And now, a flat lesson

At the end of last week, I swallowed my irrational nerves and scheduled a flat lesson on Dalton.  “Suck it up buttercup,” I told myself. “It’s not about “you” it’s about setting him up for success.”  

Fresh haircut!

The objective of the flat lesson was quite simple: (i) get on a 10 meter circle at a balanced canter and (ii) push Dalton down into a working trot where he seeks contact with the bit.  As with the most simple of exercises, it was the hardest to accomplish correctly.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before:

Lift up your hands!

Shoulders back! 

Stop leaning forward!

In the 10m circle at the canter, I was using the inside leg, holding the outside rein, but also dropping the inside hand and pulling the inside rein open to keep him on the bend.  I have a longer torso (compared to trainer) and was getting tipped forward in the seat, which also meant my legs were swinging back.  The desired 10m circle is as follows: use inside leg and hold the outside rein to keep him at the gait but also use the outside leg to shape him.  Alternate contact between the inside and outside legs in order to keep the bend. 

Trainer got on him to show me how she rides in the same exercise, which drove a lot of the points home.  

1. My hands were way low (below the waist). Picking up my hands means I can work in concert with the gag bit and not get dragged down as easily
2. On the circle, I wasn’t rotating my torso at the waist.  Instead, I kept my shoulders square forward which wasn’t helping keep him on a bend.  Once I turned my shoulders into the circle, it was much easier to use all the above cues in keeping him on the circle.

I had a few discussions with Alex about it but does it help you to see someone else follow the instruction you were given or do you need to feel it for yourself?  For me, watching someone else’s body/hand/leg position and also how little rein was used to keep Dalton on a circle was as helpful as being told what to do.

We did have a few lovely moments at the working trot with his head dropped down low.  I still think a 10 meter circle is pretty tight for Dalton so have been working on a larger circle as a warm up.  It’s been both fun and exhausting building up this baby horse.