Lesson with Britt

Britt has been coming to Forest Park every other Monday, and for months I have been meaning to take a lesson with her.  It was great and I'm sorry it took me so long to get my schedule together to try one.
She has a very good ability to describe the precise movement that the rider needs to make, in order to make an adjustment in the horse, and then to get the desired result.  For example, she described in the canter that when Charlie's neck comes toward me, that is when I should do a half halt on the outside rein.  That was easy for me to feel (his neck coming towards me), a precise movement (half halt on the outside rein), and then a result (rounder, lifted Charlie). 
She had several suggestions for how to modify my warm up for stadium jumping, to try to keep Charlie responsive instead of zoning out, since he knows his job and doesn't need a lot of drilling right before we ride.  She suggested instead of trotting the cross rail first, try trotting the vertical.  Then, jump the vertical at two angles, then straight, then the oxer at two angles, then straight.  After that, work on walk to canter transitions - to get that feeling of "jump" and to make sure he is responsive, and also try canter 10 meter circles to get his hind legs working underneath him. 
The first thing we worked on was not throwing the reins away when I ask Charlie to go forward.  When he's being lazy and I kick him forward, I just fling the reins out and so going forward isn't really doing anything but teaching him to run around on the forehand.  Britt suggested thinking of a wall and so with firm hands, he has to bounce up when he goes forward, instead of just flattening out.  Just holding the reins with more contact made a huge difference.  Charlie was like "oh, THAT'S what you want" and rounded up into the contact.  However, Britt said he was good at faking it - his front end would get round but he still wasn't really using his hind end or lifting up through his back.
Then the big exercise we worked on was a sequence of transitions.  We would trot, walk, halt, then rein back (going in a straight line, without his head popping up - because that is defeating the purpose of the rein back which is to get him to step underneath himself lifting his hind legs up - and when he does, I can feel his back lift), and then halt and go forward into trot.  It took a few tries for me to catch on, but then once I could feel what was needed, it became a really cool exercise with a big difference in the trot at the end.
Britt mentioned using yardsticks - to objectively measure how a horse is responding - and she thought the rein back was a good yard stick.  If I can't get Charlie to back straight, it means I lost his hind end in the trot or walk heading into it.  This was another really good exercise because once I got it right, I could really feel the difference from when I didn't.
Charlie was really lazy today - he had two days of Major Beale back to back and then was on the grass today, but in a way, that is good because that's where I need help the most. 
Then we worked on cantering and making a circle from the outside rein, without using the inside hand.  This is really hard, but for a few circles, I used the inside leg to outside hand and it was AMAZING.  All of a sudden, he was like a motorcycle popping a wheelie and I could steer him and float him and do anything.  Britt related it to basketball - it's the move where you can go forward, up, or sideways because you've got all the energy where you need it.
We did a few small fences off of the circles and this was also a really great exercise. Because I had to concentrate so hard on riding from the outside, Charlie rode in very balanced and could round up over them, even though they were little.  They were way more effective than my cheating method of just raising them higher.
Britt suggested that I really focus on always riding precisely to the center of the fence, because on a long horse like Charlie who likes to wiggle to escape hard work, it's going to catch up with me as I try to move up the levels, and it's probably what's causing my rails down, if I come in at just the slightest angle.  She said to keep the fences where I have to concentrate to ride the tight circle to get to them, but also to put a ground pole with a glove in the center and always ride exactly over the glove.
Having these kind of clear exercises, with a goal to see in Charlie, and clear instructions to obtain them - with measurable objective information on the other side - is exactly my style.  I'm so glad she's coming to Forest Park!