So I guess my previous ride was just one bad ride. She was doing a lovely walk. It was very nice. But when I asked her to turn, she was like what is this turn you speak off? I just know how to go straight.
For a moment I thought I was asking her wrong. Been riding for 13 years and when your horse does something as wierd as not turning you question your riding first. No it was just her. Apparently I do know how to ride (sometimes *x*).
So I asked nice twice, still confused mare. Finally I tapped her with the crop when she didn't respond to my leg aid. That got an interesting mini-air above grounds reaction. I pushed her forward with my leg and we trotted around the arena and when I asked her to turn, oh my goodness she remembered how to do it.
Lol. Mares.
So for the rest of the ride, she was great. She really was using herself and we dabbled a little bit with leg yielding.
I think one issue that I have with switching to dressage is that sometimes the aids and cues are different. Will my teaching my mare something I learned from my western or hunter trainers, totally contradict an aid further down in her training.
When I rode hunters to move laterally I'd do outside leg outside rein. When I rode with Jennifer Mutchler, I tried that on her 4th level dressage horse I got a side pass across the damn arena.
Cantering transitions.
When I rode hunters and how I begin to train Lilly inside rein, inside leg at the girth, outside leg behind the girth and kiss and off you go.
When Budi was riding her he'd never got her to do a nice canter transition, because he was asking outside rein, outside leg cues.
When I was working with Kelly she asked me to start asking her that way. So I have. Having a smart horse helps, because she has caught on.
No comments:
Post a Comment