Like lots of riders Laura was collapsing in the waist area and "pushing" Martillo along in the walk. She has to try to still her body from the waist up and just let him move her seat bones as he takes the walk steps, so as not to push his back away from her and make him hollow. The energy is created from her legs. Laura was also finding Martillo more difficult to steer on the right rein - he falls out through his left shoulder which is stiffer than his right. She was able to control this by keeping a steadier left (outside) rein contact to form a "barrier", and by being aware that if she is too tight in her right (inside) thigh she will push him out to the left. Lots of small circles helped her to practise fine-tuning the steering. Martillo is very sensitive and well-schooled and so a good teacher!

Horace had some "attention" problems early in the session so Tina did lots of circles of varying sizes, with some leg-yielding around them to help keep his attention in the arena and to supple him up physically (which help the mental "suppling" too). She was tending to tip forwards and a little to the right, and needs to sit up to help Horace balance. He is a big horse with long strides and at first Tina was "stifling" his forwardness a little in the walk-trot transitions, making him fussy in the contact. He was steadier and happier when she allowed the trot to "swing" forwards more. Tina also practised riding circles and squares with her two hands touching at the knuckles so that she couldn't move the inside rein backwards (which can invite the horse to fall out!)

Ralph was having some problems riding Danny "round" but without him coming behind the bit. Danny's build would make it very easy for him to do this if the rider was tempted to just "fiddle" his head down. Also Ralph was moving around too much in the saddle, especially his arms. When Ralph practised stilling his body and elbows (and therefore his hands too), Danny got the idea and rounded nicely into the bridle. Ralph was able to maintain this in walk and trot, and Danny moved in a lovely "connected" outline with a soft back, active hind legs and his head in front of the vertical as it should be!

Rosie used to be a very stiff mare and Nakita has done lots of work to supple and soften her up. She needs to continue this programme of riding lots of different school movements with an emphasis on accuracy and rhythm. In the lesson she practised circles, serpentines, leg-yielding and transitions. Nakita needs to get out of the habit of "nagging" Rosie with her legs at every stride. She practised keeping her legs still for a few strides at a time before giving Rosie a "wake-up call". Rosie sometimes misunderstands the leg-yielding signal and pops into canter (which is easier for her!) But Nakita must still praise her for answering the leg before coming quietly back to the leg-yield. Also, the transitions were very fluent and the canter helped to supple Rosie's back which helped the trot work too!

June tends to collapse in her body and needs to sit taller and stiller, with stiller elbows and hands to encourage Chester to round into the contact and soften his back and neck. June practised feeling more toned in her tummy area and (because she tends to hollow here) pushing her tummy forwards towards her hands. Chester was feeling a little under the weather so rather than practise lots of fast work, June did lots of serpentines and school movements in a free walk on a long rein, making sure that he still worked his muscles by marching forwards actively. June tends to steer too much with her inside rein so the serpentines enabled her to practise steering more with her body weight (into the inside seatbone and stirrup) and legs - nudging Chester around with her outside leg.

Joe is quite a young horse and much stiffer to his right side than to the left. Malcolm found that he was falling in badly when he tried to circle right. With a horse like this it is easy to end up on an ever-decreasing circle in the middle of the school! Malcolm practised keeping Joe in right flexion, to help him soften on this side, even if he ended up in the wrong place! He then pushed him back by weighting his outside stirrup and using a strong right (inside) leg. Joe had also started the session rather tense and with a high head carriage. By sending him forwards into a steady rein contact, Malcolm managed to get Joe looking longer and softer through his neck.

Max used to be very stiff to the right but has now softened up that way and is slightly stiffer left. This is not unusual and shows that Daune has done something right! Now he thinks that he can only bend left if there is no contact on the outside, right, rein. Daune's right arm can be a bit wobbly so she needs to keep it still and secure and to feel as if she is pushing Max into the outside rein when they are going left. Only when he is secure in that outside rein will she be able to soften the inside rein enough to enable his inside hind leg to work more under his body and carry more weight. This will be important for exercises such as shoulder-in. Max was also being a little fussy in the contact at times. He seemed happier when Daune took up a steadier, stronger (but still elastic) feel on the rein and then when she sent him forwards he looked more consistently "connected" through his back and neck.

Gunner is very good at lateral work so Elaine was able to practise going sideways in a number of ways: leg-yielding, shoulder-in and travers (quarters-in). In leg-yielding her challenge was to stop Gunner anticipating and to control just how much sideways and how much forwards. She did this by balancing the actions of her inside and outside legs, and by sometimes finishing at the inside track and not letting Gunner slide all the way to the fence. In shoulder-in it was again a careful balance: how much weight on the inside stirrup will make him step too far in and come off the track? Elaine found that if she had too much angle she could correct, to an extent, by weighting her outside stirrup, but if she tried to push him back with her inside rein the fluency of the movement was lost. Elaine also practised varying Gunner's stride length in trot by "holding" him with her legs for shorter strides and then "tapping and releasing" the lower leg forward and down for longer ones.