Bit of background - my lessons were not to teach me dressage. They were to cure my fear of canter in the school, and equip me to canter horses offered for sale.
My lessons had an unexpected outcome. They transformed the safe beginner RS pony who had been picked to teach me. Thus before he returned to his weekday job of teaching small kids, he and I together produced our first flying change.
The change in this pony convinced me, perhaps wrongly, that any horse on which I consistently rode dressage tests would be similarly transformed.
This Diary reports on progress - if any - with Larry who unlike the beginner pony has the physical qualities needed to canter a 10 m circle, our next objective.
I tell the RI I am anxious about the left rein. She reassures me we will canter 15 m. first.
However, this lesson needs to factor in two changes. New Forest's concern for my safety means I have decided to exercise more. control. I am certainly safer as Larry reverts to the reluctant, bored RS lesson horse I first met. He's not moving and my RIs own concern for my safety means I am riding with no whip.
We start by trotting 20m circles spiralling in and leg yield out on both reins and then riding 10 m. circles in trot. I am repeatedly offered my whip back but have it in my head that my future with Larry depends on my discovering how to get his compliance and canter without the whip.
Anyone have views on this?
I am not prepared to return to being the worst RS pupil in the world. I sort it privately with Larry and get 15 m. canter circles. I learn (I am slow to learn obvious things) that, just as one needs more energy to walk a 10 m. circle than to walk large, the same is true of canter. Asking for canter on a 15 m. circle is harder than on a 20 m. circle. Both are harder than beginning to circle when you already have the energy and speed from trotting or cantering large.
Worth mentioning that I already cantered half a 10 m circle. A challenge set by my RI: to trot up the centre line, transition to canter at x and turn away in the correct direction at the end of the school. I rode it to the right. On the left I transitioned at x but chickened out of cantering left at the end.
However, next week I could canter large and try turning left up the centre line.
Any accounts of how you learned to canter 10 m circles or taught your horse would be interesting. But no criticism please of me and my vague ways nor of the RI who gave me my dream to ride a flying change before I died.
My lessons had an unexpected outcome. They transformed the safe beginner RS pony who had been picked to teach me. Thus before he returned to his weekday job of teaching small kids, he and I together produced our first flying change.
The change in this pony convinced me, perhaps wrongly, that any horse on which I consistently rode dressage tests would be similarly transformed.
This Diary reports on progress - if any - with Larry who unlike the beginner pony has the physical qualities needed to canter a 10 m circle, our next objective.
I tell the RI I am anxious about the left rein. She reassures me we will canter 15 m. first.
However, this lesson needs to factor in two changes. New Forest's concern for my safety means I have decided to exercise more. control. I am certainly safer as Larry reverts to the reluctant, bored RS lesson horse I first met. He's not moving and my RIs own concern for my safety means I am riding with no whip.
We start by trotting 20m circles spiralling in and leg yield out on both reins and then riding 10 m. circles in trot. I am repeatedly offered my whip back but have it in my head that my future with Larry depends on my discovering how to get his compliance and canter without the whip.
Anyone have views on this?
I am not prepared to return to being the worst RS pupil in the world. I sort it privately with Larry and get 15 m. canter circles. I learn (I am slow to learn obvious things) that, just as one needs more energy to walk a 10 m. circle than to walk large, the same is true of canter. Asking for canter on a 15 m. circle is harder than on a 20 m. circle. Both are harder than beginning to circle when you already have the energy and speed from trotting or cantering large.
Worth mentioning that I already cantered half a 10 m circle. A challenge set by my RI: to trot up the centre line, transition to canter at x and turn away in the correct direction at the end of the school. I rode it to the right. On the left I transitioned at x but chickened out of cantering left at the end.
However, next week I could canter large and try turning left up the centre line.
Any accounts of how you learned to canter 10 m circles or taught your horse would be interesting. But no criticism please of me and my vague ways nor of the RI who gave me my dream to ride a flying change before I died.
I would rather work with the horse to gain a genuine desire to cooperate - it takes longer but is more rewarding in the end when you succeed. 
