 |
| Not a bad way to start your day. |
We spent Thursday morning taking lessons with the lovely and clever SD. I asked her for a prescription for a Grand Prix warmup that would create a supple yet hot horse and boy did she nail it.
Her major point was that horses will naturally become more supple the more on the aids they become. So while it's not a bad thing to do my warm ups of counter canter, ranvers, half passes, etc. etc. it might suit me better to "adrenalize" him and THEN check in on suppleness.
 |
| Look who did NOT untie himself from the trailer this year and run amuck at a top dressage barn. |
Our lesson consisted of a lot of forward, back. "Quicker than you think!" she said. In canter, go forward, go forward again, come back to pirouette canter, press him and make him hot, allow back out. Repeat.
The biggest result I found in piaffe/passage. We did a lot of piaffe to medium trot. Really fire that back end. Piaffe- medium - piaffe - medium. Repeat repeat. THEN piaffe - WAIT PASSAGE - and blamo that resulted in some pretty awesome passage for Hampton. (He is not Valegro and is still very earthbound but he has more power in there!)
 |
| The BFF bringing in the boys in the morning. |
We ended the lesson by touching on the GP trot half passes. She suggested I take both hands away from the direction of travel to create more sideways without having to drive him sideways. I have always thought that taking one hand above the withers creates false bend, but in this particular exercise it seemed to work. That way he had more expression sideways, without me driving him more onto his shoulders.
I now had a solid plan for warm up for the weekend show at Bruce's Field.
I also really enjoyed her teaching L and Royale, who are address some counter canter issues. I loved her clever and thoughtful ways of training and teaching a horse without stressing anyone out.
I will say both horses and humans were tired after our lessons though! Obviously we remedied that by once again having a lunch of shaved ice at Vampire Penguin.
 |
| I would eat this every day of my life. |
And dinner with friends at Whiskey Alley was absolutely delicious their brussels sprouts are AHH MAZZ BALLS.
(Fun fact also learned on this trip: It is indeed Brussels Sprout, NOT Brussel Sprouts like pretty much all of us pronounce.)
Next: THE SHOW
Sounds like a great lesson! Can't wait to hear if the new warmup plan helped out at the show.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Brussels sprout? I never knew. So like one little sprout is a Brussels sprout? But like the whole dish of them is Brussels sprouts? Or am I still confused? Lol!