Thursday 21 April 2016

Dressage clinic with Denise O'Reilly April 2016

We finally got to do the postponed dressage clinic the first week in April. Having lessons over 3 consecutive days was great, only maybe I could have done with a couple more! The first issue to sort out was Fina's fast trot, she sets off like a runaway train, which was taking me out of position and my timing was poor on correcting her and releasing when she steadied so that had to be addressed before we could move on. We did however get complimented on improving her lateral suppleness. I needed to (continue to) work on my core which still tends to collapse. I was put in a body belt to help remind me (like being back in pony club when you had a crop stuck down your shirt or behind elbows!) but we were getting a much steadier trot and flashes of some nice work, and good results from the various exercises. We stayed in trot work and didn't get on to any canter work or advanced movements but made real progress in the areas I felt I needed help on, like the trot speed and tempo, and my position and the effect on Fina's way of going, and our communication. On day 3 we managed some nice soft thoughtful trot work with flashes of how Fina will feel like if I keep this up; she has a really exciting powerful trot when steady and engaged, and when it all came together for a few strides, it made me smile as I remembered how it should feel like (from a time when I rode better and on "proper" horses). We can't do the next clinic, which is in June, but maybe the autumn one, if my purse allows. The good news is that the steady, thinking trot is still with us, even when hacking Now I really must get a bit of flat field fenced off.



Before...

... After