Wow, great lesson! Today was the first day where I thought, HEY, maybe Dressage doesn't SUCK! My horse is getting lighter on the fore, more responsive, just better. We worked on transitions on the circle and getting the nicest, softest changes. We have come a long way! Loma mentioned how nice our cantering looked! We worked on walk-canter transitions, beginning to get roundness and collection on the circle. We started working on asking her to leg yield (disengage the hind) before every transition. It helped her get more collected, she got way more balanced and our transitions were just fantastic.
My take-aways: 1) keep her on the circle and when she falls in lead her back out and then use a leg yield to get her round again 2) ask for a leg yield just before a transition up or down 3) if she gets out of balance, slow her down and start again 4) keep her moving forward in a leg yield and keep the inside rein light, the outside rein keeps her from falling in 5) make sure to keep my chest high and energy forward in all gaits 6) there is no sidepass in dressage, energy is always forward.
I'm considering entering a training level dressage show. Loma thinks we could do it just fine and I'd be very interested in the experience of a dressage show. I've got to get my filming in for L3 and the instructor class, then I think I'll go for a dressage show.
I also helped Chrissy out with the catching game with Cowboy and then later with building her assertion and confidence. She's building her self-confidence as Cowboy's leader. He's being very patient with her, but if she's not clear he's not going to put much effort into it. She's doing great, she looks like every other L1 student looks at first. She's ready to move to L2 stuff and I'm pushing her along so Cowboy doesn't start to hate the 7 games.
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