In just over a week Biasini will get onto the transport and head down to Florida. Waiting for him will be my Florida coach Luis Reteguiz Denizard (aka Lou). He will get Biasini settled in and keep him working until I get down there at the end of December. At the moment I am working in my lessons with Belinda Trussell (my ‘at home’ coach in Canada) on fine tuning the basics. We have been taking lots of video so Lou can see them and know what we have been working on, how it’s going, and what Belinda is emphasizing. I am very lucky to have two coaches who communicate well to help Biasini and me. Here are some of the short videos .
First some canter work and the half pass left, flying change and half pass right. It all goes well but then at the end I am not 100% focused. And I hear about it from Belinda!
Then we moved on to making the half pass, after the flying change, better by being very strict about the change of flexion. To accomplish this Belinda had me move my hands over to the new direction, change Biasini’s flexion and then ask for the change. All with the minimum of aids.
To finish our lesson we did some trot work without stirrups. Belinda has been trying to get me to improve my seat and relax my back. This is something I really struggle with. Belinda’s suggestion. “Cross your stirrups over and lets’s do some sitting trot with no stirrups.”
Noooooo…… But of course I do not say no. I know better than to say ‘no’ to an Olympian who has trained in Germany. I cross over my stirrups.
When I look at this video I can see it does help me to ride without stirrups. I still have a long way to go to be relaxed enough in my back but this is heading in the right direction. What does this mean for me in Florida? It means Lou will have me riding some portion of every lesson without stirrups. Oh…oh….oh…
Just as an aside since you can see Biasini’s breath in the videos you know how COLD it was in the arena today. Dressage riders are tough!!!
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