Had another fantastic lesson last night, so thank you to the wonderful Eclypse, who is such a fantastic confidence giver.
For as long as I can remember I have had a major issue with coming off the piste in canter... mainly due to past experience where as soon as we come off the piste the horse makes a dive left or right and I end up coming off.
Well I cracked that one last night
We were having a dressage lesson, and are now at the stage where we warm up in walk trot and canter, and that was great. Had a great time in trot going from really sloooooow to pushing on. the canter was good as I was able to reaffirm with myself that the last lesson wasn't a fluke, and I could still canter lol.
Our lesson this week was the "head to the wall" exercise. I was glowing by the end, having earned no less than 3 "bien"s from Katia
Then as a reward for the horses we have a final canter at the end of the lesson. Oooh I was so adventurous! It started out by coming off the piste to avoid some one who was having trouble with the transition up, then I was off! Circles, ovals, not going right to the top of the school, going off on the 3/4 line.
I was absolutely on cloud 9 then immediately sad and upset because I just don't have the same confidence on Pinto. I feel so bad because although I was having fantastic fun cantering round on Eclypse, I still get the willies at the thought of cantering Pinto in the manege, and I don't know why, because I was going as fast on Eclypse and what I do on Pinto. Sometimes I think I need my head read!
Friday, February 15, 2008
10 January - Eclypse
It's the first lesson I've had in about a month due to my illness and then the holidays, but it was FANTASTIC!
It was just a basic dressage lesson, and I was riding Eclypse, who is a complete sweetheart, but has an exceptionally bouncy trot!
We were working an the paces, and our entire lesson (after warm up) was working on slowing the pace and then quickening the pace between the quarter markers on the longs sides of the school.
What fun!
Starting off in walk, then progressing through to trot and then canter over the course of the lesson.
How marvelous!
Just feeling the difference, especially in trot! taking it from s-l-o-w where there was a definite pause between each stride... right on the verge of walk which I found i could sit very lightly and *really* feel the advancement of each hip separately, to putting my leg on and *really* feeling his shoulders lift and he extended his stride.
Holy cow!
And the canter! Eclypse is just so comfortable in canter and I had an ENORMOUS amount of fun, unfortunately didn't have much luck in slowing the canter, but speeding up WOW! I really felt as if I had overcome something last night, only once or twice I felt a bit tense but I soon overcome this and was even able to relax my elbows. For some reason I was able to sit still in the saddle, and even when we were haring round the corners ( ) I just relaxed into it and sat deep and stuck with it (my usual response is to curl forward which is incredibly unbalancing).
Today I'm aching in about 6 different muscle groups, but I think it's the best lesson I've ever had!
It was just a basic dressage lesson, and I was riding Eclypse, who is a complete sweetheart, but has an exceptionally bouncy trot!
We were working an the paces, and our entire lesson (after warm up) was working on slowing the pace and then quickening the pace between the quarter markers on the longs sides of the school.
What fun!
Starting off in walk, then progressing through to trot and then canter over the course of the lesson.
How marvelous!
Just feeling the difference, especially in trot! taking it from s-l-o-w where there was a definite pause between each stride... right on the verge of walk which I found i could sit very lightly and *really* feel the advancement of each hip separately, to putting my leg on and *really* feeling his shoulders lift and he extended his stride.
Holy cow!
And the canter! Eclypse is just so comfortable in canter and I had an ENORMOUS amount of fun, unfortunately didn't have much luck in slowing the canter, but speeding up WOW! I really felt as if I had overcome something last night, only once or twice I felt a bit tense but I soon overcome this and was even able to relax my elbows. For some reason I was able to sit still in the saddle, and even when we were haring round the corners ( ) I just relaxed into it and sat deep and stuck with it (my usual response is to curl forward which is incredibly unbalancing).
Today I'm aching in about 6 different muscle groups, but I think it's the best lesson I've ever had!
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