First, make sure you read Megan's far more intelligent post about twirling at the canter.
CLICK HERE.
Second, the day after my visit with my dear friend I was up at 8 a.m. for another clinic with Lainey Ashker. I told you this week was full of ups and downs!
I really like Lainey's positive approach and teaching style. She is quick to tell me corrections, and explain why certain things are happening. Hampton was fresh and a little tense, but we did a lot of super forward trotting for the warmup and he quickly settled. Normally I do not let him trot so forward, because it gets way too fast and unbalanced. But in this case, it worked.
Then we moved right to canter. We started off really making him jump. I will say that Lainey has really brought out a new gear in Hampton. It actually catches me off guard when he hits this gear and truly jumps off the ground in the canter. There is a shitTON of power in there!
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| From last fall, but you can see the sitting talent is there |
And when a 4* eventer says "medium canter," you better burn rubber. Because my idea of "lalala yes here is my medium canter" was not her idea of one! haha! But after
We started to touch on some canter pirouettes. Hampton has a special talent for these. Of all the dressage "tricks," canter pirouettes make perfect sense to him. He just does them. Even tho I have no clue what I am doing. Lainey helped me prep him, stay in the movement, and then canter out. The only thing I found contradictory to what I have been previously taught is what to do with your seat.
My previous instructors have always told me to "hold" with your seat in the piro ... but Lainey was actually having me activate my seat. Think medium with your butt, but stay in piro canter. I struggled with this, because it was so new, and frankly I think Hampton would respond either way. This is so easy for him. He may struggle with a lot of dressage movements, but the canter pirouettes are not one of them.
We ended up working on some changes which were SO SO SO much improved. I think we are at the point where I can start to play with tempi changes for real now.
Grrreat. Now I have to ride the horse AND count.
So overall another wonderful lesson. It really cheered me up and Hampton was a champ!
And that concluded my whirlwind 3 days.
(because you can bet we spent the next 2 days trail riding haha)
I would have to activate my butt in the pirouettes on Pig. He takes a lot of convincing to hold jump in that level of collection. So that makes total sense to me.
ReplyDeleteSo happy for you guys. It must feel good to have a handle on things ahead!
how awesome to find that extra 'gear' in the canter! my trainer is constantly telling me to get more 'jump' in the canter but...well, i rarely find it lol
ReplyDeleteActivating the seat is what German Riding Master had me do when I asked to learn them. After we confirmed Mikey and I were ready, I compare the amount of seat I needed to stay in the pirouette to the amount of seat needed to push for extended canter. It goes against every thought, but it works! So glad you had an excellent lesson! Hampton just looks so incredible.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool clinic!! Really loved reading about it. :-)
ReplyDeleteOooo, how very cool! You two have grown into rockstars together and the clinic sounds like blast. I have always wanted to a ride a canter pirouette (uh, I don't think involuntary ones at high speed really count, LOL). Encore could do it quite easily I think...if he had a you instead of a me, ha!
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