The first was about the medium vs the extended trot. Now brat and I are around Second Level so we won't be seeing extensions for a while. I knew that First Level's lengthening in trot becomes the medium, but I wasn't sure where medium stopped and extension began. Brat likes to lengthen his trot stride, especially out in the field, but he will try to give me more with every step, and eventually loses balance/rhythm/etc. He goes so close to that tipping point that when I try to support him with a little half halt it falls apart. I've been starting the lengthening on a circle to get him on the aids and balanced before going straight and figured that was getting into medium trot. At Second the medium is pretty well as much lengthening as the horse can manage (without losing the balance, rhythm, etc). Over time this becomes a gait that gets stronger and easier for the horse to give and maintain - much the way the collected trot appears a little at a time. For now I can ask brat to give me everything he can without losing it.
Then I forgot the other question for a minute. It was about the exercise we got last time to work into the idea of beginning half steps. Per likes to set the learning up for these very collected works (half steps, canter pirouette) in a way that allows the rider to push the horse forward into them rather than going shorter and shorter to get there. Back when he introduced us to the start of canter pirouettes the exercise was a loose walk pirouette with the transition to canter in the pirouette (loose meant the hindquarters were travelling a small circle rather than staying in place). Working down to a working pirouette in canter from a larger circle is something we've only just started. So back to the half steps. The exercise was getting the hind legs lifting into the trot rhythm on the spot (or nearly) from a halt (see? pushing forward into it) and then allowing each trot step to get a little longer. Brat was doing very well with this, but he's started getting stuck about going forward from the halt when I ask him to get his hind feet into the rhythm on the spot first - even with a loose rein (he's trying to figure out what I want). So Per suggested that we could try bringing him shorter from the trot, or ask for it out of the walk which would allow the push forward into the collected work. We did try this a bit later when brat was warmed up and working well. Going from the walk helped a great deal and a couple of times he really got a bouncy, very short stride in his first trot steps.
Apart from that, today we worked a good bit on forward and back within the gaits - not collection, nor lengthening, but more a response to the leg and half halt. We then pushed a bit further for more collection and in the trot more lengthening up to our current medium trot ability. In the canter we didn't really lengthen to medium, but did ask for a bigger stride (got some nice ones) and a good response to the half halts to come back. This was working up to going forward and back within the trot during half pass in order to be able to ask for and get a stronger, rounder trot in the half pass. The response wasn't as dramatic as in the straight trot, or even what we can do in shoulder in, but it was a good start (homework for next time).
Brat wasn't as supple as he can be today, but he was willing and worked hard for me. The sun was hidden behind the clouds so it was a cooler ride. I felt it went quickly and was surprised to see it had been 45 minutes when Per said that was enough for today (I agreed that brat was done, but I didn't think I'd been riding that long).
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