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Mar. 16th, 2011 08:55 amTrudi was a darn good kid last night. The tweens were out and jumping, and so Trudi calmly trotted over a teeny 1' vertical a few times and then we went back to doing shoulder-in and such down the long side. The kids left, I moved the jumps out of the way, and then we did some canter work. To the left, I finally felt like I was starting to comprehend the canter- I finally sort of felt and understood the diagonal nature, and so I was able to influence the hinds in a more isolated, appropriate way that was much more fluid and in tune and much less disruptive to Trudi. The beats and the footfalls have typically been hard for me to really get, but I finally felt the sort of diagonal quality that it has- yes it's 3 beats, but it's still like diagonal pairs, so you can influence the inside hind when the outside shoulder is up, and you can influence the outside hind when the inside shoulder is up. Timing wise, you should be quicker when the outside shoulder is up, but if you are a little too quick when the inside shoulder is up, I don't think that really matters because it's that moment of suspension, so it's ok to be influencing the hind then.
So anyway, things went really well to the left once I had this figured out and there was a bit of a nice swing to my gathering up the hind legs. Pretty great.
To the right, it's still much harder, and she gets quicker and unbalanced more easily. She feels much weaker this way, and at one point I felt her go "I can't." and we came back to trot, walked, switched directions and took a bit more walk break, and then went back to the right and had some really lovely strides down a long side and then I quit for the day. She had a really good work ethic yesterday and I was very appreciative of it.
It's interesting to get some payoff from all the time spent at trot when we were not cantering. Some of the stuff I figured out then applies now and it's nice to already have that knowledge.
What transfers?
1. Rushing is the result of a loss of balance.
2. You really can't fix straightness with 1 leg. You have to fix both hind legs, though you do it one at a time. If you just keep trying to get that lagging outside hind with your outside leg, things don't really get better. You have to get the inside too, or else the horse just swings away from your leg. So it's always a 1,2. Get the one, then get the other to keep the horse from overcorrecting.
So anyway, things went really well to the left once I had this figured out and there was a bit of a nice swing to my gathering up the hind legs. Pretty great.
To the right, it's still much harder, and she gets quicker and unbalanced more easily. She feels much weaker this way, and at one point I felt her go "I can't." and we came back to trot, walked, switched directions and took a bit more walk break, and then went back to the right and had some really lovely strides down a long side and then I quit for the day. She had a really good work ethic yesterday and I was very appreciative of it.
It's interesting to get some payoff from all the time spent at trot when we were not cantering. Some of the stuff I figured out then applies now and it's nice to already have that knowledge.
What transfers?
1. Rushing is the result of a loss of balance.
2. You really can't fix straightness with 1 leg. You have to fix both hind legs, though you do it one at a time. If you just keep trying to get that lagging outside hind with your outside leg, things don't really get better. You have to get the inside too, or else the horse just swings away from your leg. So it's always a 1,2. Get the one, then get the other to keep the horse from overcorrecting.
