Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrr! It’s baltic! but even the threat of snow and -10 temps wasn’t enough to deter me from our lesson today. It takes approx 50min to box to my instructor and the last thing I wanted to do was get stranded by the snow somewhere en route, but with my lesson being around midday and the snow not forecast to come down until later in the evening I decided it was worth the risk. This week the weather has been so cold that Thursday and Friday after work it has been too cold to ride in the arena as the surface has been frozen solid, so it was a very fresh and lively Dustry I got on today!
After a few ‘exciting moments’ he started to settle and as always once he gets focussed he’s 100% ‘in the zone’. We worked on ‘transitions within the pace’ on a 20m circle and across the long diagonal. I need now to bring him on to the next level of his training, which includes more collection and extension within the pace , more ‘sit’, and more ‘lift’ to his shoulders. Initially asking for more in the trot he just said ‘canter?…’ but after a little while he caught on that I was asking for more trot, and started to extend into a bigger trot. Once he has managed a few strides (approx half to all of a 20m circle) of bigger trot, I then needed to bring him back for approx 5 really short bouncy strides (almost walk) then on again to the working trot then from that another clear transition to medium. We did the same for the canter, and all the time trying hard to hit our circle points and be accurate (harder than it sounds!)
This movement within the pace really helps to get him off the leg, and also is having a good knock on effect with his trot to canter transitions which are really very nice now, even if I do say so on his behalf! 🙂
We JUST managed to get home and up the hill to the yard as the white stuff was covering the road, so it was a slow creep back down the steep hill from the stables to avoid slipping (well, just about!)
Sorry no video today, far too chilly for candid camera antics!
Tomorrow looks like it’s going to be a white out!