Lew Lew Light bulb

 I took Lew Lew for my lesson this week, and I am SO GLAD I did.  We had several big lightbulb moments. 

Notice my feet off in no-where land looking for his belly.

The first is that we do actually have a nicely forward walk and trot now - as long as I spend the first 5 minutes of the ride saying FORWARD no matter what. If he canters, cool. If he flings his head, so what. If he zooms, even better.  Then we can just settle into whatever gait I want and cruise.  The canter is still a major work in progress, but I have to force myself to ride in bigger areas at home and really encourage him, because the work we got in this lesson was NICE!

Lookin sexy

The second is that Lew is so slab sided that my leg feels completely different on him.  I was pulling my heels so far back looking for his belly that I was basically unseating myself in every upward transition.  The new method is to gently use my calves and follow up with voice and crop as needed - I mainly slap the crop against my own leg for the sound, not really hitting him.  This helps me stay MUCH better balanced and less worn out riding him.

The amount of leg required to canter forward...

Then, the light bulb,  I mentioned that I think he was finally starting to understand the contact, so Trainer asked to see it.  She made some corrections to get me more purposefully inside leg to outside rein.  Then helped me time my releases better, and boy howdy!  Lew really got it!  The method is to open the inside rein, then on a circle, bump him off my inside leg until the hind actually engages, then to release with the inside hand to show him he can stretch down. By the end of our ride all it took was a slight opening of the inside and some soft bumps and Lew was reaching down and carrying himself so well.  He even kept it together as we started jumping.

Look at hims trying so hard!!!

The jumping was really basic - we cantered a few cross rails with placement poles, jumped a very baby swedish oxer, then trotted a 6 jump course. He was tired by then so we called it a day, but I was SO SO proud of my Lew!!!

He wants to be a hunter so bad!

Lookit hims knees

Air horse Lew