Today we were working on canter to walk transitions, and Leslie said you ask for the transition by lengthening your leg, sinking down into the horse, shortening his stride, but making the hind legs jump through more quickly, and you give the aid to walk when the horse’s withers and shoulders are coming up to you. I applied this technique and we had some perfect downwards.
And then I realized that this was when I needed to be asking for the lead change when we were doing tempi changes. When the shoulder ie forehand of the horse is lifting that’s when you ask for the change. I asked if that was correct and Leslie said yes.
I’ve been so tense about the changes I had been trying to just swing my hip forward any old time and not really having it be perfectly in sync with Vento’s stride. I’m a good enough rider that I know at any given moment where each of his four feet are, but this was another small piece of the puzzle.
And as with everything concerning dressage — straightness is essential and it’s damn hard to achieve. It is, after all, the second to the last step on the training pyramid. And as mentioned earlier — Vento is a gummy worm. So as I ride the tempi changes I have to be thinking about how to take ease him from one inside leg to the new inside leg (think leg yield, but don’t do a leg yield) while still keeping him straight on the outside rein and his shoulders up.
I think it’s going to help because changes on Vento are not easy…for anyone.
