Counter canter is coming easier now. She stays relaxed doing the 2-1 serpentine canter/counter canter tour. Bending left, that's a different story. I think it's because she needs her teeth done, but I'm told that I don't make any horse bend left. I mean really bend left, so that the horse is through.
These weird little quirks keep cropping up that are hold-overs from my days skating. Things like, I'm more comfortable going to the left (the way I rotate when jumping). I collapse my left side when going left (also a hold-over from jumping). You know, my left side is bigger than my right side, because growing up there was more muscle development on the left side over many years, just as my right foot is permanently at about a 30 degree angle more than my left foot. Sometimes I wonder just how affected my musculoskeletal system really is by skating, for example, if my left side is shorter than my right side, or if there is a permanent angle to my rib cage or clavicle, because of all the bending.
We are going to start her on working pirouette soon. I don't know about it, I have some amount of apprehension. I can't do them relaxed and confidently on the schoolmaster. Or maybe I do them better than I think (as I do pirouettes and don't get yelled at about having to fix anything). The real thing I wonder about is when we can start working on changes.
