transitions

i was pleasantly surprised when i went for my lesson today, to find that i would be matched with Ruby once more. megan simply stated, "yes, horses spook sometimes," when i inquired about last week's incident. cool! i was happy to be reunited with the little knucklehead, as i truly feel i'm on the verge of really excelling with her. i'll admit there was a slight flutter of trepidation before i mounted..but i am the girl with iron nerves and no regard for self-preservation..so up i went!
i must add that some crazy wind picked up just before we started to ride..prime spook conditions. but ruby seemed normal and was paying good attention to me while we warmed up. i made sure of that, by doing a lot of bending, leg yielding and flexion exercises. i wanted to ensure her mind was focused on me, keeping her on her toes so she wouldn't have the opportunity to flip out!
megan got down to business today with me getting ruby in a frame. we're at the point now where it's expected. i am progressing, and now it's time that i ride the horse round all the time, and not just now and then, or for a period of time and then allow hollowness again. we got serious straight away, lots of small circles at the trot to get her bending and softening in each direction, and then some warmup canter. 
the interesting thing here is that the quality of the trot in a canter-trot transition is a zillion times better than just trying to get Ruby in a frame IN the trot...i suppose this is because her forwardness coupled with the size of halfhalt i need to get her down makes her automatically have to give to the bridle. i'm not really sure! anyway, she was not sufficiently in a frame by that point so megan instructed me to do a million trot-walk transitions, keeping the lightness and roundness achieved in whichever gait DURING the downward transition. Ruby's number one trick is to hollow her back and poke her nose way out during a trot-walk, so we repeated the move numerous times until i could maintain the frame through the transition. once we'd mastered it in each direction, it was time for canter-trot transitions. we repeated the same exercise at the faster gait, and by the end, Ruby was certainly grunting with every stride! it was a workout. but i was ready for more. i can't describe the feeling of riding a  horse you've achieved a new level of rideability on except it's just FUN! i had a real horse under me. i was even starting to sit her trot a bit..i'd say i could go about 8 steps before needing to post..because she gave me her back. it felt amazing. we were winding the lesson down, but i was itching to do just a bit more work, despit an arm cramp..just because of the quality i was getting with Ruby. so we did one loop canter serpentines around the arena..

this is a maneuver i've mentioned several times, but i'd never managed it on Ms Ruby. it is the beginning stage of counter canter, which is required in 2nd Level. you must maintain the bend toward the inside lead whilst steering the horse the opposite way. not terribly easy, and it takes major leg power. we went to the right lead first so i'd have my stronger leg to push her back to the rail first. it went better than i expected; the best part being i managed to keep her very collected and framed around the arena a thousand times without her getting strung out or breaking. she's got an AMAZING canter when she's not hauling me along. and i did get her nearly into the corners during the counter canter bits, less so on the left lead, but like i said, the quality of her gait made up for the fact i don't have it perfectly down! 

i have much more work to do before i'll be at 2nd level, but we're at the point now where there's a noticeable improvement in every lesson. i must focus on my seat bones more! where i lack strength in my left leg, i have full motion and control in that hip, and after all, one is meant to drive with one's seat :) 
until next ride, happy trails!