Don'tcha just love those "aha!" moments??

[oharabear]

After reading the other thread on working horses in-hand, I was reminded that I DO have experience in schooling horses in-hand (from being a working student to a very classical dressage trainer) so I decided to bust out my dusty long-lines and take my OTSTB back to basics. He and I have been having some issues with our lateral work. And when I say "issues," I mean that we have virtually no lateral movement to speak of. :lol:

We've been trying to power through it under saddle, and were both getting frustrated. Then, while browsing that thread on this board, I thought to myself, "just get OFF and teach him from the ground."

So we've spent the last few days schooling basic lateral work in hand. This morning I decided to ride because, lets face it, riding is SO much more fun than ground work. ;) I was really just planning on hacking around. I swear.

After a brief warmup I decided to ask for a little tiny shoulder-in. The horse who never could figure out where to put his feet did a lovely SI all the way down the long side of the arena. Beautiful, collected, felt awesome!!!

So, even though I had been riding for all of 10 minutes, I told him how wonderful/amazing/brilliant he was and got off. :yes: Then I promptly had to text my trainer to tell her all about it.

Anyone else have "Aha!" moments lately?

[slc2]

Every day.:)

[DressageGeek "Ribbon Ho"]

I actually get the same feeling even from doing the ground work!

And, sad to say, given my own left right issues, I often have to do ground work without my horse just to remember the feel of the movement. Othewise I never would have gotten haunches out!

Congrats on your boy!