So I've posted three times today...shows how enthralling my homework is. But I posted before I went to the barn and was going to group tomorrow and today's post but decided I wanted to get today down before I forgot, since the whole point of this blog is to chronicle my training journey with Sophie.
We had another longe session today (surprise, surprise, but I did call Julie (the saddle fitter) and left a message, asking about my saddle). It went extremely well. We started on the non-mane side and initially Sophie was head up with her nose out, after a few half halts and some good girls and suddenly she was round and soft and looked like a Second Level horse. We worked on lots of trot/canter transitions and I even did some spiral circles (brought her down to 10 meters slowly, and then let her back out again). She really was excellent though, and it was with the side reins a touch longer than I'd been doing, which helped emphasize the effectiveness of half halts.
Then I gave her a break, let her stretch her neck out and walked for a few minutes. As I was doing it I was thinking that it was silly of me to have not done this before. During a lesson my horse always gets a walk break with long reins to stretch, sometimes three or four. Why not have one in the middle of a longe session? So we did, and it helped in keeping the surcingle from being pulled forward and messing up the adjustment of the side reins.
We restarted after our break and it was a little rougher than normal, without a break. But I'm not going to get rid of the break yet. We started out and things were going ok, I thought the inside rein was tight enough, and wanted to see if I could get her "on the bit" through half halts without just cranking her head down. So I checked the outside rein. It was very loose, so I tightened it a little and voila! She wasn't as good as the other direction, but possibly the best she's been in that direction. So even when longeing, the outside rein is *very* important. Her canter take off was very sloppy so we really worked on those for a while. Her halts were atrocious though. Last time and the first round today she was halting with just a "whoa", instantly. I hate it when she's slow to whoa because I don't want to end on an ignoring me whoa, so we have to try it a few more times to get it.
So, we'll see how she is tomorrow. She got to graze for 20 minutes today after her rinse off. That was after surviving the Bagged Pellets Monster sitting in the back of the farm truck. She also had a fit this morning, before coming for the day. Apparently the horses were brought in in a different order than normal and Sophie's pasture was last...so she and her friends were racing around until they were caught, and nice and sweaty as a result. I'm sure she was a little tired as a result, but I went ahead and worked her because if I had a show today I would have needed her to work. I have class tomorrow so I won't get out until the afternoon, giving her plenty of time to rest after whatever morning escapades she has in the morning.
We had another longe session today (surprise, surprise, but I did call Julie (the saddle fitter) and left a message, asking about my saddle). It went extremely well. We started on the non-mane side and initially Sophie was head up with her nose out, after a few half halts and some good girls and suddenly she was round and soft and looked like a Second Level horse. We worked on lots of trot/canter transitions and I even did some spiral circles (brought her down to 10 meters slowly, and then let her back out again). She really was excellent though, and it was with the side reins a touch longer than I'd been doing, which helped emphasize the effectiveness of half halts.
Then I gave her a break, let her stretch her neck out and walked for a few minutes. As I was doing it I was thinking that it was silly of me to have not done this before. During a lesson my horse always gets a walk break with long reins to stretch, sometimes three or four. Why not have one in the middle of a longe session? So we did, and it helped in keeping the surcingle from being pulled forward and messing up the adjustment of the side reins.
We restarted after our break and it was a little rougher than normal, without a break. But I'm not going to get rid of the break yet. We started out and things were going ok, I thought the inside rein was tight enough, and wanted to see if I could get her "on the bit" through half halts without just cranking her head down. So I checked the outside rein. It was very loose, so I tightened it a little and voila! She wasn't as good as the other direction, but possibly the best she's been in that direction. So even when longeing, the outside rein is *very* important. Her canter take off was very sloppy so we really worked on those for a while. Her halts were atrocious though. Last time and the first round today she was halting with just a "whoa", instantly. I hate it when she's slow to whoa because I don't want to end on an ignoring me whoa, so we have to try it a few more times to get it.
So, we'll see how she is tomorrow. She got to graze for 20 minutes today after her rinse off. That was after surviving the Bagged Pellets Monster sitting in the back of the farm truck. She also had a fit this morning, before coming for the day. Apparently the horses were brought in in a different order than normal and Sophie's pasture was last...so she and her friends were racing around until they were caught, and nice and sweaty as a result. I'm sure she was a little tired as a result, but I went ahead and worked her because if I had a show today I would have needed her to work. I have class tomorrow so I won't get out until the afternoon, giving her plenty of time to rest after whatever morning escapades she has in the morning.
2 comments:
I have all the tea tree info up for you at 20 meter.
You are a blogging fool today, I doubt I will ever get caught up!!
Yes, it will hopefully be a very good thing for me. Nice longe post! I like your comment on the importance of the outside rein. Amen sister!! :)
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