Lesson Recap: Pushing Into the Half Halt

Man I know I sound like a broken record but DAMN it feels good to be back on the weekly lesson schedule :) last Saturday I had another lesson, and Ruby was all business. She's such a good egg <3 we keep chipping away at those first level pieces, and Saturday's lesson had a good focus on my body position (aka stop curling into the fetal position) and also some good tips on the canter departs (and how to make them less... explosive... lol). It's so nice to have photos and videos from the lesson, because at the canter I literally felt like I was leaning so far back I was going to fall off, but reviewing footage indicates I was.... barely sitting up straight? Your body LIES to you. I distinctly remember that being a takeaway from a Centered Riding clinic I audited AGES ago lol. 

Just sitting up straight. Not falling off the back lol. 

Also need to remember to not leave the door completely open when I'm asking for a leg yield - if we're leg yielding right, my right leg does in fact still need to stay on the horse... haha. 

And one of the more important bits that stuck in my brain was to push Ruby up into the half halt in my canter departs, instead of making the trot so small before the transition that she has nowhere to go with the energy but explode - and that bit of wisdom was caught on video, so I can watch the footage over and over with InstructorB's voice in my brain, lol. 

A little work on making the trot smaller...

...then a little bigger, but still under control. 

We do track right also, lol. 

....still feeling like I'm going to fall off the back. Still just barely sitting up straight haha. 

I'm doing.... something with my arms. No idea what lol. 

also not sure what's going on here but Ruby looks good so let's ignore whatever it is that I'm doing haha. 

Still a lot of work to be done on consistency in the canter - with the current level of fitness she'd much prefer to just zoom around vs the really lovely adjustable nice canter we had before when we were in regular work, but it'll come back. 

So grateful for friends who are willing to give up chunks of their day to come hang out and help me get media - not only do I get so much value out of the lessons, but sitting down and going through photos and watching the videos really helps solidify the concepts in my brain so I can keep working on them :)