Lesson

Luran was SUCH a star today!!super pleased with him! He had a bit of a tiz looking at things like they were about to eat him at the begining if the lesson, as we had to go down the lane into the other school, and he is scared of the big wide world haha. He is good though, i dont mind him looking at things, but he isnt to run away, or refuse to go forward. So it took him a few mins to settle, which we spent getting him into the corners of the school properly. He was really together and off my leg today, all the work we've been doing on transitions is def paying off, instructor noticed he's more in front of my leg too. did some wrok getting him to stride out in trot, and then we did some work on how i was sitting to be most effective, using my tummy muscles to pull him up and drive him forwards, and using my hips to "push' him forward. This made such a difference in canter-sitting up properly, shoulders back, chest open, hands carried, and driving him forwards with my hips/tummy muscles meant that i didnt have to chase him so much with my leg. I found him more difficult on the right rein in canter, as he was stiffer this was, i found it hard to use by seat effectively to push him forward, as i just felt like i was being bounced out. Using my inside hip/seatbone to really push done into the saddle helped him go better on this rein. got him to really lengthen out in canter, and he felt really in front of me, rather than feeling like i was dragging him along under me-haha i think he was doing his 'i was a showjumper you know?!' canter for me! he was really starting to come down into a nice outline as well today. did some more work on walk/canter and trot/halt today. def easier to get to canter/trot than it is to walk or halt back from it, so i am going to practise lots of that this week. Bless him got all excited about it! we even got halt to canter, which i was very impressed with him for, it was nice and calm, and not because he was hyped up, so was dead pleased! Think he was having a bit of a talk to himself the whole way through today, was really mouthing his bit and pulling some funny faces! I also seem to have lost the ability to tutn properly at the moment, so we practises lots of E-B and A-C changes of rein, so that there were 'definite sharp' turns, so he was pivoting around rather than just drifting around. oddly difficult! we are gonna get that spot on for next lesson!

super proud of how hard he worked today!