I had two interesting rides today. I decided to ride Holly western to work on position. Carla has been riding her and she is a little more tuned up. Steering seems to be my greatest challenge as you really have to ride off of your seat and leg and not rely on your hands which I obviously do too much! So I spent most of my time practicing riding circles, squares and straight lines trying really hard to get Holly to go where I wanted without using the rein. A good self taught lesson for me, boring for Holly.
Astaire was my next teacher. He has had a couple of days off so I was excited to try out what Kris helped me with on Tuesday. Wow! What a difference! When I expected that every step be supple, balanced and connected and when I rode in self-carriage, I was able to sit the trot and perform balanced transitions. I realized that I had been allowing Astaire to be lazy with his work. Raising the bar really helped as I was able to ride him in a more connected frame which helped him balance more on his hind legs and not tip onto his forehand. Light bulb day for me! Looking forward to practicing my skills on Jake and Astaire tomorrow.
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