I've had some verrrry successful dressage rides on Freddy the last 2 days. I decided to give him a day off today to think about it haha.

on Friday I started out just riding forward, abandoning everything else, to generate some energy. Then I took a little bit of a feel. He started out sort of sitting just behind the bit and every time I put my leg on he would quicken his tempo rather than take a contact. The first thing I did was think about my position. My leg always wants to creep forward so I made sure my leg was underneath me, my hands were low and out in front of me and my chest was lifted. Then I did a little bit of counter bend to get him straighter and to remind myself to ride the OUTSIDE of the horse and not just the inside. That helped a little bit and he started to stretch down a little bit more. Then I started to do some transitions. I tried my best to push him forward to a walk, walk a few steps, then go right back to trot. This helped A LOT. What's weird is that he actually did this better to the right which is normally his weaker side. When I would sit up and close my thighs I could feel him bring his butt up underneath himself and push into a walk rather than falling into it. Then when I would ask him to trot again, his butt was already underneath him so I got some really nice trot work out of him. As long as I can hold my position he maintains a balanced trot but the second I tip forward or draw my hands back at all he loses his impulsion and dives down on his forehand.

At the canter I wanted to use the counter-canter to get him sitting a little more. This is something I've done with Jane before. I rode the way it goes in one of the prelim dressage tests sort of. I'd pick up the canter on my 20m circle then do a half circle and go down the long side then transition to a trot before the corner, pick up the other lead and do the same thing the other way. It definitely challenged me to hold my body straight and keep riding him forward. If I tried to steer him with my hands rather than my seat and leg he would break to trot. I thought it really improved his canter after doing that exercise a few times. I think I rode him about 5 minutes too long because towards the end he started to get a little fussy and inattentive. Still overall it was a productive ride.

Yesterday he came out ready to go to work right from the start. This time I started right away in walk trying to establish a connection the way I've worked on in the past with Jane. I bend him a little to the outside until he softened then kept a firm contact on my outside rein and pushed him out with my inside leg so that he was bent slightly to the inside. Then he was giving me a nice swinging forward walk and was stretching down so I decided we were ready to trot. Well the first time I asked for trot he tensed his back a little and raised his head and basically just fell apart a bit. Rather than bring him back and try again I just rode forward. I knew that transitions would just make him more tense so I just rode forward and tried to reestablish the connection the same way I had done it at the walk. To the left it was easier and fairly immediately he softened and stretched over his topline and started opening up his stride a little more. To the right it's much more difficult. He's a bit weaker on his right hind so he tends to hang on my right rein and fall to the inside. Every time I try to give with my inside hand he just swings his head to the outside and falls in no matter how much inside leg I have on. I've realized that he's just really not strong enough to carry himself so I can't just throw away the inside rein altogether. I'll soften for a few strides and push him into my outside rein and when we start to lose it I'll tale a little feel on the inside and reposition him so that he's bent slightly in again. It's just really really hard for me to let go of that right rein because I can't hold him straight without it. I need to get some help with that because Jane would always just yell at me to let go of my inside rein but that's really unhelpful because he can't hold himself up on his own yet.

At the canter I did some canter-walk-canter traisitions on the circle and WOW did that make a difference. After doing it a few times he was jumping into the canter, pushing off his hocks and he felt very very balanced and light in front. We had some lovely transitions to walk and as long as I didn't draw back with my hands he continued stepping under all the way through the transition. It seems that transitions are the thing that really works for him to get him pushing from behind more. I just need to keep working on my position so that I am not getting in his way. I am very excited about this progress.