Keep it simple stupid!!

 

Yep... You see the look Fleck is giving me. Duh.. 

So yeah... Dressage is simple.. it's just not easy. And apparently I make it way more complicated than I need to. Way more complicated. Sigh... 

But the good news is... now that I have had this pointed out to me... yet again... I can fix it. Hopefully ;) I had a really good lesson with Beth and then one or two good rides on my own. Basically I just need to go inside leg to outside rein and sit and wait. If Fleck fusses or doesn't cooperate, DO NOT change things. Don't decide that he's bulging out his outside shoulder so therefore I must close my outside leg and then... because he falls in... I must cross my rein in an effort to get him to stop leaning. And then because he's leaning, I want to fix that and must .... and the cycle goes on. Get my point... Just sit there and wait. Fleck will cooperate but it might take a few strides. 

And get this.. it works!! :) Inside leg to outside rein. The key is that I must remember the outside rein needs to stay steady. And especially on the right side, back. Basically I need to keep my elbows at my sides. 

So yep... in my lesson I was doing just that and then Beth had me do a few patterns... and then she had me halt. And she asked me "Now... WHY can't you ride like that in a test?"! hee hee. I do not know... I do not know. Sigh... So that's the plan. Ride SIMPLE! 

Oh, and then I mentioned that Sandy has said my downward transitions were too abrupt. So we worked on that. Beth had me add leg during the downwards. Only I couldn't manage to do that. So then we did a few transitions of canter to trot and right back up to canter. Only two steps of trot. After a few of those, she had me just come back to trot and stay at trot. Fleck threw his head up and was like "wait?! no canter?!" BUT... it accomplished what we wanted. I learned how to close my leg and ride an upward balanced downward transition. :) wala! 

And I have been able to mostly maintain it too! See... foamy mouth. And even better... equal foam on both sides! Yay... now to just see if I can do this at Paradise and not panic and revert back to my old bad habits.