Dressage Aha's!

Great lessons today!!!

Fleck must be feeling GOOD because he's been a bit of a twit lately. Last night he was a bit goofy at dinner and I almost had to really smack him. But after I just had to giggle because his face is just so innocent and cute!
But anyways... at our lesson he was a bit spooky and naughty but it was fine. We started off a bit inverted but I managed to get him relaxed by leg yielding in and out. And Cindy told me to think of BOUNCE when he got inverted and work on getting the bounce in his stride and back, rather than focus on his head. Bounce was the theme of the day. :) So... working on the trot, I thought more about getting a bouncy trot and achieved it by almost thinking trot lengthen, but not quite. We actually got some fairly lovely work. :) 

Then we worked on the downward. I tend to be a bit... abrupt and aggressive. So Cindy had me think about bouncing into the walk instead of driving down into the walk. AHA!! It made so much more sense. It was great. I bounced him up into the walk. It was glorious!! 

We also worked on the small counter canter serpentine. I told Cindy after that I was so glad we worked on it because it's in my test for the show this weekend and she said "I know"!. Seriously... that woman has ESP! Or is just even more amazing than I thought. :) So we started off and it was okay. I tried to ride with my outside leg slightly back, like with Dan. And it helped stabilize the canter. Then Cindy told me to keep the bend, but push him over with my big toe. However, he can't lean, so I had to use my outside rein to support him and keep him upright, but really keep my seat cantering on the right lead so that I don't get a swap. But man... was that canter LOVELY!!! Cindy said it was 3rd level correct canter. :) Wheee!!

So that was about all we did, but it was worth it. Such an awesome lesson. Now if I can just channel that and keep it for the weekend. :)