First of all, my parade got a little rained on because Christan told me not to get too disappointed at the next show if I scored higher than this last one. I sort of expected that, and told myself that I would be happy with a score in the low 30s (like 30-33), but I didn't expect her to allude to the idea that the judge was a wee bit more than generous at MacNair's. Sigh. I guess sometimes you get really lucky and the judge just loves you and your horse, and sometimes you get a judge that you cannot please on any given day, and most of the time you fall in-between. Guess this was my lucky day. I've got to look at the bright side of things and remember that it just gives me something more to work on (not like I was going to sit on my laurels and take it easy), but still! So, I'm feeling a tad grumpy right now.
These were the phrases of the day: "Don't pull with your hands - use your leg and push him into the contact." "Up and out". "Keep that outside rein." "Elbows over hips." "If he wiggles into the halt, immediately trot on." "Shoulders back through the turn." "Hands up". "Throw your reins away like you're finished with your ride." "He's so used to you using your rein to correct him that he over-reacts to your leg." "Correct him with your leg, not the rein."
So, we did flatwork during my lesson today. Oliver felt a bit sticky, but then, I wasn't wearing spurs. Christan had me lengthen my stirrups one hole to really get me to wrap my legs around him. We started off by trotting and keeping my leg on, hands up with thumbs up, and not giving away my right rein going left, and keeping the bend going right. Oliver was dropping his inside shoulder coming off the rail on the right rein, and also popping his shoulder to the outside on the open side of the arena. I think I was letting him fall off the rail because I was trying too soon to catch that shoulder and keep it from popping on the open side. Again, I need to ride every single stride. I flexed him to the inside, used my inside leg, and then when we finished the turn, I thought "counter-bend" to catch that shoulder. Apparently, he was also dropping behind my leg because Christan told me "Leg!", so when I added some leg coming out of the turn, he straightened up pretty much on his own. To the left, it wasn't nearly the problem, except that I very badly want to open my outside (right) rein and push it forward. I could really see it on the video that Joe did for me last week, and boy, is it ugly when I do that. Christan said, "elbows over hips", so I concentrated on pressing my upper arm to my side and keeping that elbow over my right hip, and that seemed to straighten him.
During the canter, Oliver felt pretty heavy in the bridle, especially to the right, so maybe next time I will wear my spurs to boot him up. However, to the left, we had some very nice canter work. He is still wiggly in the transition, so the draw reins might need to go back on. Christan looked over my test and decided to work on free walk and halt. We started the halt work by doing it on a circle - trot a 20 meter circle, then halt. The first few times, he was pretty darn good, so Christan had me turn up the center line and then halt. The minute he turned up the center line, he threw his hips to the left and wobbled into the halt, leaning on my hands, so Christan had me immediately trot off. Of course, I had to tap him with my whip to get him to hop off my leg, so he trotted off, and we took a few strides in trot, then halted again, concentrating on shoulders back, hands steady, and leg on. It only took one more try and he was halting square consistently. I love the fact that you can correct him and he doesn't get emotional about it. So, we worked on free walk next. Christan had me trot down the long side, get a good, uphill walk transition, and then free walk across the diagonal. As we turned down the diagonal, Christan had me basically throw away the reins "like you're finished riding". This was totally against everything I was taught in the free walk (let them take the reins out of your hands), but I did it, and he marched on but I had to really check him with my left leg as he wanted to wander to the left. We did this a few more times and Christan said, "There's your free walk". I always thought that the free walk was more about them putting their head down and stretching across their backs, but Christan said that when I keep a contact, he curls and his stride doesn't get as long as it could. She said that if I free walked like that, I could get an 8 on it instead of the 7s I've been getting.
We ended by turning down the centerline one last time, and halting. Bam - he was perfectly square and straight, so we called it quits on that.
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