Mother's Day

 

Had a lovely Mother's Day with really thoughtful gifts from the hubby.  Love that Smartpak wishlist feature.  The show pad will stay in the wrapper until we actually show (more about that soon) but the Roeckl gloves were used immediately.  They  are everything every blogger has ever written about them.  Soft, well cut, and they feel like you are riding without gloves but with more grip and hand protection.  Also, machine washable.  Big thumbs up.

 

So, while wearing the gloves we also did this.  It was windy AF, so though I did get video it is not the best for sharing(think jet noises in the background) but was very good for some analysis of where we are right now in our training.

*the overall picture looks balanced, smooth, and flowy(see above) with hardly any moments of Jet being behind the vertical(yeah!) and with beautiful stretches

*while the overall picture looks great, the next step is for me to have more energy and to feel the engagement of the hind legs while asking for a little more lift of the withers to start getting a little bit of collection

*the flexibility exercises including serpentines, leg yields, stretching down and back up, and counter bending are all going really well and Jet is easily moved from one shoulder to the other in all sorts of different exercises while staying on the line of travel, we just need to polish up a few of the harder exercises like smaller serpentines, canter serpentines, and counter-canter

*the mobility exercises look good as well, with Jet easily and smoothly getting into the lateral positions(yeah!)BUT while the shoulder-in was three track pretty consistently the haunches-in was mostly 4 track which needs to be corrected, so it is not a-rider fail-leg yield with bend

*now that I have the effortless positioning laterally, during the lateral work I need to emphasize feeling the hind feet and drawing the withers up a bit to get the full gymnastic/strength effects of the lateral positioning

All in all, a good place to be, with only one really incorrect thing in the positioning of the haunches-in, which is totally me.  Once we get consistent on that, the adding of energy, feeling the engagement of the hind legs, and the lifting of the withers should come a little at a time as Jet gets stronger.  Also, as the Sweet Spot, Flexibilty and Mobility exercises get more automatic for me, I will have more mental space to also feel for those hind legs and make the withers a little taller consistently.  Small steps leading to big gains over time is the plan.