Halt! Or, How To Be A Square

This week's lesson was also focused on transitions, but this time it involved trotting, getting the canter in a specific spot, going over a ground pole at the canter while standing up in my stirrups, and then coming to a halt with all four legs square. Since this is also a dressage barn we have nice mirrors to let me know how terrible I am at this. You're not supposed to see all four legs in the mirror with a good, square halt, but every time we came to a stop, Chance's left back leg was splayed out a little. It got a little better, but only because I was over-compensating on the right side to to keep him from falling out through the right shoulder. I'm not sure if becoming a being a great rider means not having to over-compensate, or knowing exactly when to overcompensate :)

Oh, and D's solution to getting me better and my downward transition from a canter to a halt was to simply stand in my way so I would have to halt in front of her instead of knocking her down. That got me to learn it pretty quickly.

By the way, standing up in my stirrups is hard! It's not two-point. It's standing straight up. It's either leg swings back or forward. I have to grab some mane to stay somewhat balanced, but I still crumple a little bit.