Before I forget

One of the reasons I started blogging was to chronicle my Wednesday night lessons so I could look back and review what I had learned. The other day I wanted to do a drill that I have done many times with TL and I couldn't for the life of me remember all the intricacies. I came back to my blog and looked to see if I had written it out and of course I hadn't. So tonight I asked TL to go over one more time and she was gracious enough to indulge me. Here it is.

Loping from one corner to the other, round the corner and lope down to the other corner (diagonally - think a rubber band). This gives you a little more distance then just loping straight across. Get a good cadence in the lope where the horse is relaxed and moving well. When you are going along nicely start to push your horse up in the bridle and then release. Make sure not to let the horse dive into the corners. Make sure that if the horse speeds up you make them slow back down by making a small circle until the pace is back where you want it. Continue to lope, and push into the bride, and release, make the corner, lope, push into the bridle, and release. When you are able to do this really smoothly you can ask to push the hip into the inside. Make sure that they are straight or a little bit arched to the inside when they are moving the hip to the inside. Ask for a step or two and release. Eventually you are going to ask for a lead change. After you move the hip to the inside you are going to take your outside leg off and put your inside leg on and ask for the change. If they change you let the fence stop them.

We also worked backing circles. I need to remember to release faster, keep the body arched to the direction I am pushing the hip towards keep the shoulder up. Use both moving the shoulder and the hip to achieve backing nice circles.