After our lesson on Tuesday, I decided that I needed to work on my half halts. My biggest problem is using too much hand and not enough seat and legs. While this is not always the case, I have for some reverted back to this recently. The problem is that Toby already likes to evade the contact and my hands being too strong does not help that at all.
I rode on Wednesday and Thursday with my primary focus being my seat, legs and hands. On Wednesday, we continued working on our leg yields along the wall and from centerline. With my new focus, Toby seemed much more willing to oblige my request and gracefully moved away from my legs (of course better to the right than left, but much improved in both directions).
Amazing, use your body correctly and the rest falls in place. What a novel concept. It can't be this easy.
We moved on to some halt, trot, halt transitions. Again focusing on using my seat and legs more and my hands less. Again, Toby willingly responded while staying on the contact and not throwing his head like he had been.
Hmmmmmm, could I be causing his head throwing? That's it. He tells on me when my hands are too strong. Wouldn't you protest if someone yanked on your mouth with a hard metal thing. Not like I didn't already know this, but apparently I needed a brick wall dropped on my head.
We did some canter work. More seat and legs + less hands = nice transition/no head throwing. Awesome. We'll call it a day. Good Boy Toby. Thank you for your patience. You're the best.
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