Late again, I’ve had a lot of work this week with both subtitling and the Westeros website. I am writing this now to get it done and because I need to keep myself occupied anyway, but I am not in the right mood for it. So, just some short thoughts about last week.
I was back on Heddvig for some more canter work. She was rather mellow, not sure if she is being worked a bit more than usual right now. I was even able to use the dressage whip without stressing her, though for the canter I still needed to short to tap her on the chest. I also got some pretty nice canter during the warm-up. Well, nice for her, anyway. We were fewer than usual and not all cantering at once as we did a bit of individual warm-up, so I got the chance to canter her longer stretches without needing to shorten her canter (which she doesn’t really do yet).
The main issue I ran into was sort of the focus of the lesson, which was a thoroughly soft inside. We used counter-clockwise circles in the corners at the end of the short end to prepare for going into a short stretch of counter-canter, and I was not able to get to her inside at all. All I got was a bent neck. I don’t quite have the right feeling for when I am affecting her inside in the proper way. Not surprisingly, I didn’t get much counter-canter. Of course, I find it almost impossible to pick out which canter I do get. Not sure how I’ll ever learn that.
What I did get, though, was quicker, better response to canter aids (occasionally with bonus bucking). She doesn’t need at all the same running start now. So, we’re moving in the right direction.