Ride Notes: Nov. 20

• Warm Up: It's been cool to live the whole mantra of "What is hard will become your warm up." Leg used to mean nothing or shoot forward, there was no in-between. Now we do leg yield zig zags in warm up. He's learning the half pass. With a shift of weight, he's in shoulder-in. 
• The connection: Being unsteady in the connection has always been one of his biggest weaknesses. In the first year of showing him, he was capable of a full on head wag. In year two, it was more of a bob on and off the vertical. It wasn't related to hands--he would do it if you dropped the reins completely--it was, to me, how he expressed tension. Now he's soooo steady. It's becoming probably one of my favorite parts about riding him, that metronome outline and rhythm.
• The stretchy work used to not be a thing either. He had no idea of reaching for the bit, he just tucked into a false frame with no actual horse in my hand. Now he lives for the stretch, all day every day, offer him and inch and he'll happily take it to the ground with his back round as a ball.
• Forward: The cold weather is helping with the forward immensely, mostly in the trot. At the walk, if he comes out lazy, I have to get after him right away to gogogo, especially through the short sides. But the trot is big and bold, and I experienced a big and bold trot to unstick him when we started the lateral work which I was able to keep going back into the SI and hot damn was it an amazing feeling. #goals 
• Canter: The canter has always been the gait that all of my horses have scored well on and have gotten the best comments on from outsiders while consistently being the hardest gait for me to ride. It is SO HARD for me. Maybe it's always looked so good because I'm working SO HARD? Or maybe their canters would be/would have been 10s across the board, but because they had to pack my huffing and puffing ass around they were only 7s and 8s? 
• Opie's collected canter is becoming amazing. Bobby taught me that collection is basically just riding ten times more forward than you think is possible while not actually going anywhere. Collection = Forward. Always. The canter to walk transitions are coming along so amazing as long as that's my number one focus. Push him forward, push forward, push forward, gooooobutnotactuallyanywhere and he's stepped softly into the walk. Heaven.