Wednesday, July 29, 2009

07/29/09 Ransom Happy to See Me

Ransom walked up to the gate, ears pricked, licking & chewing. "No dinner yet, buddy", I told him. "Would you like to play with me first?" Still licking & chewing when I put the bridle on.

We borrowed Romeo's english bit (I haven't put Ransom's new stuff together or oiled it yet), and headed dressage to the arena.

About 45 minutes total work. Lots of trot and walk transitions. A little bit of canter, but he was quickly breathing hard, attributed to the high humidity in the warm air. His trot work started out short, chopping, and a mess. By the middle of the ride, he was moving out nicely with decent collection.

So I started working walk to free walk transitions. Collect up briefly, and let him stretch down. As long as he didn't yank the bit from my hands, I'd let him stretch & walk on a loose rein. Head tosses, pulls up, I'd recollect & start over. Did a lot of this while he caught his breath.

Finished up trying this at the trot. It went pretty well overall. It wasn't beautiful, but pretty darn good. He still doesn't entirely understand he can stretch down & keep trotting. But it was getting better as we finished up.

Was nice to have happy Ransom back and put beligerent bridle-tearing Ransom back in the closet.

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