Tina Cook lesson

Due to both our busy lives, Tina's being more so then mine I haven't had a lesson in a while. I wanted to take Yara this time because I wanted Tina to see her in all her glory.

And it was a jolly good lesson. Tina really liked Yara (doesn't everyone) and she said she was a really sweet horse that tries really hard, she said it will be interesting to see what she muscles up like, since she has very little muscle now and to see how her paces and movement improve.

It was a really great lesson, Yara always has the tendency to rush things, so the whole time I am asking her to slow down, this was one of the things  we worked on a lot.

Tina told me that "even though she is young it doesn't mean you can't do some of the exercises that you do with Estella", for example shoulder in on a small 10 meter circle really gets Yara  listening to my leg, I just have to ride it more sympathetically and not do it quite so extreme. This really helped when it came to my canter, this exercise was got her listening and really using herself, so when I came to the canter it was slightly better but still it needed a bit of work... 

So then Tina brought in a really challenging exercise for Yara, again back onto the 10 meter circle and walk to canter, canter to walk. Now being a big horse with a slight weak back end and really long legs, it was very hard but my god the result from it was amazing.

She started really bouncing it was hard work for me I really worked up a sweat but it was worth it; we did that on both reins 5, 6 times. 

After all this work on the canter we came back to the trot and it had improved dramatically she was carrying herself but she wasn't  light in the hand she was using herself and taking the contact which is what I had been trying to achieve but she is always too light in the hand which means she isn't working over the back and into the contact, so this was nice to feel. 

After a long 1hr and a half lesson I was shattered and so was the horse, we have taken this whole training session away with us and practiced very hard over last week in the dark cold evenings after school and there is a massive difference, I realised this today when I had a jumping lesson with Ken, he noticed a big difference as well. 

Next updates Schools Show Jumping and Jumping lesson with Ken!!!!!