Return of the Super Trot!

Had a REALLY good session this morning! Antsje wasn’t quite so intent on rushing today and that ALWAYS makes a difference :o) PLUS I forsook 5mins of riding and did a little girivolta work in hand before I got on, I think this MUST make a difference as we always seem to have a much better session ridden afterwards.

So after the poll flexions, which incidentally were better today, and the in-hand stuff I finally got on lol! I kept to work on a circle and did a little leg yield then straightened and repeated again a few times. Then I concentrated on gathering her up a little by tap tapping her HQ’s but holding her with my seat, this was easier today as she wasn’t to rushy so she still kept relatively soft in hand. Then we went into trot, left rein first, and it was MUCH MUCH better! She learns so quickly it makes my life so much easier! Well when I get it right anyhow lol! On this rein she does tend to back off the contact a little so I made sure I sent her forward and concentrated on her neck being straighter. Also after yesterdays session I remembered to add transitions into the mix and they were actually quite good! A little progressive but id rather her go down into a soft trans by allowing her time to step under and balance than try and make it to quick and her trail her HQs and brace her neck / back.
We changed onto the right rein and repeated the same work and again I was really impressed with the trot – on this rein she is the opposite and tends to go a tad quicker and leans on the hands for support, so I really concentrated on lifting my hands slightly when I felt her leaning and using my position and a smaller circle to encourage her to slow down a bit! Again we did walk / trot trans and this was also very helpful in getting her off the forehand and stepping under more.

I was also far more mindful of MY position and focussed on a raised ribcage and trotting ‘on my knees’ and I do think that this helped today too.
And to finish we did the same work on the canter as we did yesterday morning – a nice relaxed stretchy canter which was in fact a lot better today because she was more contained so it had more ‘lift’ to it although I wasn’t necessarily asking for it ;o)

So again, after musing about the ride on the way to work, the next thing I need to work on is getting a more immediate reaction in the upward transitions but maintaining the softness and the engagement of the hind leg rather than her bombing off at a million miles an hour lol! Always something to work on!