J had me try a leg yielding exercise today that would challenge both my clarity in giving aids as a rider, and Max's quickness to listen.
We started at a trot and she had us trot from C to E and at E leg yield at the fence to the corner, then trot from A to B and then leg yield again to the corner. Rinse and repeat. After that we did it at canter/trot. This is when it started to get really fun. We would canter from C to E right up to the fence, transition to trot, leg yield, then canter at the corner from A to B, leg yield at the trot and so forth.
Then we did it all in the canter. Max felt like a soft bouncy pillow. It was an amazing feeling!
Left lead canter
Right lead canter
Pretty much everything I asked, he gave. I never had to ask loudly, and I never had to ask twice. Before our lesson we even walked through some huge puddles with scary reflections and ripples. He was a little hesitant but after some sniffing and looking he walked right in. We even stood in the middle of a deep puddle and he started to paw at it and play with the water. Hmm maybe it's time for some cross-country lessons!!
yessss you should definitely try cross country lessons!! haha sounds like a great ride all around :)
ReplyDeleteYour posts make it look sooo fun! Looks like I'll have to be more solid over jumps though...and a large body of water might just tip him over to crazy-land!
Deleteeh - the water is only really important if you want to compete. plus, who knows - after schooling once or twice max might be so gung ho about it that the water doesn't bother him (tho, sadly it still bothers my mare lol)
DeleteThe best feeling is when you end a lesson and your horse feels different. That's when you KNOW you worked hard and were successful
ReplyDeleteThat's so true!
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