Success...!!

You know it is a good thing when 3 minutes into your lesson your coach goes "You've been working on your legs haven't you?" I BEAMED!!!
Chester is at the point where getting him to do more is now my complete responsibility as a rider. As in - his big moving free striding trot - now is to become just as forward, but more collected, slower and MORE IN FRONT OF MY LEG...eff my life - this whole 'in front of my leg' thing is really starting to get to me. Ha. Ugh -so I have to basically keep the same momentum and impulsion but make his trot more together and bouncy...sigh. Half halt, leg on, half halt, leg on, half halt...you get the picture. Needless to say, this is HARD for me and for him...AND he HATES it...because it is harder. There were numerous head tossing and stomping of the feet (on his part not mine) during our lesson. Poor Pickle. We spent a lot of time doing half circles and really trying to get 4 or 5 strides of straightness over 'X'...so hard...hence the smaller, bouncier trot I need...I see where Joyce's head is at at least!
Our jumping - is pretty good - for entry level...we will be spending the majority of the winter doing bounce and gymnastic lines to get his front end working a bit better... In our lesson, we did a canter pole, jump, bounce pole on landing...and I worked on getting him to leave when I wanted him to leave, getting the timing of my aid down and getting his correct lead on landing. I also have some homework, mainly on my position: I need to release more (without throwing my hands up his neck) and I need to work on getting my ass out of the saddle more...sigh, squats in the mirror, here I come.
We don't need to jump that much...but when we do, we are going to keep it simple. A big 'X' in the middle of the arena at well, 'x' and then work on getting our turns and right leads on landing. The good thing with this exercise is there are a TON of options to jumping the single fence so it will never be repetitive. We can angel the approach, some at it on a circle etc etc. The more technical stuff I am not comfortable doing without Joyce there...and we have a set lesson time now too, which is great!!
So - today, we work on our trot and out Big 'X' at 'x'...
More soon...