Another great day for Ransom the babysitter! Warmed him up on the side reins (at 5s, which he accepted happily), walk, trot, canter. He was quite a bit lazy, which surprised me, after having two days off. It's got to be an issue of settling into my routine, and adjusting his brain off the "jumper geebies" he had with his last rider.
After about fifteen minutes on the lunge line, I hopped on. We enjoyed about a half hour's work of walk and trot. Instead of the pattern of the last few trot on the rail rides, I split it up into three sets. Our initial startups are ugly - he's quick, I'm nervous, reins tight... But at the third transition up, it was much better. His head didn't fly up, his back didn't hollow out, and I stayed in-place on the reins (rather than shortening them or pulling my hands back).
I don't know how I was doing it, but my left ankle was cramping up again if I concentrated on heels-down... Not real sure what's going on there...
A good 45 minutes of work - He's such a good ride, and we're certainly getting used to our new work - out of the round pen, and loving it in the arena!!!
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