Upping the ante

Last week it all started to get a bit, dare I say it, boring. Wilson just did whatever I asked him to do, and he did it well. I then decided it was time to get to grips with canter transitions and I'm glad I had a go at them because that was what we were doing in our lesson this morning.

I've been giving the rein away when asking for canter because otherwise he comes against my hand; Mr WoW told me that this was exactly the right thing to do, which made me rather pleased with myself. Same thing for downwards transition: as soon as I think he's going to trot, give the rein away.

Our biggest problem is falling out. If I control the outside shoulder everything is much better.

We did quite a lot of work in canter today. The canter itself isn't bad at all, once I actually manage to GET it. Wilson doesn't do crisp trot-canter transitions; Mr WoW says it looks as if he's working out which leg to lead with.

The ante is definitely being upped; apparently our trot is so good we can move on to improving the canter now, with a view to really engaging and collecting it. And we practised trot-halt-trot down the centre line. Just as well we did; it was absolutely the most worsest thing we've done in a long time!

But our squares were great.