A Picture...

I have to get to bed, but wanted to share a picture of Rose first. Sorry about it being dark, this is straight out of the camera since the computer doctor messed up my Photoshop.



As you can see, she fits into my "ride only dark bays" trend nicely!

Fourth Ride on Rose...

Today was my fourth ride on Rose. When I arrived the barn owner was riding and since the arena is small I decided not to ride right away. I groomed Rose really good while she had the first part of her dinner. I then put her in the round pen so that I could get her stall cleaned while she hung out. Of course, she rolled while in the round pen so I had to groom her again and then we got started on our ride.

She was pretty good, testing me more like the first day, but more forward when she wasn't. She's doing *really* well with leg yielding though. I really wish I could carry a dressage whip to back up my leg but that's not ok yet. We'll keep working though and maybe I'll be able to start using one in a little while.

One good thing is that she's really cut back on snapping her teeth when I tighten the girth. She hardly did it at all for the initial girthing up, and then the two girth tightenings after that she didn't gnash her teeth at all!

I'm not going to ride tomorrow, or even make it out to the barn, since I have to pack up our hotel room so that we can move to a new hotel room for a couple of nights. We'll board the animals for those days since we have to stay in a non-pet room. I *really* can't wait to move into our new house. Really, really, really.

Third Ride Today...

Today Rose and I went on our third ride together. She was a very good girl, picking right up where we left off last time, staying forward around the rail and even maintaining her energy pretty well when crossing the arena to do figure eights and changes of direction. So we started some baby leg yields, she would do 2-3 nice strides of leg yielding at the end of the long side, though losing a lot of momentum when doing it.

We did a lot of walking between the trot work and only rode for about 15 minutes. It was 80 degrees but Rose still didn't break a sweat. I wasn't sweating as much today as last ride, but I wasn't having to work as hard to keep her going. My left leg is very weak, she leg yields much better to the left than the right because of that.

Next ride we'll work on more of the same I think. I hope to add spiral circles in a few more rides, though I know they probably won't resemble spiral circles. I just want to have control over her body in case she does get spooky or looky in the future, though she's shown no signs of it so far.

No Riding Today...

I did go visit Rose, groomed her, hand grazed her, and cleaned her stall. I'm really sore from riding the last two days and I thought it'd be good to bond with her a little without riding. Plus that way she doesn't associate me with only riding and work!

I forgot my camera, again, so no pictures yet, hopefully tomorrow.

Second Ride Today!

I went out to see Rose again today. We had a short ride, this time trotting a lap, walking a little, trotting a circle or a figure eight, walking, trotting a lap, and so on. We work on forward for the laps around the whole arena and on the concept of trotting while crossing the center of the arena (ie doing a circle or a figure eight).

She started out just as good today as she was by the end of the ride yesterday. We worked a teeny bit on leg yielding, more trying to get her from off the rail onto the rail by moving sideways, not a true leg yield by any means. She seems to prefer the rail, so I'm using that natural draw to teach her the concept of leg yielding, that way we can start spiral circles once we can trot forward on a circle and not just around the ring!

I forgot my camera today, so I'll try to remember it tomorrow.

I Rode Today!

First of all, hello from Florida! Craig and I have been here for 2 or so weeks, we found a house that we love a thousand times more than the house we were going to buy and it's already gone through the appraisal and inspection and passed with flying colors. We are staying on base in lodging with Kitty, Elphie, and Jilly.

I posted an ad on Craig's List, asking if anyone in the area had more horses than they could ride, on a whim, and actually got a good response back. One horse is just 15 minutes from the new house and 20 minutes from the base and sounded perfect. She even looked perfect, since she's a dark bay! She's stunning in person and an absolute doll. She's mainly been walking/jogging the last 7 years, so we're working on improving the working trot for now. She's for sale, so I don't know how long I'll be able to ride her, for the owner's sake I hope not very long!

I had a great day at the barn, I got to groom, ride, and clean stalls. I'm quietly scoping out boarding barns, since Sophie still won't be coming to Florida until December. I like the barn this mare is boarded at, but the arena is a little small for dressage, and the footing too deep for a dressage horse, though it's good for barrel horses!