Draw to a stop

I had a chance to ride Raven today. I read on in the DUH journal about the Drawing to a Stop exercise and realized I hadn't been doing it right. It is designed to get softness in the horse. Something Clinton said struck a chord with me in my memory that you can get vertical flexion without first having lateral flexion. If a horse is straight they are bracey. So I wanted to try this on Raven. I have always had a tough time with softness with her. So when I tried the exercise using the steps of slight lateral flexion first then pick up the other rein to get vertical flexion. I worked on this several times during the ride and couldn't believe the softness and how quick it worked. Then I started asking of leg yields too. This was great. I finally got it with this process. I started actually drawing her to a stop and have to work on the stop more but she did real well and I had a good time doing it. I think I will work on this for the next several rides on her.