If I thought I was having trouble with circles last time, this time was probably worse. Things started out well enough and I have been feeling it for weeks now, the stiffness or strange feelings in my body with respect to off kilter hip joints (right) and shoulders. When I ride a right rein turn, my body actually tends to torque to the left which doesn't help the turn. As well, I've noticed my right seat is doing something all its own. All these issues contribute to confusing signals for Ariel in terms of what I want her to do when we're on the right rein.
Additionally, in an effort to sit up more, I seem to sit up TOO much and my weight falls back and I end up driving with my seat so she's getting faster and faster (the complete opposite of what I want!) instead of slowing down and collecting herself a bit more. We end up zipping around the arena. The only good thing is I'm not terrified and do have enough confidence to feel like I can get her to turn when we need to and such. But, I have to try to find that "balance" between sitting up more but not pushing all my weight into the seat to drive her forward.
Not a lot of progress in this lesson... I even spent 10 minutes or so, trying to get her to complete a full 10 or 20 m circle at the walk. She was totally having none of it and was falling in, just ignoring my aids or counter bending. Needless to say, I finished up the lesson feeling kind of "blah".
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