Finally....another lesson..updated

I'm sure Zoe didn't think "finally....another lesson".  It was more like "do we have to????"  But I enjoyed it.  We got to work on a collected canter.  I hope I can remember everything.  It is late and my flight leaves early tomorrow so I plan of writing it down on the plane, then I will post it.  It really helps to write it down...I think I like this blog idea.
We had plenty of time to warm up in the arena so we went directly to a collected trot on a 20 meter circle.  We worked on getting a nice collected frame at a trot with some impulsion (impulsion is a foreign word to Zoe).  We settled on using the dressage whip to help with impulsion issues.  Zoe bends to the right better than to the left.  To the right she overbends so I have to use more outside rein & less inside rein to straighten her out.  To the left she doesn't bend as well and I need to use more inside rein and less outside rein....makes her bend better.  Zoe also has a habit of overbending at the poll-nose too far down.  So I had to pull her up sometimes & move my hands down the reins closer to her head.  When she gave I could relax the hold some.  Once I got a nice head position and a nice bend with impulsion, I could ask for a canter.  Whenever Zoe moves into a canter she tends to throw up her head....not allowed now.  So whenever she did that I was to drop back to the trot, get everything correct---bend & head position---and then ask again....and keep doing that until I got what I wanted.  My trainer said "never sacrifice position for gait".  We finally got the collected canter & kept it up on the 20 meter circle.  Then she started on my position to help Zoe out.  Elbows in, hands down, roll shoulders back, massage reins to remind her to bend at the poll.  I also needed to remember which rein needed to be tighter to get the bend correct.  We circled both ways then worked on downward transitions...of course remaining collected.  It was only a 40 minute lesson but Zoe and I worked hard.  In some ways she felt as she did when I first asked her to collect-tight & unbending.  She is learning how to do something new & I was told it would feel that way at first & in time she would soften some more.  We just need to keep working on it.  Lately our lessons are about 1 per month so I think I have plenty to chew on for the next month.