6/19/13 Lesson

Okay, so it has been two weeks until today that I have ridden due to a mini vacation visiting family and the fact my car didn't want to stop for me and needed a brake job.  It felt great to be in the saddle and it felt even better that the lesson went well.  I rode Asti, who I love to pieces.  He is just oddles of cuteness and such a fun pony to ride.  We started of with some leg yielding which went well, I just need to remember to keep my shoulders forward.  We then did trot to canter transitions in the long side and practiced halts.  I had to be mindful not to halt with my hands and had to utilized a half halt more and a squeeze from my thighs.  Then practiced T-3 in prepartation fo rthe next schooling show.  It went pretty well, but when he gets tired he likes to abruptly slow down so I need to be careful of that as well as the canter diagonal that I ride him forward so he doesn't fall to the forehand.  Other than that, Bryn said the test was good.  I also am doing First Level test 1 which I am really excited about.  Bryn gave me tips for lengthening as I know I need to work on those.  I have the idea, but I just want to get a better feeling so we actually get good scores for that movement and especially First Level starts getting into finer points of dressage movement, so I want them to know what it feels like and get them as concise as possible.  The homework assignment was to YOUTUBE videos of the test and watch the movements. I have the idea and have done some, but I want a better feeling especially if I am showing Asti, I want to do them right and do lenghtenings the right way.