straight. I did this several times in both
directions.
Then I asked for a half pass for a couple of
steps, then I asked him to maintain the bend
and do a leg yield to the other direction.
My goal was to help myself get better about
using my seat and weight to direct him. This
seemed to work really well.
Now, onto the fun part! I asked him to trot.
First I asked him to stay in a slow “jog” on
a loose rein. Then I started posting. He
wanted to speed up, so I slowed him down and
made sure I wasn’t accidentally telling him
to faster. He did fine staying slow after
that. Then I did ask him to go into a
forward trot. He was so much better! The
trot felt much better and he stayed so much
more round! I practiced helping him around
the corners with the outside rein (thanks
for that tip, Ann). I am sure that it
helped. I could tell much more easily when
he was off balance and not round. I really
almost couldn’t believe how much round he
was. He kept his head lower and his trot
felt different.
I worked a little bit on the half pass at
the trot and the passage. Both of those
showed a little improvement. Then I asked
for the canter. I asked for the left lead to
start with and there was a little
improvement. It was great, but it was okay.
Then I slowed down to a walk before asking
for the right lead canter. Whoa, what a
difference! It felt much better! At first I
asked for a little slower canter, then I
asked him to speed up on a circle, and that
felt really nice, but then I asked for a
little slower (I remembered to keep my chest
up and open) and he really felt uphill for a
few strides! It felt great! Amazing!
So I did some more speed up, slow down in
both directions and there was some more
improvement in the left canter. Even when I
asked for more speed on a straight line, it
didn’t feel very rushed and I didn’t feel
like he was going to buck.
