First things first--Buttons has been sold!! I got to the barn on Saturday, and my instructor told me that Buttons (who I had ridden just last week) had been sold as a companion horse to a farm raising younger horses. Buttons isn't exactly the most mothering of horses (she's a biter), so I hope "companion horse" isn't a euphamism for dog food factory.
Other than that excitement, I had a pretty normal lesson. Here are some details, although I haven't got the time to write everything out.
I rode Buster, who is a somewhat green horse the barn is slowly working into the lesson program. He's really sweet, but still a bit unbalanced, particularly at the canter. We warmed up in both directions at the walk and trot, then did a little cantering. No big problems, but Buster wasn't bending through the corners as much as a more advanced horse could.
Then we did leg yields. This is when the horse steps under laterally with their inside hind, while bending away from the direction of movement. Starting at the walk, Buster at first didn't really get it, but after a couple tries was stepping under better. At the trot, we would get a couple good steps, but then would lose speed and drop back to walk. Buster was having trouble keeping momentum forward while moving laterally.
Next step in the exercise was to pick up a canter from the leg yield at a trot (this helps with a prompt canter depart). This did not go well, as Buster is pretty unbalanced in his trot to canter transition. He just runs faster instead of cantering. I can usually balance him back and get the canter after a half circle of this, but that totally defeats the purpose of transitioning from the leg yield. We did get the leg yield better at this point, but only got the canter after circling at the trot afterwards. Oh well, at least the leg yield was improving!
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