Tuesday, May 5, 2009

5/4/09 Double Duty

By accident, I got to ride both boys last night. I was waiting for R and a friend to look at my roof, trying to find where it's been slowly leaking. So I saddled Ransom up dressage, side reins, and tied him to the paddock, with his lunge line, bridle, and my helmet nearby.

It turned out I had some time to kill, so rather than sit inside in front of the TV and vegetate, so I grabbed Romeo. I rode him in his halter to the trailer, but decided that since company was coming, a bit in his mouth for brakes might be needed. I jumped down at the trailer, put his french link in his mouth, and hopped back on. We rode around for about a half hour, walk & jog, with a few turns on haunches, turns on forehand, and a little sidepassing. I also worked on his back-up straight a bit. If he'd back up two or three steps straight, I'd walk off. If he got crooked in two or three, I'd straighten him out while still backing up. Not real sure how to fix this backing up crooked crud, but I will...

R and friend had a change in plans, and weren't going to make it, so I put Romeo up (after some cookies & lots of praise), changed into my riding breeches, and went to grab Ransom. :) Cool that he was already saddled & waiting for me.

Gave him a free run around the arena for a few minutes, then added the bridle, side reins, and lunge line. He started out leaning on the line hard, but quickly realized those side reins weren't going anywhere, so he framed his cute little self up, and worked walk,trot,canter on the side reins for about 10 more minutes.

Grabbed my helmet, got on, and walked a little while. Then we picked up a trot-left.
o O ( Well, if I'm going to start doing this, I better get after it. He's not going to do anything bad, he won't buck, he won't take off, he's never been bad to me & tried to be mean.. Oh crap. Here goes nothing ) O o
Hands even on the reins
Look where I wanted to go on the circle
Hands down on his neck
Grab a teenie tiny patch of mane
Squeeze
Pray

Picked up a canter-left, large circle, low end of the arena. Whee! The transition was awesome. He didn't throw himself upwards, didn't tuck his head, just moved his legs into it. We cantered a handful of circles ( see? Another good sign.. I don't even remember how many there were, but I do know it was more than two...), slowed to a trot, and trotted a while left.
Changed direction to trot-right.
o O ( Okay, brain. His right canter is better than his left, and he WON'T Hurt You! It's not your old horse... GET OVER IT! Just breathe) O o
Hands even on the reins
Look where I wanted to go on the circle
Hands down on his neck
Grab a teenie tiny patch of mane
Squeeze
Pray
Oh crap, extended trot - My fault, not sitting in the saddle enough
Tuck
Hiney
To
Saddle
Squeeze again

Off he went. Canter-right, which took a few more strides to get comfortable with. Ransom obviously knew when I had enough, because he transitioned down to trot with the slightest aid from me.

We trotted a while, changed direction plenty of times, even trotted down the long diagonals.

Total work, including walkout cooldown, about a hour.

I had a BLAST! Both boys were good, at their own jobs. Romeo occupied my time, and hauled me around bareback, even stumbling over his own hooves a few times (funny as heck, because two years ago, I would've gotten scared, dismounted, and called it a total wash riding day). Ransom taught me it's okay to canter him without a "saddle handle", and I can balance myself over his middle without a problem. He'll only canter if I sit, otherwise it's just an extended trot. I know I need to work on sitting back, and putting my bum in the saddle during the canter. I do remember thinking "Heels down", and I remember seeing my arms and shoulders moving with his upper body. It wasn't a complete disaster.. But we're certainly getting somewhere, and it's somewhere good.

4 comments:

Yankecwgrl said...

YEAHHHHHHHHH! Go Jen, go jen, it's ur birthday.....it's ur birthday! Well, not really but you get it!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

You are going to have such an amazing lessons with Barbara on the 15th if you keep this up! You will enjoy it all the more knowing how far you've come since Ransom came along! :) *hugs*

Jennifer said...

:) Wheeeeeee..... Easier for you to relate, since you've seen the "terrified horrified oh gosh he's gonna kill me in the canter" body position in the saddle... :)

Stephanie - Siouxzeegirl Designs said...

Woot, woot!!Put your hands up!! Way to go, awesome job on the canter :) that so had to make you feel good!

Jennifer said...

It was pretty awesome... Thanks for the happy wishes.