Last lesson (aka #IV)

My wonderful week off came to a close today with my final (for now) lesson with Nancy this morning. It went really well, S (teacher) was very happy with how it went and so was i - truth be told. Although of course I wish I was less of a lopsided putz,  but hopefully one day I'll manage to sort myself out ;-)

Mirror Magic post-spin selfie

My biggest takeaway from today's lesson is TRANSITIONS with Nancy, lots of upwards & downwards transitions walk/trot and trot/canter.

And circles + serpentines, I need to help her learn to bend through her body (especially going right). We both need a lot of work on that side, so we shall buckle down together. Oddly (and actually really cutely) when S had me release my inside rein and pat N our bend on that rein would improve. Lesson to be learned from that is unsurprisingly i am the problem. But now that I know that is a solution for now, I shall work with it while praising her - win/win right?!

Headless Horse

There was also plenty of "long leg" comments, this is teachers way of saying heel down. Again my left leg is worse than my right. It is also inclined to sneak further back than it should. I need to really concentrate on keeping it on or near the girth and turn my toes out, heels in and of course down.

Another takeaway from the previous lesson with Nancy which I forgot to mention in that post (lesson II) was my sensation of when Nancy is carrying herself well. Where I wrongly thought her over bent or curling in on herself, apparently she was actually doing well.
BAD ME! :-/

S also suggested I put a flash strap on Nancy to help stabilise the bit in her mouth as we'll be doing a fair bit of turning while we work on circles and serpentines and we are not yet sensitive enough to seat and legs to undertake these tasks without some rein aids.

She just stood up from a roll, she actually
wasn't as cranky as she looks lol

I didn't end up riding Kika today as it was super cold and I was on a deadline to meet my mam this afternoon to go to an outlet sale for kitchenware. Plus I wanted the girls to get some turnout before I had to bring them in early due to a road race going past their field this evening.
This has definitely been one of the best weeks off work i have had in a long time ☺
I am exhausted but in a good way and feel like I got to spend plenty wonderful time with my girls and can hopefully check back on these haphazardous write ups to keep the lessons in mind and all going well schedule a few more before this month is over! We'll have to see what the situation is at the office when I get back in Monday morning...