Two Weeks to Training Level!

Werther got the day off on Monday and I had a lesson with Sarah on Tuesday. It was lightly sprinkling, and the last thing I wanted was to get wet after this weekend, so we rode inside. We spent the majority of our time working on the canter, which is going to be our biggest challenge for Mason City. We also worked on developing more of a following hand at the walk and canter, which is challenging, with hunters you get yelled at for having chicken wings if you move your arms too much. Near the end of our canter work I was able to get him pretty round, Werther is still trying his best to convince me he cannot be round and foreword, my job is to convince him it is not the case. The biggest breakthrough was we figured out what is triggering Werther to swap from his right to left lead. Basically what is happening is that I'm falling in on my weaker left side at the canter which causes my right leg to slip back, which makes Werther think (and rightly so) that I am cueing for a lead change. What I have to do is be really conscious about pushing my right leg foreword and my right shoulder back. I really like the way Sarah is framing me fixing my position in the context of my right side, when a lot of trainers would just yell at me about my left side. I also am asking for a slight bend at the right lead to help prevent a swap. We finished up by going though training level test one which  I have memorized, it went really well for the first time running through it, we didn't have any swaps.