Lesson Picture Spam!

I was lucky this weekend and Alex decided he wanted to come to the barn to watch my lesson and check on his horse ;-) which means I get some pictures!

Warming up at the walk.
 This was my first time trying a standing martingale on him, 

and as you can see I need to get a stopper to keep it from slipping.

 Warm up. Working hard to keep him straight. I change the track I take all the time so that straightness isn't about the wall but about the line my legs and body are telling him to travel.

I still find an opening inside rein useful to help gently encourage the bend. I have learned that while doing this it is just as important to give an appropriate amount of room for him to round into on the outside rein. He looks pretty good here, though I think my hands should be a touch higher.

 Blooper! This is why we thought it might be a good idea to try a standing on him. Armani likes to try and do things his way from time to time and like any young thing, likes to fuss when he doesn't get his way. Since his neck carriage is naturally fairly high as it is, I only want to correct the extreme evasions, such as this.

Looking early and working hard to shape out the corner.

He might be more challenging than a bow-flex workout

but I sure have fun too! Love this horse.

I can't tell you how hard I'm actually working here to keep it all together. We are just cantering a circle, but it's towards the scary corner and he wants to bulge in, bend out, and would completely spin around if I stopped riding for a second. He isn't really that worried about the corners but he will look for any lack of leadership in you to work ugly through them. Armani is listening well here and he knows I'm on it.

Good boy!

Wee! It is so fun to start teaching him about going over obstacles. He sees any element and wants to go to it, even though he's had no prior training over poles, caveletti, etc. until I started working these things with him last month.

I obviously haven't been jumping recently (say, most of the last year!) as I'm ahead of him here and not as flexible in my hip as I should be. Even though I'm ugly, I have to say I think Armani is going to have very nice form over fences!

  Conformation shot. He's actually not quite as fat as I tend to think he is!