There is a clinic at the barn this weekend with Mary Rose. I had never heard of her before last week, but I thought it was awesome that she trained with Nuno Oliveira. She has been so many places and has trained internationally - you can tell she has LOTS of experience!
I took the first clinic lesson this evening and I really learned a lot. The first thing she told me was how I can slightly change my leg position to be more effective. I had no idea that I was putting weight in the stirrup on the outside of my foot. She said that I need to put weight on the inside of my foot and spread my toes in my boots. This will direct my knees forward and open my seat more. I could really feel the difference too...it's amazing how just a slight change can make so much difference.
Mary Rose also told me how to improve my balance at the rising trot. She helped me see that Deuce is sometimes unbalanced in the trot because my body gets behind his center of gravity when I post. She had me post up, up down, up, up, down for a while to help me feel how to keep in balance with the horse and help him have a steady rythym. It was great to see how much more relaxed and balanced Deuce's strides were once I corrected my position in the rising trot. I just had to be careful to keep my knees and ankles relaxed so I didn't grip him.
After these two position corrections, we did some counter shoulder in at the walk and trot to get his hind leg to step under. At the shoulder in, I have to work on making sure that my hips are aligned with Deuce's hips.
The last excercise we worked on was a figure eight. We did a large trot circle to the right, then followed by a small walk circle to the left. This really helped me pay attention to the direction of his bend and the quality of the walk-trot and trot-walk transitions.
Can't wait to see what we'll learn tommorow. Mary Rose also said i should be able to go to the top levels with Deuce. Grand Prix!? how exciting. :) Just can't move him too fast or make him sour to the work. What a good baby!
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