Right leg blues......

Flecky's such a good boy.... :) And I'm getting it!!!

Started out my ride today and I'm getting the hang of this new way of riding. It's hard, and not instinctual yet, but I'm enjoying thinking!!! :)

But of course... new things popped up. We can get our left shoulder in fairly well... but the right shoulder in just doesn't go as well. I feel like he's leaning in and throwing his haunches in... which then makes me pull my right leg back. NO!!! I need to almost push my right leg forward and about really putting it into his armpit. It's not that his haunches are falling in.. it's that his shoulders are falling in. So... if I put my right leg forward, and really make him bend around my leg... and ignore his haunches, because when I do that... he straighens up horizontally and can then bend around my leg into a proper SI. yay! I also think it sorta helps to sink onto my left seatbone, but that just seemed to work ... not really sure if it's the correct thing to do.
Then.. we got a LOVELY medium trot...and then I panicked cause it got big and totally grabbed at Fleck and pulled him off balance. Egads... So no face grabbing....steady and half-halt with my core and my seat.
What else... oh.... don't be so quick to get up off the saddle... sit longer. But expect him to stop... he's not used to it and it shuts him down. So... be prepared and put my leg on before I sit longer so that I can support him through the longer sit.
What else??.... Oh! At the canter... my big ol' bootie gets in the way with my saddle, but... if I pull my legs away (adduct) for a second and then put them back...it gets my seat bones where they need to be. Which is a little harder to do at the canter than the trot and walk, but doable. :)

So... that's it. I hope I can put it all together and get as nice of a ride at Poplar this weekend as my warm up the other weekend. :)