which_chick | (Reply)

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Ah. Walk and trot games is where DLB is checking out our range of work in walk and trot. It's not actual games. Kind of... From Ordinary Walk, how much can you influence walk? Is there something approaching extended walk? Is there an effort towards collected walk? Do you, at any point going from Ordinary Walk to either extended or collected, lose any of the deliverables that your Ordinary Walk has? (You should not lose any of the deliverables -- contact, rhythm, abs engaged, footfall pattern, horse does not drop back, etc. -- while shifting from Ordinary Walk to other walk efforts.) Can you accomplish these things without hauling on your horse's face, etc.

We did not used to do walk and trot games, this is a new thing she's added this summer. (She does not call it walk and trot games, but she also doesn't go for Dressage Talk like "medium" and "collected" and "extended", probably because she does not want to set up riders for disappointment. DLB would much prefer to be all "Yay, that's (thing), good job!" than "Welp, good try but ... no." So she sorta... creeps up on things instead of asking for them right out using Dressage Words. (I find this slightly twee and frustrating, but w/e.)

The reason we are not doing canter games is that ordinary canter needs to be less earthbound and forehand-y before we can play games in canter. I have some things to work on there. Walk and trot, tho, lots of room to play games there, and so we did.