Dressaaaaahhhhhge Lesson

What Hampton wished he was doing this morning. Yes, this is him. 

Loaded up the steed this morning and headed over to FHF for our dressage lesson.

It is such a treat to not only ride with an incredible instructor, but also in an indoor with fantastic footing and mirrors.

The indoor was especially nice today because it was raining and muddy and dreary and gross outside. So, screw you, Indiana, you did not stop me from riding today! BAM!

Spring 2011

Anyway, Hampton was his usual, wonderful self. He just keeps getting better and better. Our issues are small and very normal ... and also mostly my fault. Such as, I need to remember to turn with the outside aids and not let the wall turn us. I need to make him quick to my aids right away, and not let him fall apart in the walk. He also tends to blow through my aids in leg-yield-head-to-the-wall, and we end up hugging the damn wall. So that's homework to do.

Here's what else we did:

• Leg yields: And lots of them. Leg yield away from the wall, and head to the wall. By bringing my hands away from the direction of travel, our leg yields became straighter and smoother. We did some leg yielding in the canter, too, which is much improved.

• Trot lengthenings: Hamps is really getting the hang of this now. He's learning to put his front feet out in front of him and really pushes from behind. We also did lengthen across the short diagonal, then immediate leg yield (head to the wall) when you reach the wall. This helps prevent the horse from dumping on the forehand at the end of the lengthening.

• Turn on the haunches: While I have worked on TOH in terms of aiming toward a walk pirouette, today we did an actual TOH, with a dramatic turning of the shoulders and keeping the butt more in place. This forced Hamps to really cross his hind legs over.

• Canter work: Our trot-canter transitions were the bombdiggity. We mostly did more turning off the outside aids and leg yields. Also, canter to trot and right away leg yield. That's a challenge for Hampton's balance, and also the timing of my aids. But a great exercise.

... So I hope we can get back there soon. I typically stay to watch others ride for a bit because I always learn something else by watching. So really this hour-long lesson was an all-day event. :) Fine by me.

Can't wait for our jumping lesson on Sunday. Holla.