Of course it rained during the day when we had planned for some jumping out in the field. So, more dressage and more counter-cantering, though at least we could ride in the paddock. Usually its too dusty by the time its warm enough to be outside, but the rain made it just right.
To get us thinking about riding for counter-canter, we started off riding the horses bent against the curve in corners and on circles. I think it worked surprisingly well on Heddvig; I probably concentrate more when doing it the opposite from “normal”, which would account for some added efficiency. But that’s about the only advantage I get from doing anything reversed. The rest is…confusion.
Left and right is not something I handle well as it is and I can easily confuse myself about just which leg do I sit down on in a rising trot (not only do I suck at sensing it, I also find it impossible to see if I am sitting down on the correct leg so I usually think of it as rising with the opposite leg instead) and how to tell which canter I’ve got (again, I suck at sensing this). Imagine what happens when I am asked to make the inside the outside and the outside the inside, to keep sitting down on the correct leg (which is now the opposite of what it normally is) and to ask for counter-canter.
So, yes, not only am I trying to do this on a fairly hot-headed draft horse (albeit of a fairly light model), I am trying to do this while being confused about what is what. Given this, the result wasn’t too terrible, but it still annoys me that anything like this gets me so confused. The best part was probably after Ulrika helped me sort out how to ride Heddvig before canter when she’s getting really charged up; I could really feel it when I found the right balance.