Today was another fabulous day at the CKDHMC. We started off the morning with barn chores and then a core work out, which was led by one of the riders, Catherine Chamberlain. Following this, we had a Q&A session the Courtney where she answered many questions by the participants. JJ Tate also led a theory session. JJ is based as Riveredge as a lead trainer.
During my lesson today with JJ Tate we worked on making Fiero very light in the hand and engaged in his hind quarters. I was super happy with Fiero because he actually had self-carriage and was never heavy in the hand today! We worked on having him travel with his frame up and out rather than down and bearing on my hands, which we were very successful at! In the beginning we would do a lot of canter to halt transitions and canter to halt to rein back to rebalance Fiero. JJ said that Fiero should have more rein backs incorporated into his daily rides so that he stays engaged in his hind quarters. We would also do haunches-in at the canter to help with that. At the trot we worked on shoulder-in on the center line and quarter line and would do trot-halt-trot while staying in the shoulder-in. I would also think about having his frame more up and out in the trot. We also did the same rein back and half exercises in the trot as we did in the canter. I worked on keeping my shoulders back at all times to help him stay balanced. Today was an awesome day!!!