Practicing after a lesson

Whenever I have a lesson I always ask tons of questions and my instructor is really great about telling me when I'm doing something correct. My problem is when I'm practicing on my own. I try to work through my head everything we did and talked about but I feel insecure without someone telling me that I'm doing it right or wrong. Does anybody have any ideas or tips on what they do when practicing?

Just to give insight, right now I'm really working on Dancer giving me his head at the trot. I've been taught to use my outside rein as sort of balance and to "turn the key" with my inside rein by turning it to the outside until he drops his head and I see his little eyeball. I was told to only do this for a 1/4 of a stride and then keep at it so that he can understand what we're doing and so he can build up the correct muscles.

Your best bet is to ask your instructor for things to work on between lessons. I give all of my students "homework" in an area that they need improvement. Then when they are back for the next lesson, we review what they were to work on and go from there, be it still working more on the same or adding another to the list.

Write it down or ask someone to video your lesson so that you can review it at home before your rides. I am a hands on/visual learner, growing up my mom & other coaches would video every show and different lessons and then I could review them. It helped a lot!

So, at the end of your lesson, take the last five minutes to reiterate the two most important points, and then try to carry that away with you. Or, even just ONE point. I can usually only retain ONE to TWO things we worked on from one lesson to the next . But if I add one improvement from each lesson, that really adds up over time.

Personally myself the best thing to do is write down the areas you and your instructor feel need attention and pin the paper up for you to browse over for your next lesson ;)

I remember pretty well what I'm supposed to work on and I am given homework. My problem is I can't always step out of myself to see if I'm doing it correctly.

Tape your lessons.. and when you have it down right, then study it. Study it a lot.. remember what it felt like when it was right and concentrate on that feeling.

Write it down in words, like describe what it felt like and HOW you got it.
Trust me, that is how I figured out leads of a canter quickly and also the sitting trot.

Then practice trying to get that same feeling. Reward your horse once they get it and be sure to take lots of breaks. When you work on something you and your horse aren't 100% about, it can be a LOT of work and sometimes we focus too much on getting the results and forget about how much effort it takes us to get there.

So tape, review, describe, feel, and take lots of breaks.

My instructor gives me "homework" as well. She also said I can call her anytime I forget something, had to do that once for an exercise she wanted hubby to practice, MEN, he insisted he knew it but I could see he was botching it, so I "tattled"and got the proper procedure.
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This is a great idea. In my lessons, my trainer gives me a lot of different commands. However, he tells me several things that I need to take into account when training independently and just tells me not to worry so much about the other things.

I kind of just remember the few things that he tells me... work on staying straight, work on collecting, etc. Just focus.

I also really enjoy keeping video journals. I mean, it isn't literally a journal, and I don't take videos every time I ride (which would be a good idea), but I do think taking at least 5 or so videos a month would be great so you can note your progress. Then you can look back and say, "Man, that was a problem I had, and now I have it mastered."

Happy training!