charlottes Sessions
24th Feb 2023
Lesson Notes
On Friday we had a successful ride focussing on your position through the left rein and using school movements to help you both stay focussed and balanced.
The main things that came from it were
Comfort blanket
10m right rein circles are your safe place to go when things become a tad overwhelming to settle and both find yourselves again. Don't be afraid of using these whenever and remember it's the right rein that she settles on and not the left.
Tucking back
After watching and playing with different ways to encourage her to bring her head up and reach into the contact I realised that when she tucked back was the moment that you stoped moving your hips with her back, I used the explanation like a kinked hose, and your seat being the kink in the hose, where her energy comes from behind and then gets trapped which leaves her searching for some sort of contact and this creates the tuck back and pulling down.
Left leg
We started to feel the difference between your right and left leg and how she likes to shift you over to the right on the left rein, whilst your left leg opens and the back of your calf and thigh become the key points of contact. So we worked hard on you maintaining the left leg underneath you, not letting it shoot forwards and also having an internal rotation of the left thigh so the inside of your thigh is in more contact and able to support her. Tis stopped her falling in and out and kept her more balanced, we used small figures of 8 to practice maintaining this on the left rein and then moving to the right rein to reassess and feel what's happening to go back to the left and mirror it once more.
Below are a weeks worth of stretches and strengthening exercises that will help with this that you can do daily.
