Coregel and the clinic

Rob very kindly came out and took pictures of Coregel and I on both days of the clinic. He also less kindly took some hat hair pictures of Laureen, but I am opting to not post those...

Apparently our good camera can take ok pictures in the indoor!

Coregel has come a long ways from the clinic in January were we didn't even dare try cantering!

Shelley has so much depth of experience having worked and trained in Europe that she has so much better of an idea of how and when to start pushing a young horse.

I had been working Coregel more or less like a little hunter, with the long and flat neck that comes natural to her, and just working on simple things like leg yield and big 20 meter circles. Shelley upped the demands on me and Coregel and we worked on:

- 15 meter circles at the sitting trot. (we did a fair bit of sitting trot...something i had not done much with her...she was very confused to feel my bum in the saddle at first, and I definitely need to work on my core, as she is nowhere as smooth as Lily or Jezz!

- Riding with a much shorter rein so that she has to come up and round a little more.

- Canter trot transitions, only letting her canter a few strides at a time...this was hard as I tend to let her canter forward to get her balance, so having to come back to trot so soon really made us work on being balanced right at the start of the canter.

- A little lengthened trot...although this got her a tad too excited!

- Some stretch trot....keeping contact with a low and wide hand.

- Trot walk trot, and trot halt trot transitions, trying to keep her round and balanced in the transition.

- Some shoulder in.

I also have to really work on:

- Not letting my left hand get flat

- Keeping my upper body back...I tend to revert to hunter mode!

- Strengthening my core so I can sit her inconsistent baby trot.

- Keeping my reins sort, but still keeping the contact soft.

Planning to have Shelley back at the beginning of May, so keep that in mind!

Karen