Yes Ma'am!

 We had another lesson with Liz today. And I was not cranky! :) Funny wasn't either. 

We got tacked up and headed to the arena via the pasture. She was good. We walked around a bit and she was soft and relaxed and on the buckle but marching. Liz wanted to work on the walk so we did. We played with my body position again and getting Funny to bend. Basically... get myself straight and then allow her to settle into it. I have to keep my hands wide and my elbows at my hips, but giving. Keep my torso up and tall and stretch up my pouch and keep my eyes up, and.. to the outside. Which isn't really to the outside though it sure feels like it.. it's just straight! We also talked about her speed. Liz made the comment that she thought I was being good about not nagging her but that she felt like I thought she was too slow. Yes... yes, I do think that. I want to nag and get a bit more energy! But she pointed out that I like to go fast... and that wasn't necessarily energy. I had been told too many times to ask for more impulsion. And I equated that with speed. So, she told me close my eyes and listen to her hum as she was going to hum in time to Funny's legs. It didn't sound slow... but also it didn't quite match up with Funny's tempo in my mind. So somehow I figured out she was humming to her back feet and I was focusing on her front feet. In theory, it SHOULD be the same tempo, but.. it kinda wasn't. So then she kept humming but told me to sit up... oh! That actually changed things the teeniest bit. And then she had me think lift and add the tiniest bit of leg... so tiny. And it changed again! So Funny went from a nice walk, to a nice marching walk, to a nice knees to belly march! Ahhhhh!!! Liz said that was the highest she had gotten her hocks!  Way cool! So okay... the tempo can be slow and powerful and impulsed at the same time. Keep reminding me. :) 

From last time we decided that I needed to sink into my left stirrup and ride her balanced underneath me when we were tracking right. But, I kind of almost need to do that tracking left too. She wants to fall in and my tendency is to push her out and it kind of worked but not great. So Liz told me to almost sit left and get her balanced underneath me. If she's falling in, then I fall in with her but make her balance underneath me. And open my inside rein, but keep looking over her right ear. If I have to do a smaller circle, that's okay. It's less wrong to let her fall in and do smaller circles than it is to overbend him and let her fake bend. And eventually she'll get strong enough to stay out. Okay.. I needed that confirmation that it was okay to be "bad"... Oh yeah... I forgot ... like in my Kelly E lessons.. "the better bad". :)

We then did some serpentines and Liz had to correct me. She wanted me to send her haunches out to keep the bend but have her go straight for a few steps between the changes of bend/direction, but also... not lose her in the outside rein. Ahhh... back to the whole lesson I had with Jacel where it's not just sending her haunches out, it's sending her haunches out INTO the outside rein. So we did that and I finally got the hang of when to time it and when to change and when to stay straight and how to hold the outside connection and how to switch it from one outside connection to the other. It was cool though! If I was tracking right and changing to left, I had to get a nice right bend, then push the haunches out, step left, almost think of imperceptibly lifting my left hand a little, and my left hip a little, then closing both legs and sending her straight, then sink into my right stirrup, almost lift my right hand, then send her haunches right, guide her nose left, and then carry on. It was cool though how it changed when I "caught and kept the energy". 

So then Liz wanted me to go into the canter! Okay... It wasn't the smoothest of transitions from a walk to canter but it wasn't a bad transition. And the canters felt good! Even the left lead! I had to focus on my seat and my hip swap being more up and down than forward, but it worked. And it was lovely! We got a few steps of a really nice collected canter even! Sooo cool. And she was happy too. I do have to keep my arms wide.. I tend to get them too close together and then my shoulders drop and my elbows come forward. We tried to spiral in and Funny said it was HARD! But she tried and then she would fall out of it. Which is okay... we're learning and building strength. But it's definitely getting better every ride it seems! Whooo hoo. In fact, we got a really nice canter and then Liz told me to just lift my hands the tiniest bit... and then the tiniest bit more... and then the tiniest bit more... and Funny got so nice and collected and soft. And then I felt like she was about to break, so I got a little ahead of Liz and asked her to trot and we got a lovely downward. But Liz noted that had I waited one more second and done what Liz was about to tell me to do, it would have been even better. She wanted me to just close my knees to ask for the downward instead of the reins. ahhhh, darn! That would have been better. I mean, I wasn't asking BIG with my reins, just a little half halt but... had I closed my knees, she would have been that much softer and more lifted. So.. we'll have to remember that and try to practice that. But those few strides before, when I was lifting my hand, she had the shortest stride but it felt so powerful and nice! 

After another little break we tried to trot. And she was a bit fussier so Liz was like.. let her canter then. She can pick whatever pace she wants (within reason) but she has to do it well. So, if we're walking and I ask for a trot and she wants to canter still.. fine, but do a nice canter. Then when she wants to come down to a trot, let her... and do a nice trot. So we did.. because Funny was a little fussy, but... our trots got nicer so much quicker in the downwards. And we fairly quickly got some really nice trot work. I have to remember to do all my things... post up and down instead of forward, lift my sternum and belly and stretch up tall, keep my eyes pointed to the outside, don't cross my inside hand, ride her balanced underneath me instead of trying to fix her and get her to come to me, and a few more. I told Liz that I was still trying so hard to do all the right things that I was losing a bit of my feel in the ride... like, I couldn't ride off feel just yet because I was trying to do all the correct things. But, there were moments where I could ride off feel and did and there were moments where I could feel the wrong, and knew what I needed to do in my body to fix it. So yay! Progress for me too. 

Anyways.. it was a lovely lesson and Funny felt amazing!!! Liz and I both thought she looked a hair "fat" today. But while I saw belly, Liz saw overall and topline even. Yay! Good pony! Hopefully Thursday I can take her to Ashland for a nice long hack. She's earned it. 

photos; 2-26 great lesson