Grabbed Ransom after work, pretty darn anxious to ride. He gave a great warmup for about 15 minutes, giving at the poll. I took all his extras off, and found his mouth covered in green slobber. Yum! His new cute feature, he'll walk around the arena and follow me around, even with the reins wrapped around his neck, side reins on and all. Cute fella, almost like he enjoys being with me.
I can confidently say that we "worked" on walk, trot, and canter. Rather than just canter "to get it over with", I kept my inside leg on in the turns, and focused on a light seat & light bit contact. I noticed that, with a deep seat, and a driving hiney, he has a longer stride - not faster, just longer and more ground-covering. With a light seat that's connected for all of the stride, but hiney only connects when all four hooves are briefly on the ground, he's a shorter stride, and a bit more fluid and relaxed. Not only did we have good work at canter, I also worked on his trot a while, with a few direction changes, but mostly working for bend at the neck & poll on the long sides. It's probably me, but it felt like he was hollowing out in the starts of each short side, and I couldn't correct it until heading down the longs. Something to work on ...
Got about 45 minutes total work time. Had a blast. I've been getting about the same "time" to ride, but have had a few other things going on in life also. (What was that we've been saying .. it fits but it's not necessary??) Having the new mindset of "if I take the time out to go ride, it has to mean something, and I have to at least try something new every ride" is really helping. When I decide to have ride-time, I'm no longer ever seeing it as a "need to exercise the horse" drill. Instead, it's time for me to relax, work on my balance & equitation, and in those walk breaks on loose reins, reflect on everything... and reflexion is good. =)
No comments:
Post a Comment