diaryofarider

So we had a great lesson on Saturday. ^_^ Trudi seems to love the new happymouth eggbutt, so I'll have to thank Bent for the suggestion to switch bits. She was much steadier in the contact and went very well overall. We worked on our nemesis, the canter, and did some circles where we cantered half, trotted half, cantered half, and so on. Jessica had me really concentrate on giving my inside rein (which I want so desperately to snatch up and hold onto) and Trudi was really good. We worked on giving more on the inside rein and getting her more through into the outside in all three gaits, and again the bit helped here. We had a moment where I had Trudi totally through and into the outside and soft on the inside rein, and I KNEW when I asked for the trot that the transition would be perfect. "That's how you want it to be all the time," Jessica said, "and eventually, it will be." We also worked on voltes and shoulder in at the trot, and that really exposed some holes. I'm not riding every step nor keeping her bent enough through the body, and I'm relying way, way too much on my inside rein. But we got much better at the walk and I know it will just take some time and Trudi needs to build up strength as well.