I've been working on my leg position with Nikita. I'm sure my legs are effective enough, but I can't stand the way they look. As the mare tends to fly, my legs start flapping around, and eventually my heels go up and my toes point out. I've been trying to keep my knees on these imaginary parallel lines pointing forwards to keep my knees on Nikita and my calves in the right position.
On a related but sort of different topic, Nikita seems to enjoy blowing off my leg. I'm starting to get the drift that the mare doesn't take me seriously, so some "yes, I'm completely serious" schooling has taken place. In other words, when she doesn't respond to a light leg aid, she gets the whip. And like Nicole, she's terrified of the whip. It's in times like this that I become the laziest dressage queen ever, and since it's too much work to keep kicking her, she really needs to respond to the light aid. My motto with dressage has always been "if it's that hard, then I'm probably doing it wrong" and sweating just to make the mare go is making me sweat buckets. I'm starting to get somewhere, but I think part of the reason she blows me off is because of my leg position. It screams "take advantage of me!", and so the mare does. Who can blame her?
Nicole's lead changes are becoming more solid. She's finally realized a more collected canter isn't the same thing as being hung, drawn, and quartered, and is relaxing more into and out of the lead changes. Of course, Nicole wouldn't be Nicole without some heavy fire breathing, but she's starting to have fun with the exercise.
