new moves: omg so hard tho

Ever since I wrote last week about how amazing Isabel has felt in the bridle, we've been dealing with some bracing and fussiness. Figures, right? lol....

Really, tho, it isn't necessarily the worst thing ever. Mare is still doing really well. Whatever questionable stiffness she had going on behind a couple weeks ago has disappeared completely. Plus she's feeling fitter with every passing week.

warm up trot

She's testing me a little bit, tho, since I'm easily baited into arguments about the location of Isabel's nose... instead of say, focusing on actual quality and forward impulsion in the trot.

So we spent much of this lesson reestablishing some rider basics:

• Inside bend, dammit. Bend Isabel beyond the point she wants to go, then when I let her back to where *I* wanted her in the first place, we both feel like we win. 
• Use circles of varying diameters to help with this. Including circling off the straightaway when I lose the ability to keep her bent around my inside leg.
• Stay STEADY on the outside rein when she's fussing. The little conversations I try to have with that outside rein just get lost in the noise when she's flinging her head everywhere. 

wide hands help mitigate the fuss fuss

• Once she gives tho, I *must* soften - but not too far that I soften beyond where she can take the contact, otherwise I'll just immediately lose her again. 
• Once I've got her there, we can restart the convo with the outside rein. 
• And, as always, keep her powering forward and bending with little bumps of inside leg - don't let that leg get stuck!

sometimes... lol

It mostly worked pretty well. I've been focusing lately on softness (and bend) in my elbows, and it's helping. Especially in remembering to keep a forward or open feel in the contact, vs backwards (never backwards, Emma, c'mon!!).

Plus I'm maybe more consistently upright with my pelvis in a more appropriate position in the saddle. A helpful visualization that I read on Mary's blog: imagine the contact originating from my shoulder blades instead of my hands. It's a work in progress, obvi, but I'm feeling good about it.

look who's *almost* sitting up nicely for canter! 

Leg yields are steadily improving in both directions, tho going L to R is always harder. Turns out things go better when I post straight with my hips tho (a theme). Crazy talk.

Changes of bend were either really great or really shitty this ride - but mostly bc of aforementioned bracing. Still feels like progress tho.

Canter transitions were... mehhhh maintaining for now. As were our canter circles. But DAMN our canter down the long sides felt fantastic. Like she stayed really active and round in the canter, but I could shorten the stride and collect her up. And for longer than three strides without her breaking. Now I just need to figure out how to replicate that feeling on a circle lol.

brief moment of square in between dance steps

Trainer C and I also talked about the fix-a-test clinic this weekend (!!), and which test to ride: Training B or Prelim A? Prelim A has more first level movements that I want to practice in test settings, but is ridden in sitting trot. Training B only has lengthenings, smaller circles, and a stretchy trot, but is ridden in rising trot.

Ultimately C recommended Training B. She feels that with Isabel's recent fussiness, I need to focus on riding forward in the trot. That's legit challenging for me while sitting, so it's better saved for later. It's not like I'm sitting for my current competition levels anyway - 2nd level and prelim are both quite a distance away haha.

However Training B doesn't have all the movements I want help with (looking at YOU, leg yields!)... so I'll ask show organizers if I can ride Prelim A in rising trot. Either way tho, I know we'll get great feedback from this judge regardless of which test we ride.

"OMG WAT R DIS NO I CANNOT" - isabel

Back to the lesson, tho, rather than run through Training B again to finish up our session, we opted to shift gears on Isabel. The idea being, throw something new at her to engage her brain (and body) such that she might forget about all that distracting fussing.

And what new thing did we settle on? Shoulder-in.

canter helped a little

Recall I tackled this movement with C's mare Star back in January, resulting in many hilarious moments of fail. My biggest problems in that ride were pulling the inside rein and sitting too hard into my outside seat and leg.

hard trying mare tries hard

So right away I tried to avoid those traps. Not pulling the inside rein is... hard for me haha. As is posting straight ahead (instead of crookedly), and keeping an elastic soft outside elbow instead of just locking against the horse. Plus I need to remember to look UP more consistently lol.

baby steps, y'all

But I'm getting a better feel for turning my torso slightly in (as if we were turning across the diagonal or in for a small circle) and using my outside thigh to help hold things together.

It's definitely one of those movements that can't really improve until I put my own body in the right alignment... All the same, tho, I couldn't be happier with Isabel's honest efforts.

Things were a little better tracking right (you'll just have to take my word for it bc no video). Going left (our final effort above) was either just the head bent completely in, or all angle and no bend. But there are little moments of three tracks in there somewhere.

It was funny too, bc as we would circle at A or C in between attempting to do shoulder-in down the long side, Isabel would immediately go into this lovely connected trot, as if to say "OK I'm done fussing I will be good now!!" Which... might have been trainer C's nefarious plan all along lol.

rewards for a good effort

It was fun tho. I like tackling new movements, and can definitely see how this particular movement will start us down the path of transferring more weight to Isabel's hind end. It *is* a hard movement for her tho, so I'll be reading up on how to best ride it before getting too gung ho about drilling it unsupervised haha.