My new blog about riding

Here's the first post to the new blog. This blog is going to be about training Mercury (my horse) and me to do three day eventing. I am going to include what my trainer (who is fabulous) tells me to work on in my lessons, problems I encounter working on my own, tips and hints I pick up, exciting stories, horse show news, and other odds and ends.
I started keeping track of what my trainer told me back with my first lesson, last fall. I got lazy lately and missed a few lessons, but I had one today so I'm going to enter it while it is fresh in my head. Then I'll work on adding the old ones back and putting in the odds and ends.

Today's lesson:
We worked on dressage and my seat. Mercury got a 40 and a 39.5 on his dressage tests (Beginner Novice A from the USEF) at the last show, and so I need to improve those before the next show.
What Bob told me to work on:
1. Riding with my seat. I move with him, but I can sit down to make him step further underneath him, or sit still to make him slow down. But I keep my upper body still when I'm doing this.
2. When I'm walking, my leg swings naturally at the same time as the opposite front leg (so my right leg swings when his left front leg is in the air). To get him to lengthen, I squeeze with that leg while his leg is in the air. (I saw the same thing in a David O'Connor video today.)
3. When I ask for the canter, I need to use more of both legs, and use them at the same time. He goes off track because I ask too much with the outside and not enough with the inside.
4. If he doesn't pick up the canter, immediately bring him back down and start back up again. Don't let him get away with trotting faster and taking his sweet time.
5. We worked a lot on the trot transitions. Sit a few strides, work on making him step right out, and then pick up the correct diagnol. Don't pick it up, then switch. When going down, do a few half halts and then sit back and still and ask for the walk. Don't lurch forward.
6. In the canter transitions, I lean forward to ask (and frequently squeeze my knees and pick up my heels). Stay leaning back and up and ask all at once with the heels down.
7. When I canter, and the outside toe points out, it is because I am not balanced. I need to correct my upper body, keeping it centered above him, all the time. I can "cheat" by lifting my outside shoulder on corners.
8. Keep my shoulder blades pinched and chest open. Rounding forward is what lifts my butt out of the saddle at the canter.
9. Work on circles. When he makes a "square" instead of a circle, it's because I'm using too much inside leg to try to make him round. I need to use my outside leg to keep him in the circle. I also need to ask a few strides ahead for what I want to do.
10. Don't look down!
11. To work on correct leg position (I pinch with my knees then my heel swings back) over fences, put a hair rubber band on the stirrup and the girth so I can't swing it very far. This is frowned upon for legal reasons, but it trains your leg to stay in place.
12. Before the modified two day, I need to do interval training. There is a 1 km post-to-post in the cross country course, so I will go out and: 1) walk it; 2) trot it; 3) walk; 4) trot; 5) walk; 6) trot; 7) walk; 8) canter; 9) walk; 10) canter; 11) walk; 12 )canter; and 13) two walks and stop. If he is huffing and puffing, slow it down and do fewer intervals.
The modified two day (I think) has dressage test Sat am; show jumping Sat pm. Then Sunday is roads and tracks (2000 m at trot); walk; steeplechase (BNI doesn't have jumps, but is a hand gallop for 1000 m); walk; 10 minutes in vet box; cross country (2500 m at slow canter for BNI).

What we need to improve right now is:
1) Proper takeoff for jump (him & me)
2) Not jumping ahead (me)
3) No lower leg swinging in jump (me)
4) Strengthening hind legs (him: trot poles, transitions)
5) Impulsion (him, but me)
6) On the bit (him, but me)
7) Hands STILL (Me!)
8) Sit down in canter, smooth transitions (me)
9) Bending (him, but me)
10) Fitness (both of us)