Part 2
Izzy and I were the last to go on Saturday. And even though Chemaine's day had started with a two-hour drive, she was just as friendly, relaxed, and encouraging for her eighth lesson as she was for her first. If you live anywhere near southern California, you really need to check her out. She's a remarkable trainer, show coach, and all around lovely person.
All photos by Edyta.
By the time I hopped on, he had watched several hours of exciting action, and it was pretty warm, but he was still charged up and very forward. I ditched the whip rather quickly as he didn't ever balk or get stuck behind my leg.
As an example, Chemaine got on him on Sunday and tried to ride him between the poles to work outside of my dressage court in a larger area. Speedy assumed she had made a mistake and veered so that he remained within the court. Chemaine laughed at how well "trained" he is. But that's what I mean about him picking up the slack; he more or less knows his job and can do it even if I am not directing him. I can't do that with Izzy.
Each time we came around, I leg yielded him farther toward C and pushed him into the circle at the bottom. Before he knew it, we were deep in the spooky end of the arena, circling. From the C end, we crossed the diagonal back to A and repeated the exercise tracking the opposite way.
My take aways for the first day's lesson are three-fold: provide structure, get the inside bend by first gaining control of the outside shoulder, and work on pushing him out on the circle and then collecting him on the bottom of the circle to bring him in.
Tomorrow, Chemaine gives Speedy a bit of a butt kicking!