Shorter rein

I arrive at Anna's bubbling with excitement. Over the Christmas break a lot of things she's been trying to teach me have suddenly all come together and I am really really keen to tell her about it.

She listens patiently as I relay my discoveries to her, while Princess walks around the indoor arena. Anna nods her head and punctuates the conversations with "yes's". Yes, yessety yes! I've got it. (And I will write about it here in a series of entries). "I feel like I've had a real breakthrough", I say to Anna. "Now I can't wait to see what I can learn next", I finish off.

"Make the reins shorter, and half halt", says Anna. I do as she says, and the horse almost stops in her tracks. A walk that was running, and fast, all of a sudden turns into a "thinking" or "contemplating" type of walk. The energy is still there. But the horse is not trying to "get somewhere" anymore.

The walking is going well. "Now, shorten your reins, and trot on". I do as instructed. Once the trot is going well, Anna starts preparing me for canter. "Shorten your reins, and ask for canter". Shorten your reins?! But they are already short?! But I do as I am told. My hands feel like they are half way up the horse's neck. The canter comes. The reins feel about right. I have to work pretty hard with them to keep the horse going at the correct pace, on the correct circle, and relaxing. (Remember the entry on "strength"?). If they were any longer, I wouldn't have enough power.

We come back to the trot. "Lengthen the reins". We come back to walk. "Lengthen the reins".