6/26/13 lesson and 6/28/13 lesson and practice

This past Wednesday I rode Asti and although he was a good boy I was horrible....enough said
Today I rode Asto again and he was, as always, a good boy.  We worked on trot lengthenings.  It was good to finally get the jist of them and I had to picture a pupeteer when it cam to the half halt and almost lifting him up.  I also rode Fiona for a practice

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.

5/5/13 Lesson and practice rides following

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer so far!  I can't wait until our IDA season begins :)
Okay so for this past week in my lesson I rode Asti.  We worked on leg yields and staying super, super loose and turning my torso to the inside.  He was very good and cute as always.  I rode Asti the day after an practiced what we did in the lesson.  Friday I rode Asti and Fiona and today I rode Fiona.

5/29/13 Lesson and practices

That Wednesday (long time ago) I rode joey for my lesson in preparation for the show.  We worked on transitions and he was a good boy!

That Friday and Saturday I had practice rides, but they were cut short due to overly hot weather!

Sunday was show day and we scored a 63%, then a 66% for the re- ride

5/23/13 and 5/24/13 rides

5/23/13 rides-  I rode both Fiona and Asti.  (Asti we worked on leg yields/ shoulder ins/ bending and trying not to nag.
5/24/13 I rode fiona

5/22/13 Lesson

I rode Riley for my lesson.  He was such a good boy!  We started at a walk and getting him to walk like he was in the pasture.  Trying not to nag we would get him to have a more foward walk by one squeeze and then getting the leg hang.  This helped because  if I would get to naggy he would back right off and that would end up possibly frustrating both of us!  Once we did that at the walk with a round frame, we did this at the trot and that went well.  Lastly, we worked on T3.

5/17/13 and 5/20/13 practice rides

I rode Fiona both practices.