I got Jackson out for about 45 minutes. I
started by tacking him up and then
endotapping him. I endotapped him only for a
few minutes, until I saw him yawn several
times. Then I got on and rode him at the
walk for a bit. I worked on quarter turns
off of the indirect rein, in preparation for
spinning.
Anyway, after we had walked for a bit, I
then asked him to trot and practiced the
rising trot (posting trot) for a bit. I
payed attention to which diagonal I was
posting on and I tried to weight the outside
stirrup (JP recommends that as it loads the
outside hind leg a little more and gets it
to work more). I also tried to post very
softly. If Jackson stays fairly slow, I
think I do pretty well, but it doesn’t look
so good when he gets faster. However, I
think I made progress. And I think he was
rounding more!
Then I went back to the walk and began
endotapping him. I endotapped him on the
neck, belly, and croup on both sides, before
moving to the trot, where I did the same
thing. I was looking for him to drop his
head when I endotapped him. After I had done
it both sides and both directions, I wanted
to ask for the canter. So, going in a circle
to the left, I asked Jackson to trot (I
posted). Once he was trotting, I weighted
the outside stirrup and gently tapped him to
get him to go a little faster in the trot. I
was trying to get him to kind of lose his
balance and lope, hoping for a relaxed lope.
It worked really well! To the left he did a
full circle of a nice relaxed canter with
his head low. Then I asked him to walk and
relax.
It didn’t work quite so well going to the
right, but I think that will be better if I
do more endotapping at the trot before
asking for the right lead canter. It did
feel a little more relaxed than yesterday,
though. So I stopped right there and got
off. I think that we did really well and I
was very happy with how Jackson did.
