Transitions

Not quite here.. but close

FINALLY a good ride! Wowza that was definitely needed. I put Rushie back in the pelham in anticipation of needing more leverage for our transition work, and it worked like a charm. We rode in the dressage ring and I used the letter markers to distance my transitions. We walked twice each direction, stopping at every letter. It took her a few times to figure out that the whole pulling back on the reins thing actually meant stop, and no, you can't ignore it, but after that she was stopping on a dime and it was lovely.

I started the trotwork on a circle at the top of the ring, stopping on the short side of the ring then proceeding to do a slow trot around the circle. I cannot stress how amazingly low key she was through all of this- usually transitions fire her up and stoke her fightin' attitude, but she was mellow and placid and it was so wonderful I just wanted to hug her all the time, forever and ever. After doing a couple circles each direction I let her trot around the ring a few times, giving her the option to frame up but not pushing it. She stretched down and worked into the frame a couple of times, but mostly stayed above it.

I'll admit, I was a little apprehensive to start the canter work. That's usually when everything goes to shit and the ride goes downhill. I started to the left, her bad direction. I would trot, cue for the canter, and let her canter either a) until I felt her start getting fast or b) until we cantered down one side of the ring, and then asked for a halt. Shout out to Rush, she had those halts DOWN. I was really proud/impressed. Then we did trot/halt transitions until she settled down and stopped trying to leap into the canter again, and I would cue for the canter again. She did really great with this and although she got amped up after the canter/halt transitions, she did settle down without blocking me out, which was great. We switched direction, went right (she was awesome this way) and I ended to the left with a nice full lap around the ring at the canter.