Back to work! As Biasini told you in his post yesterday ( Biasini Speaks…)we have a show coming up and I believe he also told you he was hoping I would be focused and working toward that! So today I started back, after a 10 day holiday, with a lesson from my coach Belinda Trussell.
Belinda may be small in stature but she is BIG on energy and the ability to pour energy into teaching. And believe you me I had better be ready to snap to it. Today we just worked on the connection. That sounds simple enough. Surely if I am riding at the Prix St. George level I should know how to ride with the right connection. Yes. I do know how. However, there is no resting on previous laurels with Belinda. Now we must work on making that connection better, the power in the strides better, the gaits better.
She raised the bar….
Something as simple as riding the corner was a workout. Biasini must be bent round my inside leg, he must be light in the contact, he must maintain the power in every single stride. There can be no lack of bend, no flattening of the stride or loss of power.
Power? Power is not going faster or more forward. Power is bringing the hind end under and pushing off with the hind legs with each and every stride. Bounding! Airborne! All of that!
We did transitions from canter to walk, a few steps walk and then back to canter. The downward transition must to keep the frame and the collection without a faltering, the upward transition must have the uphill and expressive canter in one stride. If not then I would hear about it.
Quick! Lightening fast response! If I did not get it immediately I had to tell Biasini about it and let him know that was not a good enough reaction. Being that fast is hard. Very hard. And yet, during most of the lesson, I was smiling.
Why was I smiling?
Because if Belinda was demanding this reaction from me and expecting me to achieve those splendid and expressive gaits from Biasini it is because she believes we can do it. I might have been gasping but I was also delighted that she would put this kind of energy into pushing me on. Pushing me to get up and over that higher bar.
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