Last Thursday's hack and Friday's mini lesson

I just did a really quick hack with Werther on Thursday. The extra training rides seem to really be helping Werther. He was much more responsive and round. The only thing I struggled with was the canter, it seemed flat to me and I just could not get the uphill quality I wanted. Sarah just found out on Thursday that she had a spot in the clinic, so with only one week until the clinic she wanted to put in some extra rides on Werther to get him a little stronger in his collecting muscles and a little more sensitive to the aids to do the 4th/ prix saint george work. Sarah came out on Friday, I groomed Werther. She got on and put him though all the movements you would see in a 4-3 or the PSG tests. She said he was a little stiff in the canter half passes, and she was having some issues with her rhythm in the tempi changes but not too bad, for a horse who has basically had a eight year break from upper level dressage. I got on him for a few minutes after Sarah was done and she gave me a mini-lesson. He definitely had more self carriage after Sarah rode him, but Werther was still a long way away from being hot. We got to start to play with lengthening and collection at the trot, and Sarah let me try the flying changes again, which were still a little late, but better than last time. The really cool thing about Werther is that most horses would be really hot to the aids after that kind of work, he never overreacted to anything I did, he was still very calm. It was a short ride for me, but very fun.