Today marks my one year anniversary here at Valhalla. I have come a long way in my riding, and I am very thankful to Erin to instill in me such good basics. This week we are hosting a clinic with Herwig Radnetter, from the Spanish Riding School (upholder of the classical standards of dressage), and I am fortunate enough to ride with him twice. I rode with him when he came over the winter, and came away feeling very frustrated with my riding. However, I had my first lesson with him the other day on Adeline, a moody mare that I have been riding for this past year, and think I made a better impression on him. I was very pleased with Adeline as well. Other than trying to yank the reins out of my hands a few times, she worked very well.

I got a lot from my lesson with Herwig. First of all, do not squeeze with the legs, this makes the horse tense. Have a little weight in your stirrups and let your leg hang. Ride the horse forward, look up, and feel that you have equal weight in both reins. If the horse is offering you a steady contact and is in a good frame, ride with a quiet hand. If the horse is not round enough you can play with the reins, but once the horse is round, be quiet. From there you can half halt and have it mean something. Also, when aiding the horse to canter, from the trot or the walk, slide your outside leg back, wait for a response from the horse that says "I know you want to canter" and then depart. Herwig says that if the horse understands what you want, then he will do it - which begs the question from me "why do they do it?" Practice collecting the horse and sending it forward without building tension. Play and see how strong the horse is already. When asking for a shoulder-in, just turn your upper body. Use your aids if needed, but play around to see how little you can do. Also, in the canter, if the haunches are coming to the inside, just turn your upper body to align the horse and weight your inside seat bone. I can't wait for my second ride with him, I will be riding John and Karrie's stallion, Tanzlen. I have just started working with him, but so far he has been a lot of fun. I have been riding him while Beth is in Canada.

Erin had an accident today. She was riding Infallible in the outdoor, working him in the walk, when he started bucking and bolted. She was thrown onto his neck and actually rode him that way for awhile while he continued to buck. When she saw that he was headed for a tree and a fence, she came off. Luckily it doesn't sound like she broke anything, but she is going to be pretty sore for awhile. That is the down side of horseback riding =(