Follow up from my last post.
She is bending better through the left. Now, she has switched the sides she is stiff on; she doesn't want to make contact with the right side. This is completely normal, and actually kind of a good thing, because it shows she's using her body differently.
The canter has gone downhill, sort of. It was fairly balanced before, and she held herself well. Now that she has switched her stiff side, she is leaning a lot more on the left rein, so her canter has gotten strung out again. It was a lot worse last week; she was completely leaning on the bit. This week she has started carrying herself a little better, although sometimes she breaks from the canter, and can't hold herself in the canter for very long before she starts to lean. I think this will get better though, and is just a growing pain.
Her trot, on the other hand, has gotten much better and more through. I think the main issue the Walter Zettl clinic addressed was that Nic didn't understand (because I failed to show her) that I wanted her to seek the bit and be loose over her back. I know this is a basic concept of dressage, and I thought I had addressed it, but I realized during that clinic that I really hadn't addressed it. Because that issue has been addressed, she now understands the half halt much better.
In the past month I've also realized just how much my rein length affects her comprehension of my expectations. In the past, I've tended to let my reins slip, which inadvertently changes the level of contact. I think part of the reason she hasn't gotten the "self-carriage memo" is because the different levels of contact that occur throughout a training session sends mixed messages.
While logically this makes sense, I didn't really think about this as an issue until I read some literature (I want to say Podhajsky and Isabel Werth) that stated that sometimes the rider needs to keep the contact until the horse is "tuned into" the contact. It struck me that maybe with all the length changes, Nic is having a hard time understanding what I'm trying to communicate to her. I've been trying to keep a watch on how much I let the reins slip. It seems to have an effect because she seems to carry herself a little better, and there is a lot less weight in my hands. She also accepts much slighter half halts, sometimes (especially in posting trot) all I have to do to get her off her forehand is to shift my shoulders back.
She's getting more fluid in the sitting trot. She is starting to understand that she shouldn't change her tempo or rhythm at all when I sit. She still wants to tighten her back sometimes, but more and more she is keeping the same rhythm. The issue I've realized with her sitting trot is that I seem to have a hard time absorbing her motion once she starts to become more through and swing her back. It's a bumpy ride because of her suspension. I think that's why she wants to tighten her back when I initially sit - because I'm blocking her motion, and not moving with it.
