Another Good Lesson...

I had a lesson yesterday. It went really well. I discovered that Sophie really likes cats. I was standing next to Sophie in the ring, talking to my instructor and one of the barn cats decided to lay down on Sophie's front hooves. Sophie didn't do anything but bend her neck down to get a better look at the cat. Then Sophie watched the cat while we warmed up at the walk until the cat was shooed out of the ring.

We started on a regular 20 meter circle, developing a good connection and then moved on to changes of direction through the diagonal. We did that to keep her thinking, and distracted from being more comfortable in just one direction. After that we moved on to leg yielding on the long side of the arena. It went a lot better once I concentrated on keeping my hands low and wide. Though, my hands weren't actually wide and low, they were at the right height and I wasn't overbending her to the inside. When faced with something other than a 20 meter circle I sometimes revert back to what my old picture of a dressage rider is, at least my hands, even though I recognize that many dressage riders today *do* ride with high hands. So when I try something new or not completely familar I move into dressage hands frame.

After the leg yielding we did some 3 loop serpentines which went pretty well. We also did an exercise where we did half a 10 meter circle and then rode a diagonal line back to the same wall (but in the other direction) where we leg yielded the last 3 or so steps.

We then worked on some cantering, our transition to the canter was great, and very quick, but then she would throw her head up. So I worked on half halting with the outside rein and then giving with the inside rein, and it worked like a charm! It was crazy because it completely went against my instincts (we did this mostly going to the right, which is where she's the most crooked) but it worked. Then I could focus on asking for some jump in the canter with my inside leg.