Poor hard working Flecky

Poor Fleck.. he placed well in the horse trial yesterday and then had to go do a dressage lesson today! No rest for the wicked! Ha... Fleck has not a single ounce of wicked in him. But we had fun. It was a good lesson!

We started out working on the trot and I had to remember to ASK for the good trot. Fleck doesn't just give it to me. Then we worked on the canter. Cindy had me do a square serpentine. So square turns and canter pirouettes (fake baby ones for us) instead of an arc. It was good. But prior to doing that, we had a discussion. I got flustered and was having a hard time keeping Fleck square and upright but with inside flexion. Cindy pointed out that I was asking for one or the other, not both. I would ask him to counter bend and get his shoulder in line but then when I got that, I'd drop him and ask for inside flexion and he would just pop that shoulder back out. So... I had to ask for both. And she gave me a helpful hint. I could use an indirect rein with my outside rein, coming to the inside, to straighten that shoulder. It was essentially the counter bend or the renver without being so obvious about it. It was very helpful. I managed to get Fleck up and straight and square!! No throwing away that outside rein. Then we got to do the square serprentine thing and it was fun. Hard, but fun. 

Such a good boy!