another gatsby day :')

so yesterday I had another riding lesson at west hallam riding school :) it was amazing, when i got there i spent 25 minutes grooming Gatsby and making him all shiny (Although he was extremely shiny before I even did anything). Then I tried to clear his hoofs out but there was no such look it took forever because somehow he had managed to get all little rocks caught up in the mood in his front hooves. They did eventually come out, then i tacked him up and he was very co-operative (putting his head down) cause normally he puts his head up high and when he does this i cant reach his ears. 

To start with we did some warming up, in walk making sure to include the leg-yield in walk so that he would be ready for it when we went in to trot, in walk he was much stiffer although we got a couple of crossovers. Then we went in to trot and he was much better, Gatsby seems to manage things alot better when you did it in trot he seems to find the walk a lot harder and he also seems to go better when he is in the left rein. After this we did some canter, which was the first canter that I had done since Gatsby was at Broomfield in June, the first one was very unbalanced and unconnected and every word you can use to say it was awful we kept dropping out of canter (we went on the left rein first) then on the right rein it was completely different, we managed to do one lap around the school without him stopping, he was calm, and he was collected! 

Then we did something that I have only ever done once before and that was shoulder in. While this is fun to do its also quite complicated to get your brain around it! But we did eventually get there, to do shoulderr in you need to turn your body as if you were going to go across the diagonal and change the rein but then you have to use your outside rein to keep him going down the straight side and nudge him with your inside leg to keep him moving! It sounds complicated but when you get the feel for it its not to bad. We only did this in walk and next week are moving up to doing it in trot! 

That's all for now and I will make sure to post the pictures later. 

Until Next Time 

A Girl With A Dream

P.S. WE MANAGED TO KEEP IN AN OUTLINE!