Nov 12 - Straight Lines, Leg Pressure, Lead Changes

Today we talked a lot about lining your body up with your horse and having them follow your body to feel where you are going. I ended up practicing going in a straight line and keeping my focus ahead of me and going through my phases - shifting body, leg pressure and then reins when necessary.

At a walk Chester did fairly well, I had to go through the phases fast but gently and he was able to pick it up w/less pressure the more we practice with it. I then tried going in a straight line without using the reins and sometimes it worked really well with just shifting of my body and leg pressure. Other times i had to pick up the reins just slightly to have line up with me again.

Trotting however was a complete different story I had to use a lot stronger phases then when just walking. I decided to grab the carrot sticks to use as a bigger phase I wouldn't rely on the reins as much. Starteed working really well when just walking but of course when trotting it all went downhill from there.

I learned a lot and was really focused. I could tell that Chester was focused on me as well and I could feel the improvement as we went along even though we did have some difficulties.