Workin on me

With the Porsche ready to roll, I scheduled a lets-work-on-me lesson with Trainer S. 

Trainer S is a new addition to the barn, and I've really been impressed with how she instructs her students and treats her lesson horses, plus she LOVES thoroughbreds AND mares. and is super flexible about lessoning (i.e. even if I'm not in a regular scheduled program).

So I booked a lesson with her on Porsche to see how we jelled.

The main take-aways:

1. Trainer J. gave me a fantastic "rubber band" exercise to work on: basically a 20m circle with some baby shoulder in, and switching posting diagonals at the 4 quarters of the circle - then we stopped the posting diagonal swapping and did the shoulder in but asked for trot or walk lengthening at the halves of the circle, and for Porsche to really push her ribcage to the arena wall.

2.  She called me out on my own position: keep my elbows soft, keep weight on my right seat bone (knew this cause Porsche tattles on me lol), and to really hug the side of the horse with my calf, and to sharpen Porsche up to my aids a bit.

3. Alot of it was re-learning how Porsche feels vs. Tesla. They are built so differently that correct hand position on one is totally wrong on the other (but will ultimately make me a better rider :)

I really liked how Trainer J. explained everything: why were were doing the exercise, how it would help the horse, when it was good (I could feel when it was good :) and when it was not, if I had any questions or needed any clarification, and all with a super positive attitude. 

So, as soon as we've gotten comfortable executing our homework, I'll schedule another lesson :D