You Spin Me Right Round baby

After showing all weekend, Hampton and I took Monday off and then back on the trailer on Tuesday to haul up to Indiana for a lesson with JK!

I was really looking forward to getting my butt kicked, and hoped I could make that correction in the left canter pirouette that gave us problems.

We rode at the lovely farm that was formerly home to Conner. The footing is magical, and the farm is a little slice of paradise. It was of course blasting 90 degrees, but we handled it ok.

Love this barn!

JK had us work a lot on keeping him uphill, and jumping in the canter. Hampton is funny, I work so hard and it always looks like we are going NOWHERE. Need to get him firing more.

We did some piaffe, passage (although his passage was not really there that day. Probably tired), some half passes, and then we started to focus on the canter pirouettes.

Little canter half pass. Needs to be more uphill, even though this is the downbeat.

As horses do, they make liars out of you.

After I explained the issue I had, Hampton of course pirouettes just fine. Both directions.

Finally, he pulled his little stunt!

JK nailed it, and said that he locks up and I don't know what to do. You can see it in the video where his entire neck locks up. I just sit there like "ohhhhh shit." and then he swaps leads. I need to bend him, and let him take a stride forward. Making the piro a bit too big is better than swapping leads. Caught the little bastard on the act on video!

She had us do an exercise where you make the first steps of the piro tight, then allow a step forward, then tight, then allow forward. This seemed to help and once I get better at it, it should help make our piros more tidy. They are excellent for where we are in our training. But remember at Grand Prix they have to be on the centerline and I mean ON THE CENTERLINE. Not drifting.

With those corrections, we had several more nice pirouettes and called it a day. Hampton worked his little ass off and I was so proud of him. This work is not easy. He tries so hard. He is so odd because you would not think he would be so good at some of this upper level work but canter pirouettes are one of his strong points! He can really sit and bring his hind legs under.

More good tips from JK:

* Make what you do well, REALLY GOOD. Instead of always working on your super weak points, make your strong points super strong! There is only so much I can do to improve Hampton's trot and uphill "frame." Obviously it will always be a work in progress, but he isn't ever going to be Valegro.

* Ride the movements for a gold medal.

* Forward and back is your friend

We hauled back home ... hot and exhausted.

But we had one more adventure the next day!