had a really benificial lesson today

[BroadfordQueen]

Took Tara to our first private dressage lesson of the season today. I am tought by someone called Julie Thomas, who trains a junior paralympic dressage rider who is in the GB team (cant remember her name, but i know the horse is called Absalute). She is a brilliant teacher, and really taught me alot today.
She let me warm up on my own, to assess my horse (she taught me last year aswell so knows my riding abilities). The first thing she said was "ask a mare, tell a gelding". This applies so much to Tara- if you tell her to do something, she will argue with you and put up a fight, so you cant be bossy with her. You have to be quite and gentle and soft, and ask her to do things.
It all made sense when she talked me through this. She taught me to "sponge" with my hands, rather than yank like i usually do

and she greatly improved my arm position in the first 10 minutes. She also really helped with my transitions, telling me to really use my tummy muscles and sholders, but not to hollow my back. she really sorted out my "motorbike" hands, and by the end of the lesson me and Tara where working really well. She has made me realise that most, if not all, of Taras faults are due to my riding, and I happily accepted that and took it on board. I admit i am usually the first person to blame the horse when something goes wrong, but today really made me realise that once she had worked on my position and "controlling aids", tara suddenly relaxed and worked into such a lovely outline.
Julie said that inside her is an awsome horse, we just need to build her topline up and get her working long and low and tracking up more from behind. I feel like we have made real progress today, and i just wanted to share our progress with you all

 

[viola]

Sounds like a great lesson, good luck with the further ones!

 

[Coffee_Bean]

Well done chick!! Any photos??

 

[Weezy]

Well done h_h. 99% of the battle to become a good rider is realising that 99% of the faults lie within you and not the horse - if you do not ask your questions clearly then how can you blame the horse if it does not do what you want? Onwards and upwards and keep smiling!

 

[Peanot]

Well done. Now you have got to remember to do these things each time you ride until they come naturally without thinking about them. Keep up the good lessons, your instructor certainly knows how to get the best from you and your horse.