Great Dressage clinic with Jim Koford

So the great Jim K came to day to do a clinic for us.  April is away on vacation, so I got 3 lessons!  Phew, I don’t know how April does it, riding multiple times in a day with Jim.  I am still tired and I have even had a nap!

first lesson was Xavoy, he warmed up really well today, stretching long and low and really really round, it is getting so much easier to get him there and even to keep him there. Now we have to add power to that long and low so that his hind legs don’t drift out behind him. That’s harder, but I am beginning to get the feel of it.  It changes the way he moves entirely when he stretches over the back, and then bring his hind legs up and under. We are slowly getting used to that FEI frame we are now supposed to go in.  UP and round and forward, it is hard and takes a lot out of both of us. But boy does it make the canter work better he just floated around in the pirrouettes and the tempi changes were amazing, he only sent me out of the saddle a few times!  It is still hard to get him to stay round and up hill in the lengthenings, and we have had to go back a step and work on  those, doing more collected-medium-collected than extended.  I am still having trouble with the 4 te,pis. it is so hard to count to 4, while simultaneously keeping him up, round and forward!! Just sayin’.

Next lesson was Xafaire, and it is still a struggle to get him to really give over his back and release his neck. He’ll go round but he does not release. So forward and back, forward and back and all the time working to keep him round and trying to keep his hind legs coming up and under.  But he has made progress, it’s just that he is big and strong and a little indifferent, no worries about sensitivity here!   But as usual, Jim got us going and by the end he was softer and more through. His canter work was awesome, we did some good canter half passes and he did some really nice walk-canter;walk transitions.  Trot is always harder for him, he wants to drop his shoulders and brace against the hand, but lots  of leg yeild on a circle, plus the shorten lengthen and he finally lifted up his bak and came round. Boy does he have a nice trot when he does that.

My fional lesson was on Arwen, April being away I snuck in a lesson on her. She has so much power and lift, but she is sneaky, she can fell round and through but she isn’t really and it’s hard for me to fell it yet. but again Jim worked us until we got that forward roundness, and it d=felt so good at the end. But I was wiped out!

Hillery rode her yellow pony Ohle, Mikey had a good lesson on Levi, who still is not convinced that Mikey has any business asking him for stuff!   Sabine came and rode Midneight, and Kiki came and rode Bulgar. All in all a great clinic.

MW