Before I forget...

I wanted to write down what we did on our last ride. It was very, very windy and I almost didn't ride, even after spending a while getting Lady cleaned up, but I decided to try it despite the cold and the wind...and I was glad I did! First of all, Lady has the perfect temperment for a windy day, nothing phases her and she didn't care about *anything*. I think the wind bothered me more than it bothered her.


We started out by walking a few laps around the ring to let her warm up and get synovial fluid flowing in her joints. After the walking we began trotting on a long rein, letting her get even looser and ready to work. She was doing great, foward and energetic and picking up the trot very quickly when I asked. At this point I mostly focused on myself, sitting straight and tall, staying relaxed and not tensing or gripping with anything and most importantly, looking *up*.


After I was satisfied with myself and that Lady was warmed up we started working on the meat of the ride...transitions. My goal was just to do lots of walk-trot transitions (it was a little slick to be cantering). I wanted to get her forward and thinking forward, ready to flow into the trot from the walk and back into a forward walk from the trot. At the same time I stayed super focused on my position and staying relaxed and not blocking her (or nagging her). I wasn't worrying about her frame or how round she was, just maintaining a nice connection and doing our transitions.


In the beginning I did two transitions on each long side of the arena, and the change in Lady was amazing...she took notice, started marching in her walk and smoothly going into the trot when I asked. Her head also came up a bit but she flexed at the poll, without me doing anything to encourage it other than supporting her through the transitions and keeping her forward. We started adding in some large circles and doing transitions on the circles as well.


I always start our rides to the left, because it's my better direction, and it's Lady's better direction. To the right she tends to bend to the outside, from head to tail. I've been working on developing more straightness in this direction and during our last ride discovered that if I ask her for travers to get the correct bend (at least a bend to the inside of the ring instead of the outside) and then leg yield her back over to the wall whe would move straight. We did that a few times and when we circled after doing this exercise she gave me an amazing trot, it felt like we were floating and reminded me of riding Jessie, my Appendix QH gelding. I definitely look forward to creating this trot in future rides.


After the floaty trot we did one more long side where we traversed/leg yielded for straightness and then called it a day. Right now my focus is on ensuring the work we do is as correct as possible, so I stop on a good note and without really drilling what we did home and making her sour or burnt out. One of my favorite things about Lady is how much she enjoys being groomed...it's very gratifying to curry a horse that enjoys it, and lets you know she enjoys it! That was one thing I missed with Sophie, she seemed very standoffish when it came to grooming, other than having her mane brushed and her udder cleaned.


I'll ride again tomorrow, and possibly Wednesday and Thursday since I can't ride on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday due to the Eddo Hoekstra clinic I'm going to be auditing. My plan for tomorrow is more transitions, like every 6 strides transitions, and doing more travers/leg yielding to work on straightness. Once she's straighter I'd like to start introducing shoulderfore, but right now it's much easier to move her hindquarters over to get the start of straightness than her forehand!