brief thoughts from a lesson with P

My lesson at OF this week turned into a private - super unusual but I guess everyone is on vacation? I certainly wasn't going to argue; in the year I've ridden with P it's only ever been group lessons. So I was curious to see what might be different.

definitely appreciated the shade - it was HOT out!

I kept my flat work to the shady end of the arena while P ate her lunch and we talked about what I've been working on: particularly stepping into the inside leg and working on maintaining balance through transitions.

She noted that especially while cantering I get my whole body off to Isabel's left side and directed me to do the same thing C did: put the left side of my seat in the middle of the saddle. 

we had the whole ring all to ourselves!! (but mostly stayed in the shade to the left lol, except when jumping)

She also wanted me working for a shoulders in on a circle to really engage Isabel's inside hind (esp when tracking right, meaning her problematic right hind leg). And this was to be accomplished by pushing the shoulders in (duh), rather than the hind quarters out. Tough stuff but we had a few nice moments!

Really tho P wants me to raise my expectations for the flat work. I agree... but  really don't know what that means for schooling alone. I don't know how to do any more advanced movements and am hesitant to try schooling them lest I do it wrong... but idk we'll see. 

isabel was not pleased when i took the hay away to hang it back in the trailer so we could leave. obvi she can't be without hay for even just a minute!

Anyway, they had a nice hunter course set up from camp: outside inside outside inside, with varying striding, so we just worked on that. I jumped each line individually first before putting it all together - still working on the same process from Dan's lesson last week. And P liked it! Actually, she ended up pointing out a lot of the same issues I've been working on with the other two trainers so that's always reassuring...

The jumping was mostly fine - tho when we went through the whole course I progressively got farther and farther up Isabel's neck and the wheels started falling off a little. I need to remember to keep my legs down and feel that 'bounce' in my heels to help support my upper body, rather than letting my legs slip back and upper body tip forward.

lol she's one smart cookie tho and only banged her face once before figuring out how to pull the hay net out 

We also had some problems bulging through right turns and P echoed what Dan said about 'inside bend' being less important for jumping, and that I need to focus on using the outside aids to turn. In fact she said sometimes being a little counter bent around turn can be productive bc it frees up the horse's inside shoulder and helps reengage their hind end on approach to the fence. Good food for thought!

After fixing the two later lines in the course we called it a day since it was pretty hot out and Isabel was working well. I'll be out of town and will miss my lesson next week, but hopefully once I'm back we can settle into a routine and start looking forward to a few shows!