Missing in action

Riding the past two weeks has been spotty due to the death, visiting family on my end and Dr appointments (eye doctor completely routine).  I did get a 30 min ride in last night, it was 30 degrees so I dragged out poles and we worked on jog poles and tried some lope overs.

The jogging poles are much better than earlier this week and the lope over was a little sticky but she got over it without jumping it, and although she broke to a jog every once and a while she still was willing and eager to go over it.  Her lope is coming too but it was much too hot to do more than 2 trips around the indoor before having a walk break.

I've got a privet lesson on friday to work on the gate and trail and then we have a HUGE group lesson on Saturday to work on rail work and patterns... Last count was 10 horses!

June 23 update

D's father died on Friday.  He was a lovely man, who loved horses, and loved sharing his love of horses with those around him.  The barn was quiet and sad this weekend in reflection of the loss for D and his family, but also for everyone loss.

So for that reason our group lesson for Saturday was canceled, although three of us and D and C's daughter went out and had a bit of a fun ride in the sun.

We did manage to find out whats going on with Lucy's lope, All that flexibility though her body, and slowness that I've been working on is paying off, but I just needed to push her hips a bit more to the inside to allow her to keep her stride and rhythm without loosing the cadence that the flexibility is building. 

We also worked on the trail gate, we had someone open it and we 'pretended' and did all the gate steps with out actually using the rope, and then C picked up the rope and rubbed it all over her then stepped back, and handed the rope to me and I hooked the gate to the standard.  So we still have some stuff to work on but we are leaps and bounds from where we were last week.

Week day ride

Had a bit of a quick ride tonight on Oscar.  I set up a row of poles in the center of the ring and practiced serpentines over and around the poles. It was good that kept both of us thinking and good practice of keeping his shoulders up though the turns without me nagging him.  I also did shallow loops (m x f) and having the poles in the middle made me stick to a "size" of my shallow loops and not cheat.

Then we used the cones that were set up around the arena and made up some quick walk/trot patterns with turns on the haunch and forehand to work on my one handed riding.  If my plan is to show horsemanship this summer at a show or two we need this time between lessons to work on finessing our one hand work with patterns.

I did manage to ride in a t-shirt tonight (it was 8 degrees!)  But I'm staring to miss the kids to ride with, it does get a little lonely riding on your own all the time.  Being the only person who rides year round can be satisfying but sad at the same time.

Trail super star (in progress)

Lucas' trail training is really coming along! Last night we did a 'course' of 4 obstacles that could be done at least in both directions and I could back or walk threw a couple. The cone was set about 3 feet from the cooler/wall which made it a bit complicated but he never even looked twice at it. And we had a pole laid on top of three walk poles (see bottom right of the photo). He gets really worked up with horsemanship and equation patterns so I practiced the same pattern over obstacles a couple of times and didn't have any issues with him wanting to rush...

We did only walk last night, but took 1/2 hour to work on each obstacle then run though a simple pattern a couple of times. Considering that earlier this year (I guess that was only a month ago) he would rush over them in a hurry to just get it over with. (knocking everything down in the process)

We are still mostly doing walk trot work (with of course the trail stuff thrown in) we have been throwing in some canter work but the indoor and its uneven footing is holding us back a bit. I'm also having some trouble with Lucas' left lead again so next week I see the chiropractor then the week after that the massage therapist (my brothers girlfriend) so hopefully they can get my back and hips worked out and get me straight again. And yes I'm home again tonight with a heating pad on my back trying to work out the knots that I got last night....

Great ride last night

Had a great ride last night, after lunging him I got on and did some 10 meter circles around the ring getting us both bending. We moved right into the rising trot after that, doing about 3 loops in each direction before changing across the diagonal.

We did do some cantering, the first time in a while, which was rough, but I was so happy with his trotting and bending I let it slide a bit. He was a bit weak in his stifles when he came home and was swapping leads behind on the lunge line. I've been working on strengthening him and doing some stretches before we work and its paying off, but I think hes still a bit weak and its showing under saddle. I guess that's what you get when you don't have your horse working from behind all the time...

I had a square set up in the middle of the ring and it was set up so he could take 2 trot strides in between each set of poles. So we had fun trotting though them, walking though them, doing figure eights, and trotting/walking into them turning and going out again. The trail obstacle work is keeping our brains busy longer than just doing the flat work that we normally do.