Since our canter work is in great shape, Nikita and I have been working more on our trot, which is my weak area. Specifically, we've been concentrating on half-passes, since those are super weak. Our canter half-passes are bordering amazing, since we have little trouble performing them at a grand prix angle, and they're powerfully collected and straight, but we just lack that feel in the trot half pass. It's getting better because a few months ago the half-passes were a disaster; currently, they're hit or miss.
Nikita is the kind of horse that you have to set up perfectly in order to get a good movement; she has to be super through at the poll and pushing from behind, and you have to be on the ball and, honestly, micro-manage her every stride. She's not the kind of horse, I'm realizing, that really offers unless you really ask. If you add into the mix the fact that she's super powerful, you get a horse that's really hard to collect, and I mean truly collect, sometimes. Nikita isn't a schoolmaster, and is confident enough in her own sense of self that she waits until you ask correctly before doing the movement. Nicole, who is no where near as educated as Nikita, requires simply pointing her in the right direction and asking for the bend, and away she goes into the half-pass with little set up required. She wants your approval, and I think she was born knowing how to move sideways. I'm not able to set up Nikita yet for the trot half pass so that she's collected in the movement consistently. We've been working on being more elastic, and the half passes are showing that we're not quite elastic enough yet. Good information to know.
For whatever reason, I'm the kind of rider that if a movement isn't damn near perfect, it's physically uncomfortable for me. It just doesn't feel right. I think this is pretty odd, but a lucky twist of fate since I have an inner litmus test telling me if a movement is good or not, or at least where I need to improve. Right now, these half-passes are so uncultured that they're actually torturous to me. Add into the mix the humidity and heat of the past few days, and you've got a real inferno.
