As we warmed up, she made a really good comment to not use horsenalities as an excuse. When thinking about canter circles and such, I don't play the "He is an LBI, he can't do it" card, but I did find myself using that as an excuse to go slow. I know its okay to warm up slow and match his energy, but she made me realize that if he knows something and has had enough time to wake up, there isn't any reason why he can't do it as a normal pace. Our sideways game has always been inch by inch; responsive, but very slow. He has been doing the sideways game for over 2 years now, time to step it up a notch!
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| Slow going. I love that we are resting the same leg! |
Once I got on, she really brought 'focus' to my attention. From my previous dressage lessons, I am pretty good with the concept, but Laura did help me clarify a lot of things! We played with circling around a cone. WAY harder than it sounds! I kept losing my focus and either looking down at him when I used my carrot stick or looking sideways at the wall if he fell to the inside. Rather than change my focus to the wall, I need to keep my focus on the circle while asking him to move back to the correct track. Interesting!!
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| Blurry, but a great picture of our focus on the circle! |
I know this probably sounds silly since I am LBE/LBI, but freestyle lessons are always such big confidence boosters for me. Freestyle is definitely my most challenging savvy and sometimes I am too intimidated to get out there and try things for fear of failure (which relates back to this post). Every freestyle lesson I have had (4 now) puts more and more arrows in my quiver and the more comfortable I am starting to feel with it. With summer just around the corner, I hope to continue to add to my quiver and thank everyone (especially Juli and Laura) for helping me get all those arrows!
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| Thanks, Laura! |
Thanks to Evan for taking the pictures :).
you'll be flying through L3 freestyle in no time!!
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