Milha - november 7, 2008

Session shared between F. and me. I took the first part. Rather busy arena, but Milha is not easily disturbed. She is in mild seasons at this point, which does not seem to affect her temper today. Loose draw reins, dressage whip, no spurs. Walk during 10', with circles and figures. She is reasonably forward, and the whip (lightly used mainly as a warning signal mostly without contact) helps. For the first time, I try shoulder-in and am pleasantly surprised by the response, at left hand: smooth and bringing the left hind limb below the mass, as if Milha had done this for months already! Unfortunately, on the right handside, the movement turned to be much more difficult to her, with a flash of significant resistance . There must be a connection with her problem at canter start on the right foot. Then good work at posting trot: impulsion build-up, horizontal placer, good extended trot and transitions back to working trot. At sitting trot, I try a few half-halts for raising the neck - again, pleasant surprise with little resistance. After 10 more minutes including many changes of directions and work on circles, interrupted with walk periods and neck extension, I try shoulder-in. Same outcome as in walk, i.e. very satisfactory (for a start) at left hand, and... just not feasible at right hand. I decide to explore this a little further, with extremely small shoulder-fore which was given at last. At this point, Milha even showed readiness to start canter on the right foot. I let her go a few strides to avoid her feeling punished on this (difficult) side.
A good, square halt to finish my part. F. took her for 15' more minutes , continuing the training at posting and sitting trot which was steady, forward and relaxed - lovely 'lipstick' to testify it.
We brought Milha back to stables with some perspiration patches, mainly in the stifle area. We were encouraged by this first attempt into our Stage 2 programme.