Luckily I had an easy day before my lesson today, opposed to yesterday's 6 horses to ride. I just had one to hack out which was lovely, then went to pizza hut for lunch which poor Squirrel probably didn't appreciate as I ate at least half a stone worth of pizza!
Luckily the rain and wind had died down slightly when we arrived at Warren's. I popped the dressage saddle on as felt we needed a bit of a push in our flatwork to stop it getting a bit aimless. Well, afterwards I was glad for the easy day as my muscles are screaming at me!
We worked basically on our wonkyness. On the left rain, especially, I have a habit of drawing my inside hand acros the withers to attempt to stop him from falling in. Only this brings my shoulders forwards, Squirrel sets himself against my hand, my knee ends up gripping and I'm falling out to the outside.
So we were working on me keeping my inside hand out. Occasionally he got me to ride with it by my thigh (mainly whilst spiralling in from a 20m circle in trot, then going into canter and spiralling back out) as it kept my posture more open, my inside shoulder back. I had to try and keep my outside seatbone in the middle of the saddle to allow him to move his hind legs under him. Also not forgetting to stop my outside elbow flapping like a chicken! He also got me to ride with "flat hands". Basically holding the reins almost upside down with my fingers on top and thumbs facing his ears. This was interesting as it stopped me doing too much with my hands, and I was surprised to find Squirrel actually stayed in a lovely outline PROVIDED I was keeping my shoulders in the right place, opening my knee and not flapping my elbow. Interesting.
It was hard on me. I felt Squirrel didn't do a lot but when I untacked him he had sweated more than normal. I guess he was having to balance himself which required more effort than just leaning on me! I'm certainly feeling it now, and looking forward to testing it on the horses when I'm working tomorrow!
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