Back To Basics

Spyke and I had a lesson this morning with Laura, the instructor that we watched on Monday. It was a FABULOUS lesson. Laura takes the horse right back to absolute basics and makes sure that all the building blocks for soft self carriage are present. We started with a lot of ground work. First was bit of flexion and we worked on getting him to give to pressure; dropping his head, turning his head, moving backwards. We got him moving forward and then disengaging the hind quarters and moving his hind quarters without moving the forelegs (that was quite hard for us). We then did all of that from on board. It was fantastic and I could really see Spyke thinking and listening and could feel him softening already. I can't wait for our next lesson and I have lots of home work to do. On the down side Spyke has twisted one of his back shoes so I can't do much with him until I have that straightened out.