: Kicks Youtube :

I was delaying posting because I got my video from Mason City and I was trying to upload it to youtube so I could post it here. I had to convert the files, and now youtube is taking forever. Anyway, I had a lesson on Tuesday, it went well. Sarah had me do a mock warm up for the show without her coaching, (well, as much as she could help herself). I did well, I just need to remember to throw in a bit more walk work and some halt transitions. The canter was really good, we didn't have any problems with the right lead at all. Sarah had me work on getting him to "jump forward" in the canter. We finished with some turns on to centerline which were OK, I need to remember in my test to turn much tighter than I think I need to. I hacked yesterday, and I practiced warming up like I would warm up for a show, but again, I think I did alright with my amount of walk work, but I should have done some more halt trot transitions. When I started my canter work I had some issues with him swapping off the right lead again, and rather than get in a big fight about it, I switched and practiced my tests. I did Intro Test A twice, the first time was a little shaky, he cantered in the second circle, and I was late on one trot transition, and I was wide on my final turn to centerline. The second time around was much better, but he tried to die on me a  little early going on up centerline to halt. I only had to do Test B once, Werther felt really good. By the time I finished test B I made up my mind that I was going to fix this canter issue, I did not want to end on a bad note before my show. I made him pick up the canter off of the walk from centerline, and I had Werther go around the outside of the dressage ring while I practiced sitting back and deep and keeping the canter energetic. He was able to go around the outside of the dressage ring just fine, but when I moved in, he swapped again. I reorganized Werther while still staying in the ring and thought about doing a shoulder fore while going around the ring, it was a little exaggerated though, because I don't have the fine tuning at the canter yet that I do at the trot. It did the trick though, he went around the dressage ring without swapping off. The good news is, I can now do the canter transition without really thinking about it, I just have to work out this bug. I'm off to the horse show today, wish me luck!