Time to go back to school for Remy today. He didn't object to boarding his school bus, and I made sure my precious cargo had a smooth ride (as much as that's possible if you deal with car-eating pot holes).
After my last ride I had thought a lot about what I could do differently and my overall approach to the changes. So today my goal was to focus on canter departs (prompt, smooth, on the aids) and working on an overall good canter, with me sitting in balance and quiet. The left canter is usually the better one, so would I be able to get the right lead as good?
I had told Judy that I'd rather not try the changes, let's just get good canters. Judy, of course, was all for it and very encouraging. It must be frustrating for her, too, to see how things can disintegrate from change to change. Especially as Remy obviously has no problems doing the changes for her (big sigh here - what's wrong with me??).
Well, we had very good canters, overall Remy felt soft, smooth, supple - obviously, the Monday Blues stayed away today. So, while on a happy ride I thought I'd throw in a change, and it was clean. Alas, as Judy pointed out "you partied three strides too early" as in my happiness I let Remy come on the forehand and he didn't push from behind as he should have. When we talked about the lessons afterwards Judy pointed out that I was less tense today going into the changes. My problem is that I want so badly to have them clean and checked off as "got it" I get tense and my muscles are tight, confusing Remy. Take-away from today is that I need to relax (duh!), deep breath, keep the good canter, sit quiet, and then ask. It will come, after all, Rome wasn't built in a day either.
As a sage Frenchman pointed out "It's not how fast you get there - it's the quality of how you get there". Oui, chef! (said with a grin to JP).
No comments:
Post a Comment