Leg Yields and More Jumping

  For Wednesday's lesson, I worked a lot on leg yields, a new skill I'm working on. I first trotted Chester around the dressage arena and across several diagonals. Then I did some serpentines, working on making Chester look to the inside of the circle as I rode, using my inside leg to keep him on the correct path. I'm getting better, but it still needs some work.

 I started practicing the leg yields at the trot, heading up centerline every time I reached A or C. At first I began heading left in the dressage arena. When I reached A, I turned up centerline and tried pushing Chester over to B. Then at C I again went up centerline and pushed him over to E, and so on. I had trouble doing this at first. Chester mostly tried to do a diagonal, not a leg yield, so Meghan told me to slow him down with some half halts when I was leg yielding.

 After trying quite a few times in each direction without a real leg yield, Meghan suggested trying the same thing at a walk. She said to not let Chester go forward unless he went sideways and to increase my leg aid to push him over. Meghan helped me a couple times by pushing over. Finally, when I tried on my own, I got Chester to do a leg yield to the right. To reward Chester, I changed the subject and began trotting him around the dressage arena.

Trying to do a leg yield

 After that, I did more canter work, heading both directions all the way around the dressage arena. I'm getting much more confident at the canter, which is good, but I still need to work on controlling Chester when cantering straight; his canter is pretty fast. Additionally, I need to find my rhythm at the canter and work on letting my hips swing with the motion. All that will come with more practice. Anica had joined the lesson again, so she showed me how to ride the canter. Now I have a visual so I can do it better.

Cantering left lead

 Next, Anica and I both did jumping again. I approached the cross rail a slow trot like last time, this time landing in the canter left and slowing back to the trot as I neared the jump again. I tried to keep my eyes up, though I couple times I glanced at the jump as I approached it. The jumps turn out better if I keep my eyes up, which of course is why I'm told that.

Jumping.  I behind me is another cross rail I had jumped.

 After jumping several jumps, I changed directions. This time I would be riding toward the gate. the challenge with this is that horses tend to go faster as they near the gate. Luckily, I didn't seem to have a problem.While I jumped I worked on putting my hands forward so I didn't yank chester in the mouth. There were several times that went very smoothly: my hands were forward, my eyes were up, my heels down, and I didn't slam into Chester back as he landed. I didn't even grab his mane for balance. I had a lot of fun.

Landing from the cross rail.

 I ended by jumping to cross rails placed close enough together that Chester would land then jump the next one. When I went fairly well over the two jumps, I ended the lesson on that good note and cooled Chester out with Anica and her horse, Roxie. I enjoy jumping. It's especially good that Chester doesn't over-jump and clear the jump with feet to spare as some horses may do. That way it's easier for me to find my balance while I learn to jump. The lesson was fun and successful.

Canter Serpentines and Cantering Straight

I had a great, productive lesson today with lots of cantering, even in a straight line for the first time on Chester. Another girl, Anica, was riding with me on her horse, Roxie. Other than not having much go and acting a little bit lazy(I had to push him a lot to get him to canter), Chester was nice today.

 I started with a trot circle to the left at A. As I have been for these past few lessons, I worked on getting Chester to look to the inside and get to all the points on the circle. I did fairly good for just that circle, but when I started a serpentine a little later after trotting around the dressage arena, I didn't always go completely  to the points while keeping his head to the inside. I need to use a lot more inside leg to keep him on the serpentine.

This picture is nice.

  After that, I watched Anica ride a canter serpentine with simple changes of a walk stride in between each part of the serpentine. Then, I gave it a try, except with a trot transition to change leads in between. It took quite a bit of kicking to get Chester going because he wasn't as fresh and energetic as usual. This time I put my outside leg behind the girth and squeezed rather than using mainly my voice to get him to canter. It went well, though I had to do it several times because I couldn't get him to canter for the last circle of the serpentine. The other parts went well though. Finally, I managed to get the full serpentine with cantering in the right places. It was great!

Part of my serpentine

 The next exercise Anica and I worked on went like this: Trot up centerline, leg yield to B, then canter through the corner to H and head across the short diagonal back to B. Next, canter to the corner, turn up centerline, and do a canter leg yield to E. At C, walk.

I'm sitting up in the saddle, but I love this picture. Chester's head position even looks nice.

 I had to practice this pattern quite a few times to get it right. The first two times I looked down at B and ran into the cone, so I focused and started another time. At B I put my leg back and kicked him into the canter. There were a couple times when he just trotted quickly, but the final time I rode the pattern it went as planned. I leg yielded to B by putting my leg behind the girth and pushing him over. Then, I kicked him into the canter, rode around the corner, and crossed the diagonal to B after reaching H. Next, I cantered around the corner and up centerline, pushing Chester over to E while still cantering. Finally, I reached C and walked.

Trotting

 It's fun cantering straight and off the circle, and I really enjoyed the serpentine and pattern. I watched Annica ride her 2nd level test, then ended the lesson by riding through my Intro level test. The halt at X was nice, the temp was great, but I took a few circles at A to get him to canter, even with putting my leg behind the girth. The circle left went much better; he cantered right away.

Cantering around the corner, heading toward H.

 After ending my test, I rode around the property with Anica to cool out both horses. We went behind the paddocks, passed some trees, which is a way I haven't gone before, then after turning at the barn we went around the arena and towards the dirt track the girls sometimes ride on. We hosed our horses off then put them away. I gave Chester four cookies for working so hard. It was a fun lesson. I can't wait to do more cantering straight and on serpentines like I did.