The Second Lesson With DT

Today we had our second lesson with the dressage trainer, herein referred to as DT. True to fashion we were kind of running late... so Holden was flown off of the trailer and dressed in record time. He took this all in stride, eagle eyed as he peered down past the trainer to the faint silhouette of horses behind a layer of tree boughs.

Our lesson began with a light chat about what we had done this week -- AKA, nothing. Holden had a pretty easy week, with two days off and some light rides W/T/C at Scarlett. He came into the lesson willing and much more relaxed than last week.

A short clip of our ride. Some things I need to work on is asking more of him in regards to contact. His rhythm was great today but I need to work on regulation. Keeping the contact consistent ("feel like you're keeping the bit in the corners of his mouth") and keeping my elbows bent to my hips, which I have a tendency to let get too loose. Keeping the outside rein consistent while keeping my arms back and up, as well as keeping the inside rein off of his neck as I ask him to bend with a more "open" connection.

Cantering we need to do more of. An exercise we worked on was figure eights - true bend, straight, change diagonal, change bend -- in that order. The four loop serpentine we worked on this week has really helped his responsiveness and my timing.

We have another to look forward to next week.