Dressage Sat; Jump w/Christa Sunday

Saturday we had a dressage lesson.  Duke had his shoes reset on Tuesday, we rode in an insane wind/downpour on Thursday, and Friday he felt a little choppy in the canter.  (The "insanity" was only 15 mph, with needly little occasional rain, and like 45 degrees - hardly a blizzard.)

We worked on getting Duke to release his throat latch, and when he wouldn't bend his neck but would only tilt his muzzle, John had me lift my left hand (it was going to the left), and sometimes bring it to the inside and then lift it.  

He wanted me to get Duke moving more over his topline, so we also worked on giving him inside leg to outside hand, and in particular, making sure if I used outside hand, I put some leg on so he didn't stall.

John also had me work on sitting a few degrees further back (closer to upright, even though it feels like tilting backwards) to try to get my butt in the saddle.  But the tricky part here was to keep my hips moving.  When I lean back, I guess I set my hips, and if I thought about keeping them going, Duke wouldn't stall, but if I just leaned back without that "swing", he'd trot.  

We continued some of the same work on trying to bend him, by counterbending, then bending back in, and also a bit about me not "perching" up over the front of the saddle.

Doug was at the lesson and he said that he couldn't see what I did, but he could see the difference in Duke after John told me to do things.

Then today we jumped with Christa, but Duke was much more off in the right front, so when John made the final fence big, we had to sit it out.

He started with having us post in a two point around for a while, canter, then switch directions.  Then we did a grid, starting with ground poles, to one vertical, to a one stride vertical, to three verticals, to four verticals, with the fourth getting higher.  I'm pretty sure Christa ended at 4'2".  We quit way before that.

Duke was really excellent.  The main things to work on were opening my chest, sitting up tall, and keeping my lower leg forward instead of letting it swing back.  Duke handled the rest.

He's at Caber this week, so hopefully he'll be feeling better in that hoof by tomorrow so that he can get some work done with John.  I gave him a bath after his ride today so Ashley can clip him, and his tail was itchy Saturday, and his sheath really needed cleaning.  So my home method didn't work.