We've entered cavaletti hell

All my previous posts have basically been about how cavalettis are making me the rider I want to be.

Well, right now they are my personal hell.

My instructor put ground poles and raised poles on a semi circle and I've replayed this in my head several times and still don't quite know how to do it. Here's footage of the disaster I was this past Sunday:

Sorry, I know someone blocks the camera at the end, but I think there's only so much if this you would want to look at anyways.

Most of the time, Tony just wanted to run out, because the strides were so weird, so at least I got to work on keeping him to the bending line. That was a challenge for me in and of itself.

There are so many things to think about with this exercise.  I think I should just stay in a light seat because otherwise I get behind the motion, so that's one thing to try next time.

It also goes by so quickly that I don't have time to think about whether we look good. But here are the 3 things that I think I could immediately do to improve:

1. I guess I could start with having a good rhythm. That's always a good thing, right??

2. And obviously keep him to the center of the poles, which has a lot to do with me learning how much leg to use.

3. And, relatedly to how much leg, half halting properly so I'm not just pulling him one way or other, or letting him escape through a sloppy loose rein.

Other than this exercise, we improved a lot as partners in terms of transitions. Tony gets stronger with more and more jumping, but I was getting better at bringing him down to a walk from a canter. I could even bring him to a halt which used to feel impossible for me. And he even backs easily. Trying weird exercises feels a lot better when you know you are ultimately in control.

All the puzzle pieces

This month I have been traveling all over the country for work, usually leaving Sunday evenings. So I'm pretty stoked that I've been able to consistently go to my weekend riding lesson. Obviously, my dream has always been to ride consistently during the week, but that is for another time in my life.

My husband came to a lesson this month and took a bunch of videos of what we are working.

• Transitions: We are working on asking quietly, like asking for the trot with just the inside leg, doing a downward transition by sitting deeper, etc.
• Canter: I can canter longer than i could before. I used to get disorganized and it would all fall apart before I made it all the way around the ring. I noticed in this video that I'm pumping my arms, and this is because i want to give the horse his neck and it just looks a little...artificial?
• Simple lead changes. These are pretty simple, but i also need to learn to avoid unnecessary ones by planning for the correct lead before the jump. 
• Sitting up and being forward to jumps. You'll see in the video that I've gotten better at this, and it's probably due to less fear going over a jump. Probably, as the jumps get higher, I will need to learn how to stay out of the saddle longer! In terms of being more forward, this is a balancing act for me. I ride one horse where if you rev her up too much, she starts bucking, and another where if you don't, he'll trip over the jumps. Definitely learning to fine tune.
• No-stirrup posting trot. Getting my leg at the girth and generally wrapping it around the horse correctly lasts about 4 seconds, and then it slips!

In the video below, you can see what we work on throughout a typical lesson, how my instructor builds up the jumps, and where my issues are. 

In last week's lesson, we worked on going over a jump and doing a 10 meter circle at the trot, then the canter, to go over the jump again. I did not get it quite right at the canter. It comes up so fast! My instructor was kind enough to point out my horse's long back as part of the difficulty. But the canter is feeling better to me, so I'm confident I can get this soonish. I need to work on:

• Not leaning into the circle, just turning my torso (and using my eyes)
• Using the outside rein for the turn
• More half halts rather than pulling

Um...yeah, a lot of things need to click for me :)