Cantering from the seat - woah!

Today it was really cold outside so Deuce was very stiff at first. I did circles, leg yield and stretching to get him to loosen up his muscles. It was so cold today that I put a quarter sheet on him while we were working. During warm up, I happened to look back at him butt and was pleased to see that the center stitch of the quarter sheet shows evidence that Deuce bends on the circle. As a rode a circle, you could see a gentle curve in the center seam of the quarter sheet! It's proof that he bends his whole body -- not just his neck. :)

After he was loose, we worked on canter departs and I decided to try asking for the canter from my seat. I pushed my inside seat bone forward and wanted him to canter off of that aide. After a few attempts, he did it so beautifully to the left. I was doing the sitting trot later on and i was pleasantly surprised that if I dropped my inside hip through the corner (by accident) that he would start cantering right away. This made me very aware of my seatbones and I made sure to put weight in my outside stirrup and seat around corners and circles. It's crazy how much this taught me about my position and how sensitive Deuce is. For being 4, he is so trainable and obedient.

Cantering from the seat was not as easy going to the right. This is not his favorite direction. We eventually got it and did lots of trot canter trot transitions to reinforce. I had to still use a little leg going this direction and sometimes he would strike off on the left lead instead of the right, but i tried not to make a big deal of it. He was forward, and he cantered, so I think the wrong lead is just maybe his weak side getting tired and him being young.

I think I might have ridden him for too long because he got very tired and drank LOTS of water when he got back to his stall. I will have to be sure and do something fun, easy and relaxed tommorow. Hopefully it will warm up a bit!