A Weekend Of Firsts Part. 2

I had my first dressage lesson with P on Sunday, and I learned a lot. Right off the bat, she explained the concept of tracking up, and we followed the progression of his hoofprints as I asked for more engagement in the walk. This has always been a fuzzy concept for me, and it was great to have someone take the time to eplain it. It hardly took any time at all to achieve one hoofprint inside the other! Then we worked on asking him to accept more of a connection at the walk and later at the trot. Kwik was a bit forward at the trot, and I certainly wasn't helping him. He's at the point right now where he's not really sure what speed he's supposed to be going- he knows I'm asking him to be forward but not fast, and he's looking to me to show him how to do this. I know I need to sit tall and deep in my seat, slow my posting, and not allow my reins to get too short buuuuut I can't seem to make my body do any of this at the same time. I know he's not going to take off with me, and we've managed some lovely trot work in the past, so I have no idea what my deal is.

Same story with yesterday's ride. I thought we'd do some work in the round pen to warm up and then do a little bit of work with side reins first before getting on, but he mostly ran around bucking and carrying on like an idiot. I got on anyway, and we managed some okay work at the walk. We should have just called it a day, but I really wanted a few laps of nice trot. Here's to hoping we both chill out over the next couple of weeks as we get used to new barn, new routine, new people, new horses, new feed (he's amost switched over from his old feed), new arena, new everything. Here's hoping.