This weekend Gwen and Suzanne were here for a clinic. We lucked out with the weather -- chilly, but sunny and almost no wind. I bought Gwen and Suzanne heated mini-blankets, and they were a big hit. It's something to consider for your next winter clinic!
This past week I got two right-to-left flying changes without a ground pole. Woo! I was worried Suzanne wouldn't believe me, but Saturday I got one again! It has been a LOOOONG time coming. Maybe we'll be ready for third level at the rated show in April after all. I don't have video from Saturday, but I do have it for Sunday. Suzanne and Gwen thought a good exercise to sharpen up the flying changes would be going back to simple changes through walk. So there's video of that, and there's video of our first attempts at canter half pass. The only time I ever did canter half pass was on the schoolmaster, Aron, that I leased back in 2005-2006, and his canter half pass was so confirmed and easy that it didn't really help me learn how to train it. Today on Clair we got a few baby strides each direction, and I got the right feeling.
I also rode Dakota. He'd had a couple weeks of just lungeing off the halter due to his teeth, which needed to be floated. His teeth were done Wednesday, and I got a couple rides in before the clinic, but he was a little bit above the aids part of the time. Nevertheless, we made some good strides in improving his canter, and even got a soft, clean, canter-walk transition to the left. I'm hoping to show him second level at some point this year, even if it's a schooling show.
