SESSION 21 – DOWNWARDS TRANSITIONS

Due to Savannah not wanting to be caught, not wanting to load and with it being very hot weather, this was a short but very useful session! Savannah has been a little bit on her toes recently so Claire wanted to work on downward transitions and have a quick look at canter.

The session starts with Ali checking Claire's position. Claire needs to be more narrow on the right at the back and more narrow on the left at the front. Once Claire gets her head around this Savannah shows that Claire is now in a good position. Claire also needs to maintain this in the sit phase of rising trot.

Claire is concerned that she is standing up and pulling on the reins in downwards transitions. Ali gets Claire to focus on the tendons in the front of her thighs by thinking knee up. This really improves the downwards transitions.

At the end of the session, Claire shows Ali canter on both reins. Claire needs to think about sitting more on the back of her seat bones, pulling up her thigh tendons and keeping the balls behinds her knees. This should keep Savannah out in front of her and stop the Spanish Riding School impressions!