A few days ago I tried the transition for the first time since pre-injury since I loved what it did for his canter work. While the transitions were not perfect, with a trot half step or two in there, they still effectively helped Ed get the idea of lifting his withers in the canter, providing for more expression.
Today, his canter wasn't completely true and I felt some four beating here and there. So, I went back to the canter-walk and walk-canter transitions similar in the fashion conveyed in this video.
His canter improved almost immediately, along with his ability to be off my seat and leg aids. I decided to incorporate an exercise I learned from Gina: 10m canter half circle, down the centerline for 10m, walk, canter, 10m half circle on new lead, down rail and repeat.
5 comments:
Love the video - especially the downwards transition. Definitely something to aim for, and I will be trying that exercise as simple changes are a big weakness for us at the moment.
Good to hear that Ed had the proverbial penny drop, even if it dropped a bit far ;).
That video was great, thank you for sharing!
Isn't it funny how when you try something over and over and over and suddenly... LIGHTBULB! And then they are just so proud and desperate to show you that they GET IT, sometimes they go a little overboard. Gotta love those over-achievers!
That's great! We've been schooling that too. We spiral in and out on a circle asking for shoulder in and haunches in, with lots of half halts to keep him on his haunches, basically just moving his body around at the canter. Then at random points when he's really sitting behind I ask for the walk. He's relieved because that is far easier than the spiraling and lateral moves so he transitions down quite willingly. He gets in trouble if he halts, kick kick, the walk has to happen and has to be lively. Now he's pretty good at canter walk and walk canter!
Love her explanation in the video about the inside rein and how it blocks the shoulder. I have a bad habit of overflexion to the inside, so that's a really good motivator to me to not do it!
Kelly, I definitely had to look up what "penny drop," meant. I had NEVER heard of that here in America.
I'm glad everyone loved that video! I wish it was longer and free-er, but just that short clip is enough to give someone the general idea of what a canter-walk should be!
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