lesson: refining the details

Our OF lesson last weekend was indoors due to icy footing. Kind of a bummer, but also kind of why I travel to OF for lessons in the first place - OPTIONS lol. 

Anyways, I was looking forward to showing off the fruits of our bio-mechanics labor to P, and Isabel did not disappoint. P was very pleased with our flat work (so was I!!) - tho she pointed out that we still don't have true engagement and Isabel needs more 'push' from the hind end. She wanted me to add a lot more leg to this end. 

I obviously don't disagree - but it's going to take a little while, I think. Isabel's getting used to moving consistently in a new type of frame for her body - wherein she is balancing front to back without lateral compensation. But she's still very much on her forehand. 

Right now, if I add too much leg, she speeds up and reverts immediately to lateral imbalance with hollow back - which then literally blocks her hind end from coming up underneath her. This is partly bc she feels less confident and stable in the new way of going (and partly my own skillz if we're being honest). Eventually, we'll be able to distinguish between leg that adds pace and leg that activates the hind end - but that's not currently the case.

Tho I believe that with the changes we're making, the next steps (actual engagement and steady contact) will come fairly naturally - whereas they previously seemed very elusive. Sure, I could be wrong... but I'm going to stay the course for a few more miles in this new way of going before I start messing with it (esp since it's already improving our flat work so much!). 

(Sorry this pic is so blurry - phone died before I could snap another. I painted in some of the jumps to help visibility)

Anyways, jumping in the indoor is always an exercise in precision. You *must* ride your turns and corners.  We started with the purple/green outside single. It's kinda neat - the wall actually has standards built into it - how convenient! Then we moved on to a one-stride on the other long side, and eventually put it all together into a course, with the purple/red diagonal riding as a 5 stride bending line to the red/orange diagonal.

We ran through the course a few times in a couple different configurations. The jumps definitely came up FAST - but for the most part we got pretty good distances. We ate it coming out of the bending the first time through, but mostly had it figured out after that. 

P had me paying particular attention to my release today - yesssssss. She said she was going to start picking on that and I literally thanked her lol. It's funny how just a little extra attention to one detail can really improve it. 

Tho, naturally since I was paying so much attention to my hands I can honestly not tell you a single thing about what my lower legs were doing... sigh. But I think they were ok. I jacked my stirrups up for jumping and that helped me feel a bit more stabilized. Will try to get pics video stills later for comparison purposes. 

So all in all a productive lesson. I feel reaffirmed on our flat work path - both in where we are and where we need to go. And the jumping was good in that I didn't go completely splat when the sticks were bumped up a bit. Yay :)