Canter Along, Pond: Ride 1

Operation "De-Pogo-sticking-the-canter" has commenced as of last night. After my semi-awful ride on Monday, I came out with an idea of what I wanted to work on (the canter) and tried to set myself up for success; saddle is balanced with half pad with rear shims, I had the right bit on, and a running martingale because I was missing it last time. I didn't end up videoing due to the arena having people in it (I feel awkward videoing myself when there are other riders in the frame) but we set to work, and I tried a couple of things last night:

1. Cantering earlier in our ride and leaving the trot work (which is always 800,000x easier) for last.
2. Demanding a bend.

Why was her canter better two years ago?

Bailey was a bit sluggish off of my aids (not sure if it was shock at being asked to canter so soon, or if I wasn't setting her up like I usually do?) into the canter, but tried hard to do what I asked. Her canter was relatively soft and controllable at the canter, but asking her to go straight involved locking her jaw, and when she'd run into my legs trying to circle or go to the wall (we were passing someone who I was giving the rail, so we'd go straight on the quarter line) she'd nearly fall over. I distinctly remember applying spurs to keep her upright.

At least I was better at sitting up by Year 2

Still didn't fit in that saddle, though.

While this improved, as did her transitions (which were soft with very little hanging on the bit in the downwards), in retrospect, I need to do a better job of keeping my fingers closed on my reins (bad, Ashley) and also need to use half halts and my outside leg more effectively to pull her upright from her usual tendency to motorcycle. Her neck is very bendy (unlike Foxie's) so it's easy to delude myself that she's soft and bending when really it's just her neck being bendy, and her body is tumbling along behind, but probably crooked. She is more comfortable cantering on a circle, so that's probably the place to broach more complex/hard ideas like not falling over, condensing her stride with a half halt and other exciting but entirely basic canter concepts.

Goals for next time:

1. Install half halts on a circle and get her STRAIGHT vertically
2. Attempt half halts on long walls to continue this, but don't sacrifice bend/softness.
3. Troubleshoot the jaw locking on the long walls.
4. If she's magically going really nicely, attempt a medium canter and half halt (baby step beginning of being able to collect > medium within the gait)