Today I had a lesson at my home yard on Bella which made a really nice change from riding at various other places. I also worked with Hazel who I’ve never met before, however Bella’s owner is taught by Hazel and so it made sense so I can continue to build on Bella’s current training.

After warming up and warning Hazel of all my recent bad habits(!) we began to get to work, and a lot of work we did!

Exercise One: Ride straight into the corners until she comes to a complete halt. Do this several times in walk and trot in order to get her used to it and to anticipate the halt. From this, make sure she is straight (especially when on the left rein) before allowing her to continue to walk again. From this, don’t begin to stop at every corner but only the ones where she feels as though she is resisting more instead of going into the corner. From this, build up some inside bend by pulling out the inside rein and bend on the inside leg.

Exercise Two: Canter for half a circle on a 20m circle. Then think to stop and slow her down, then as soon as the trot is balanced, come to canter again, do this several times to try and keep her calm in the canter. Then walk the circle and establish a bend in the head and neck encouraging her to work over her back. Then when in the trot, pull the inside rein as though to guide her nose in – she will resist a lot with this on the left rein – as soon as her nose is pointing inwards slightly keep it there, then push her out with the inside leg and doing slight half-halts with the outside rein. This will help direct her where to go when she is fluent in the head and neck. This is all much more established in the walk than in the trot and canter, so those are the paces which she needs the practice the most.

Hands: Keeping hands high so that elbows are bent at all times. Keep wrists straight and thumbs facing forward. Try to keep the hands independent from the body, for can sometimes rely on the reins too much for balance.

Legs: As soon as I get on and several times throughout the riding session, do legs away stretch. Take feet out of stirrups and stretch the legs straight and lift them away from the saddle, whilst doing this, then try to move the legs back a little bit without bending forward. Do this stretch a few times it being something to build up towards instead of expecting results immediately. This opens up the hips and causes you to sit deeper in the saddle giving you a better seat. Then physically adjust the leg and turn it so that the knee and feet face forwards, it is good to do this a few times throughout the session to build up the muscle and getting used to engaging within that muscle.

Bella’s bad habit: Whenever on a long rein she may try to ‘snatch’ at the reins. Every time she does this correct her by doing a quick and sharp half-halt to hopefully encourage her out of this bad habit.

Handling: Brought Bella in the stable on her own today which she was completely fine with, and I also brought my dogs and so I wasn’t sure she had ever seen them. She was fine with them mostly however she did spook at them a little in the school. Also did not give her a treat today when I turned her out again, she wasn’t really impressed however I don’t want her becoming reliable on these treats. I also found that she backs away whenever I tried to put the headcollar on, and so I had to give her a treat when the headcollar was halfway over her head which wasn’t ideal. I don’t really want to give her the treat before I put the headcollar on as there is no reason she should get the reward, however this may be something I need to talk to Beth about and see what she does.