One of the things I know is necessary in dressage is attention to detail. My coach, Belinda Trussell, has an exceptional eye for detail. Every. Single. Second. After Biasini and I have warmed up (and believe me we get notes on our warm up as well!) I do my no stirrups work. In our lesson yesterday I did only five minutes of no stirrups sitting trot due to a wardrobe injury. More of that later. Then we moved on to the work of the day. I had Biasini in a snaffle bit and dropped noseband. He can be tough in a snaffle but I like it because it gives me an honest appraisal of where we are with the connection and his frame. At the trot we did serpentines with transitions to walk over the center line. Then we moved on to serpentines at the canter with transitions to very collected canter, walk, canter out. Belinda expects I will ride him with no change in his frame, no pulling down on the bit, throughout the entire exercise. Here is a video of some of that work.
You can hear Belinda asking me to lift my upper body for the upward transitions. Doing this makes a very positive difference. We also worked on the shoulder-fore in canter especially down the long side where Biasini likes to stretch out, get longer and loose the frame and balance. Here is a video of that work. You will see a poor flying change on the diagonal. My fault! I did not prepare Biasini properly. There is no time for congratulating myself on having made a good turn onto the diagonal and maintaining frame and tempo! Attention to detail!
The Wardrobe Injury. Caution! Viewer discretion advised. If you are a rider you may well have experienced something similar. It’s all about where the seams are in my underwear. The manufacturers put the seams and the heavy stitching in the body parts that make direct contact with the saddle. Since I have been doing no stirrups work it means that I am sitting even deeper in the saddle and those seams were out to get me. Blood was drawn! Yes! But Belinda has recommended a make of underwear that does not produce these injuries and I have ordered several pairs.
That’s all from me for today.
*Featured photo (C) Connie Gee*
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