A part of the clinic at Brandt's the horses were exposed to applause. Remy loves this - when we were at the rodeo and the crowd roared he pulled him self into position and took it all in. Same last Saturday, ears perked, Remy scanned the crowd to make sure he got his kudos.
Yesterday we had the first lesson with Maryal in several months. After all the travel my body is not quite yet in "dressage mode", and the saddle on loan from Saumur is not helping my position. Even though it's been adjusted to Remy, it feels different to me as Remy is a much better mover (sorry, Saumur!) and the Flair (air) panels make the saddle very 'springy'. That worked great for Saumur's tight back, but not so much for me on Remy.
Maryal, as usual, honed right into my weaknesses. One of them is nagging (hold your comments, JP!). I didn't bring my spurs, so I over-compensated using my legs. Whispering - not shouting - was obviously the goal. We managed decent lateral work, and some nice and 'understated' changes. Not spectacular, but clean. Maryal had me up the ante in the medium caner, clearly working on the transition to collection by preparing Remy through shoulder-fore. It was a good and positive lesson.
Remy was disappointed though, he had put himself into position at the end the lesson, full expecting the well-deserved applause. Alas, no spectators except JP, so cookies had to suffice. Remy says "OK, but next time I want both!". Duly noted, I have a CD with show noises, guess we'll amp it up!
No comments:
Post a Comment