Chantal and Mia come to Bradfield Riding Centre for this session. Mia has not been there before so Chantal starts by getting Mia to slow her walk to get her to settle and listen.

Chantal has been working on 'snowplough' to keep her right leg in the correct position. Ali gets her to think of bending her knee more so that she has a shoulder-hip-heel alignment.

Straightness is the key to getting Mia going nicely and its obvious that Chantal has been practicing this in both walk and trot. Ali gets Chantal to 'flex and step' to make sure Mia is 100% straight. With transitions, Chantal has been thinking about 'just changing the legs' and this makes for some great changes.

Ali gets Chantal to practice leg yield in both walk and trot. Mia understands front leg abduction and hind leg yield but leg yield challenges straightness both in the horse and rider. Mia needs to slow to move sideways and not just speed up. Chantal has to remember to say to Mia with her aids 'Please - do it!' not 'Please, please, please.....'.

In canter, Chantal works on 'bouncing the ball up' rather than Mia running off with the ball!