Looking through my notes for the past four weeks, I've ridden inside alot. More than I thought, actually. Hmm. Need to get back outside when the weather (ie not 80 degrees with 90 percent humidity at 9 a.m.) and the footing allow.
Outdoors, Camaro is coming along in his workmanlike attitude--rather than being easily distractable. We walk, trot, and canter outdoors. Not as nicely as we do indoors, but that's to be expected. It's a work in progress. Last year I really wouldn't have thought about cantering in the outdoor arena because Camaro was so apt to spook at crap. Now, when it's time to canter, we canter! We also do leg yields at walk while going up and down the hill (the outdoor arena is on a definite uphill slope from A to C. . .). We do serpentines at walk and trot. We do 10m and 20m circles at walk and trot, and 15m or 20m at canter.
Indoors, WOW!!! Has this horse found his hindquarters and learned to engage his back! All three gaits are so. much. better. than at the beginning of the summer. Canter departs are pretty much exact at the trot (I confess I haven't tried from the walk yet, wanted to get relaxed departs from trot before going walk to canter). The canter itself is balanced. We can do circles as well as turn up or down the centerline and across the long diagonals. Today we even played with going from nice working canter to bigger canter on the long side and back to a more collected canter at the short end.
Leg yields are coming along nicely at walk. Off the right leg, they flow, and now and then I ask for a few strides at trot, which is hit and miss. Off the left leg, we're getting better. Still mostly sticky, although we can usually get 1-2 honest to goodness LY steps before he loses it and either comes above the bit or bulges his right shoulder. Now and then we hit 3 or even 4 LY steps in a row. But his left shoulder is his slightly steeper one (he's a touch club footed), so I'm guessing that has something to do with it. He has a chiropractor appointment on Monday and I'm going to ask her opinion on that theory.
I haven't tried asking him for travers yet, but I think I will soon. That will be a new thing for him. Now that he's not so confused about the canter aid, we might be ready to try a little travers at walk. My feeling is that it will be fairly easy for him to move his hindquarters in as long as he doesn't confuse that outside leg aid with asking for a canter.
For your viewing pleasure, below is a from behind picture of Camaro's rump. I'm really excited about how round it has become in the course of the last few months. He's getting some nice muscling over his topline, and is just so much stronger in the hindquarters. Hillwork (in the outdoor arena), plus lots of transitions, are starting to have a positive effect.
I'm a little bummed that my personal schedule didn't work out for us to go to any shows this summer, but we have made quite a bit of progress in our skills. Rather than being sorta, almost training level (canter? Is that a thing we can do?), I feel that now we are solidly training level and touching at first level. Hopefully we can keep that progress going into the Fall and Winter (school starts next week where DD1 teaches, so it's going to get trickier for me to ride 3 or more days a week like I have been able to over the summer).
There is a possibility that the barn where I board is going to host a small schooling show in October, so maybe we will get to dance for a judge this year after all.
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