Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Kalae the awesome girl


Kalae did double duty and carried 2 riders each day for the 3 day clinic. She went first in the morning and then last of the day.

Her morning lessons were pushing the envelope or comfort zone and learning new things. She still worked in the afternoon but not quite as hard. Overall she needs more submission as when she tends to become more compressed she wants to come above the bit for moments (transitions) and also she becomes more crooked. She is not totally through. I need to work on thoroughness and straightness. When I get her more compressed and she is powered up I need to learn to be more subtle in my aids as it will require less from me. There is a fine line and it just takes feel and tact.

Homework is to begin to introduce the double bridle. Start with easy work so she gets used to double bridle. Do not work on my flying changes for a while. Work on my canter pirouettes and making the counter canter absolutely balanced. Think a wider working pirouette. Initially I was trying to make the Canter Pirouette too small and loosing the canter.
The canter needs to be absolutely straight. When I canter down the center line in right lead canter, she wants to put her HQ to the right. This makes the flying change to the L impossible. I have learned from the Kyra Kirklund symposium that I am subtly collapsing my waist to the R. This puts more weight on the L seat. The horse is harder to bend L. If I am conscious of this and collapse subtly to the L to counter the R collapse I feel more pressure in the R seat. Then suddenly my horse goes straighter. Need equal weight on both sides of the horses spine. Ride the horses back, not the saddle.
Her lateral work is OK, she is doing it but she could be more expressive in the lateral work. With time it will come.
* Video #1 is Trish and Kalae
* Video #2 is Marilee and Kalae - John advised to invest in more ground poles so that I have at least 12 in a fan position so the horse can really bend the joints and strengthen their muscles. He states Conrad Schumaker uses up to 16 poles in the fan when he comes to Goodwood every other month to teach.


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