Lessons with Leslie Webb - Day 2

I headed out to Leslie's barn for a second day of riding, this time with my pal, Taz's mom, along for moral support.  The first day with Leslie had been both physically and emotionally exhausting.  I immediately developed a deeper respect for those top riders who train daily.

I may have forgotten to mention that I arranged these back-to-back lessons to form a private, two-day "clinic."  Our local CDS chapter held a clinic with Peggy Klump, but it didn't work out for me to attend, hence my own version!

During our first day's lesson, we struggled with correctly riding a serpentine.  Since I suspected that Leslie would repeat the request, I spent some time studying an old dressage test so that I would know where the serpentine should be ridden.  Good thinking on my part as that was the very first thing that Leslie asked me to ride.  She actually seemed pleasantly surprised when I rode it pretty close to "accurate."  Here's a "map" of the 3-loop figure.

The one disappointing element to the day was that Speedy W-O-U-L-D ... N-O-T ... S-O-F-T-E-N!  Leslie finally went to her tack room and scrounged around for a running martingale.  Aha ... problem solved.  I am simply not strong enough to resist when he cranks his nose up in the air.  

From the serpentines, we did a few 20-meter circles and then went on to canter work.  This was fun, actually.  It was the first time that we've done spiral in/spiral out at the canter.  Leslie seemed quite pleased with our effort and called it a day.  She could see that both Speedy G and I were tired from yesterday's work and felt that we probably wouldn't get any more done by continuing.

Leslie's a busy trainer, clinician, and competitor so I know that repeating these lessons is probably going to be tough.  I would definitely like to ride for her again.  Hopefully, once school lets out for the summer, she'll have a day or two free to work with us again!

Here's what a pony looks like after two days of riding with Leslie Webb ...

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Since he woke up while I was taking the pictures, I couldn't quite catch the drooping lip.