Today I had a chance to see myself on a video and analyze my seat and my symmetry. In general I was pleased, I'm on the right track with my work. I know that I need to sit on my right seatbone more firmly, it likes to float. I have been working on that for the whole year now. I thought I close to even. Today I saw, not yet. Better then before, that is for sure, but not enough. My left thigh is letting me slide slightly to the right. It should stay more steady and be better connected to the saddle, especially through turns to the left where centrifugal force is throwing me out. I'm compensating a little bit for weakness in my left thigh by grabbing the horse with my left calf to keep me in the saddle. I need to watch for that.

Interesting, when you ride everything is much more dramatic then for the onlooker. Stuff that feels bad doesn't look that much bad. And I thought I rode a fantastic shoulder-in one time and the difference with the other ones wasn't as much as I thought. You could say that in the saddle everything more black or white and for the observer it is more blended together. The rhythm mistakes are very visible, which is why the corrections should be subtle, because strong ones usually disturb the rhythm.

He looked less collected then he felt for me in the saddle. I know he can give me more, I work him on passage and half-steps. And I think the feeling I want to have when I ride collected trot is this: I'm about to ride half-steps or halt. I must feel that I can halt at any moment when I ride collected trot. Because extensions is easy for him, he does them very willingly. But halt will not happen smooth and clean if he is not collected enough. And transitions inside the trot from medium to collected to half-steps and back. Other then that he had a nice flowing movement free of tension.

Sometimes it is very hard to bring yourself to get videotaped and see the truth. However, it is invaluable tool that can tell you exactly where you have weaknesses. It is impossible to relay on feel all the time, our body will fool us.

Happy riding...