Anyway, for our last lesson we were in a tiny, very rutted, uneven bit of field while the ring gets a complete revamp. It will be much bigger and no longer stonedust. Soon, it will be covered. Whoot! However, our riding area left a lot to be desired.
Despite all that, Denise said it was my best lesson yet. She can't get over my improvement in such a short amount of time. Again, she told me that my posture was perfect, and my one downfall was my hands. I can't remember to keep them closed! She threatened to tape them around the reins. Heehee.
We worked a lot on straightness (again) and controlling his gait speed. She gave me a new way to turn Peanut when he starts being difficult. It is only for then, although Rick was given it as a tool to help stretch out Gene's neck.
Basically, take one arm and straighten out the elbow so that the hand is at the knee. On the other side, just let the rein go forward so that the horse has the room to turn. This will put the horse in a tight circle in the opposite direction of where it wants to go (if being difficult) or just stretch out the neck for a stiff horse. You don't even have to do it much - the horse quickly gets the idea and stops drifting (he kept drifting near the fence towards the other horses).
She taught me to inhale when I want to slow, and exhale when I want speed. Very interesting results, especially with the stop. She got on me to keep all tension out of my seat when asking for up transitions, since it's like stepping on the brake and gas at the same time.
Since the ground was so uneven, Peanut kept wanting to canter up it. I would give the seat command to slow... and he'd normally fall to a walk. The first time, I said that I have to learn to be subtle. Denise said that I already was subtle - she couldn't even see the cue that I gave. However, Peanut and I can feel everything through the Fhoenix, so I have to be extra subtle.
In the canter, he'd fall from the canter to the walk and then to the stop after a couple steps. I could not be any more subtle. Hopefully it will be different in the ring. With each of those transistions, I felt like they were sloppy and ugly and kept stopping to shake my head at myself. Instead, Denise said they were wonderful. Peanut was balanced beautifully throughout and went right into an even 4-beat walk. He did not fall apart at all, which is how it felt to me.
I was very tense in the lesson, however, and hopefully when the ring is together it will be even better. I was just thinking too much about the terrain on top of what I was supposed to be doing, and that was frying my two braincells.
Rick's lesson, which I got to see a part of, was truly monumental. He was finally able to control Gene's trot simply with the speed of his posting. Yes, we'd known of this technique, but Rick never got it to work before. I was very happy, as was Rick, and Denise was proud. It was a great lesson.
Rick's saddle was mailed off today to the saddler to be modified. Moving the knee rolls, changing the point billet, and shortening Rick's 72" (yes, you heard me, 72"!) stirrup leathers. He used to ride in them just fine, but once Denise shortened his stirrups they were too long. Us mortals always had to wrap the leathers around the stirrups, and now he has to too! Ok... they're not wrapped as many times as they are for me.....
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