Feeling much better, and entirely confident on the way home from work, I was pretty anxious to get to riding. Saddled Ransom up dressage, again, skipping the side reins. I might tack those on for a few minutes tonight. I've been entirely focused on my ride, and not on his "form". He goes easy & good, and it seems a little ahead of the game to be worrying that he looks pretty, too.
Brief free warmup around the arena, for about ten minutes. He got a little goofy going right, I think because of boredom, a feature I've seen in Ransom before. So I put his bridle on, and got on.
I have learned a few things..
#1 my leathers need switching. I will get that done tonight. I might need to figure out how to punch a hole mid-way in one. The right stirrup sure felt longer last night.
#2 legs are getting looser, and still more secure
#3 canter-seat was MUCH improved last night, even heading right.
Got some good canter-left in, low-end circle. Same for canter-right, though I had to keep adding leg, because he kept breaking out of it to trot. Makes me wonder if there's anything more relaxed about my canter-right seat that I don't realize.
Worked on lots of trot in a sort of pattern. Circle low end, all the way around, repeat. Did this twice left, twice right, then walk once. Twice left, twice right, walk once. He wasn't anticipating it, so I guess it was mixed up enough only I knew what was going on.
Just for giggles I tried one walk-canter transition left. :) Yeah.. it was about six trot strides before the canter. I will admit, the canter seemed a little more controlled. Well, it was until I accidentally pushed with my inside leg. OOPS! Ransom sure knows what that means! I got about 3/4 of the circle really big strides before he realized it was an accident, and I really didn't want him moving that big. =)
Cooled out with a long walk on a loose rein. Cows in the neighbor's pasture have started having their calves, and there were two little calf-lets bouncing with the herd last night. *giggle* cute little stinkers! It's probably not nice of me, but they looked yummy. :)
Ransom lesson tonight, last-minute "work ons" before Friday. Countdown to BlueRibbon - 4 days.
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