When I got to the stables this Tuesday, I found Murphy was still turned out. Darn, I thought. He must be injured. Fortunately, they had just forgotten to get him in because our regular instructor was ill and everything was a bit disorderly. So, I got him anyway and he was mostly okay with coming in with me.
It is always interesting to have a new instructor, since they’ll teach in a different way and spot things someone who sees you every week might not spot. In this case, she spotted my usual faults (like my leg coming up when I am trying to use the lower leg properly), but her teaching style was very different and produced some interesting results. She talked quite a lot, and while a lot of instructions sometimes leave me a bit frazzled, hers ended up working a bit like ... motivational background noise.
That may sound as if I didn’t listen, but I did. I was able to concentrate on my riding and just get these reminders all the time that made sure I wasn’t being lazy. When you ride just once a week it is particularly difficult to get into a habit of riding actively the whole lesson even if you want to. But the way she gave instructions all the time was like gentle prodding, and it kept me working without stressing me out. It is almost as if that way of teaching gets my body working better subconsciously and doing little things here and there while at the same time keeping me from overthinking and trying too hard.
The result was some pretty good corners from Murphy once I put my foot down about him pushing against my aids, and once he agreed to that he found a pretty nice working form. I also got some fairly good leg yields out of him (though its always a tricky balancing act to get him to not go either too much sideways or too much forward, slippery eel that he is), and the canter towards the end of the lesson was also decent. Not as good as last weeks, but rounder than what I get a lot of the time with him.