Danielle Thomason Clinic Day 2

 

Clearly I'm very late at this..and unfortunately did not get a lot of media on day 2. It was awhile ago so I'm going to attempt to jog my memory.

I rode Evita first and we moved to the full court higher on the hill. I've never worked up there but after a quick look around E was ready to go to work. We had fun with more lateral movement and really worked on super quiet hands and using my seat for most of my aids. I'm fairly new to the whole dressage world so I'm just now starting to develop an independent seat and not relying on my hands. 

We did a lot of voltes and also worked on getting halts. DT commented that Evita's canter is at the stage where it is cute right now but we need to work on gaining more power and ground cover. She wants to see E come up and through her shoulders with each stride. It was a slightly shorter lesson than the day prior, which I was thankful for because man was I sore. E promptly developed an abscess that lasted for ever the day after and had three weeks off. Womp womp.

Next I hopped on Vermont. I could tell he was already feeling better than the day prior. We focused again on walk trot transitions and keeping him straight. There were some fun poles thrown in the mix and towards the end of the lesson I was starting to get Vermont to feel like a normal horse again. DT is very adamant on quiet hands and ignoring his headset. Once we got him working forward and through and reached into the connection and was nearly on the bit! She explained to me her previous work with thoroughbreds and what she has learned. We both agreed that he needed to regain his confidence and then he would be back to normal in no time. We also discussed lunging him in a single outside loose side rein to give him more support and structure while we lunge so he doesn't just fling wildly. (Have since been doing this and hes gotten much much better!). 

Overall I had a really really fun time and definitely got worked hard. I enjoyed her teaching philosophies and each lesson felt like a conversation between me, her, and the horse. I'm excited to clinic again!