Back to school

[glenatron]

The last week or two the swamp at our yard has returned to it's summertime status of arena, so I've done bits of schooling with Iris. After reading this piece on skeletal injuries I was very conscious that we need to work on our correctness a little, so for the last few days I have been working with real focus on softness and balance

Comments

[glenatron]

What I am aiming for is what Zorro had figured out, which was always being light and soft, and then taking that further so that we have light and soft and lifted the whole time. I know it is possible, but it is a long term project and will take a lot of work.

I spent a lot of time with a pair of walking sticks, walking about using the sticks as front legs to get the timing of footfall. I think if you aren't using that you can't get a horse truly soft on the aids because you end up asking them for stuff when they can't possibly do it.

I could certainly watch more good riding, I will probably put some videos on the Christmas list. Usually I can just point people at the Eclectic Horseman shop and it's not likely to work out badly. One problem I have is that there is a lot of dressage I am not keen on, but I like Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin- I think they ride really nicely.

I should probably phone my old instructor and get some more proper classical lessons too. I think I could use that. Also I rather suspect this sitting too far forward is related to a lot of lessons building up to jumping over the last year, so I was in a forward seat more of the time, which is a little different.