Saturday, December 13, 2008

A good first lesson

My first lesson with Leslie Thursday night went very well. I told her of my despair re: ever getting Willow soft in front in the snaffle, and she agreed that that was her main priority. Her advice: a short "snap" of the outside rein whenever I feel Willow lean into the bit; basically just a rather stern "Hey! Stop it!" All the time keeping a steady inside rein. Steady hands are the ultimate goal, of course, but for now Willow is using the steadiness against me too much.

Also, we worked on collection in the walk. I need to stop letting Willow amble with her usual giant steps.

Willow's thoroughbred brain short circuited a few times, but we had no overt panicking or bolting. It's good for her to get her cage rattled and get over it.

I'm off to the barn this evening and we'll see how much I remember. I hope we can duplicate the good feeling we had at the end of Thursday's lesson.

1 comment:

Kathleen @ ForgingAhead said...

Sounds like a great lesson! It really helps to have someone on the ground who can see what's going on and give immediate feedback. I too had a great lesson yesterday and I'm excited to see if I can replicate ANY of it. Fingers crossed.