We began the session at the walk and did a lot of work establishing a contact and connection from the inside leg to the outside rein. The purpose being to activate Vienna's inside hind leg so that she could release her back and then come through up to the bridle.
Most of the work was done on a small serpentine with bending lines. We really started to get Vienna up through the shoulders and she started to lay off the bit a little too.
In the trot work, the first emphasis was on going forward. Because she is a young horse, you want the young horses going forward. Heinrich asked me a lot to keep sending her forward and when we finally got what he wanted it felt great. I was also thinking in the back of my head, "Shit, I don't know if I can control this!". Again, we worked a lot on bending lines, especially through a change of rein across the diagonal. This exercise helped me out a lot in terms of timing my aids.
As mentioned in prior blogs, canter departs have been a limiter for us. Again, we dealt with some bucks coming into the canter. Heinrich put us on a 20m circle at the trot and then had me ride a diamond shape within the circle to control the outside front shoulder. Once I was able to get that connection we had some good departs.
Just like the trot, Heinrich asked for a bigger, more forward canter than I had been previously riding. Again the movement felt great and again I was wondering from time to time if I could control the horse.
In the clinic I wore an ear piece to hear Heinrich's instructions. Numerous times I lost the ear piece because of Vienna's movements so I was having to ride one handed while trying to put the ear piece in. Maybe that's why I thought I couldn't steer ;).
Overall, I was very pleased with the lesson. Not only to I realize I was riding Vienna too conservatively, but that I could ride this horse well. I was really pleased to get the timing of my aids down better.
The big highlight for me was the next day when Heinrich was talking to Vienna's owner and told her basically that when he saw Vienna 3 months ago he wasn't terribly impressed. But after seeing her the day before with me, he was very happy with the horse's progress! That felt good to hear.
We show in 3 weeks!
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