Ah ha!

I think I might end up having time to ride the pony a second time today, depending on if my friends in econ want to study after class or not. If not I can head out to the barn and ride her again this afternoon. I began by riding her around the property, and I used her sheet as a cooler since I don't have one. She was hot so I ended up getting off and lunging her for about ten minutes. I still ended up needing to give her a nice gallop after we trotted a while, because she was so hot.

The main focus today was maintaining the flexion, and the bend, especially to the right. I was getting frustrated for a bit when she was tensing her neck right by the poll, but then I remembered some of the stuff I worked on with Patrick. I opened and lowered my hands, almost to my mid-thigh. I shortened my reins to keep her in check. by opening and lowering my hands I gave her an opportunity to soften to my hand, and move away from my leg. I was riding with a shorter stirrup today (I have been in dressage mode for too long now, riding with my stirrups 2-3 holes lower than my jumping length), and because of that I really had to focus on using my whole leg (much harder when your leg feels short) rather than referring back to my spur. She does respond really well to my spur though, and its all starting to click with how I can use/move my leg to manipulate how the the pony moves her shoulders or hind end depending on where I place my leg.