Lesson Monday & Quiet Tuesday

Lesson night - thanks to all the rain we had Monday morning, L and I had our lesson inside.  Which was fine, since we both needed to work on our dressage tests.  Only problem with inside lessons was 2 boarders trying to ride at the same time L was having her lesson.  Will be so glad when it is consistantly warm and reasonably dry to ride and lesson outside.

Our trainer had Riva and I working on keeping the contact while working on trot, walk, halt transitions.  Riva caught on to this quickly and quit flinging her head up after a couple of transitions.  We worked this way mostly on the 20 meter circle, sometimes going large around the entire arena.  We then moved to canter.  Riva has went so many ways with how she likes the contact for canter.  When we first began canter work under saddle, I was giving her lots of rein.  Then, she went to going better with some contact.  Now she is back to 'give me all the rein!'.  So my trainer said to let her have the inside rein and just steer with my shoulders - this is difficult for me.  I have to trust the Diva not to ram my knee in to the wall, overhead doors, etc.  I said a little prayer and gave her rein.  She did a full circuit of the arena, at canter, on both leads.  Yes!  Now if we can just keep this momentum going inbetween lessons.

Tonight - gorgeous weather.  L had to work and I was the only one riding at the barn tonight. So peaceful...inside arena was freshly dragged, pear trees in bloom...so of course, I had hubby take pictures :)

We worked on more trot, halt, walk transitions with constant contact.  We worked on varying trot speed, 20 meter circles, figure 8's, and some leg yield.  Riva was good, a little slow, not bad.  We went outside to ride in the dressage arena and work parts of the test.  Here is our big finish to Intro Test B:

She was a bit distracted out there tonight - cows in the neighbor's field were sooo interesting.  BO coming back from a lesson with 2 of her horses - very looky at them.  I was proud of her free walk and medium walk tonight - much improvement.  Trot was more energetic outside.  She got lots of 'good girls' for that.  Loving this weather!