It's so much more fun to post about jumping lessons, but we've been making huge strides in our flatwork lately that I'd better post about it before I hit a snag and get frustrated and forget how much better we've been getting.
We've (meaning Gina and I) have been playing around with a lot of shoulder-in and lateral work lately, to get Oliver to engage more behind. However, the trick is doing it correctly, since Oliver is rubber-band-man and can fake a shoulder-in (three tracks and everything) without truly engaging behind and bending. so, after a lot of walking around to warm up, I start him doing S-I at the walk down both long sides. The right S-I seems so much easier than the left. To the right, it's like he just floats into it - I come off the short side of the arena, switch my seatbone placement so that my left hip points towards his inside ear, make sure that I'm "pinching" with my seatbones so that they're narrower and I can feel both of them, and make sure that my left thigh doesn't float away from the saddle (which, surprisingly, it tends to do. Surprising in that my left leg is stronger than my right, so you'd think that the left leg would be easier to keep snugly against the saddle.)I can tell when I'm losing it when I forget about "riding the withers", because he loses the bend. If I think about turning his withers to the inside with my outside leg, and leading him down the long side with my right leg, he does a very nice S-I. The left S-I is much more difficult because a) I have a weaker right leg and it's harder for me to draw the left seatbone backwards to allow the right seatbone to come forward (left at 7 o'clock, right at 1 o'clock). I think that Oliver's left hind is weaker than the right and he subsequently has difficulty stepping under himself that direction. When he starts to resist, he also tends to bulge against the left leg and not want to move. Gina also has difficulty moving him off her left leg, so I know the problem isn't wholly me, although I probably caused it in the first place.
The canter is still coming along. Oliver is picking it up quite well from the walk, especially if we've done S-I first, but he sort of plunges into it with the first stride and we have a fast, strung-out canter. I can look into the mirror and see that his legs are taking these huge, bounding strides. If I concentrate on NOT LETTING HIM MOVE ME by firming up my core, bearing down, and keeping my seatbones arranged correctly (outside seatbone at 8, inside at 2), and think of lifting him into the canter, he is starting to step into it and keep the light, airy, soft feeling. It's still not as adjustable as I would like, but it's coming along. I have to keep thinking of using my thighs to lever up his withers, and keep my upper body "small/short" by thinking of pressing down, and that really helps keep the canter smaller.
His trot work is really becoming lovely and more expressive. I've got him in a new bit (Baucher Myler with the barrel mouthpiece) and after one ride, I'm still on the fence, as he seems quite fussy in the jaw with it - he's mouthing it a lot - but he doesn't appear to come behind the vertical as much in it, either. he's also a lot more adjustable in the canter. it's freezing out right now (around 30) but I'm off to ride in about half an hour, and we'll see how he continues to like this bit.
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