Monday, August 3, 2009

08/02 Romeo's Turn

Grabbed Romeo before the morning of thick humid clouds even broke for the day. Saddled up hunt seat, and headed to the arena. He bobbled around for a brief warmup solo, then walked straight up to me to be bitted & ridden. This is usually a sign of a good ride with him - when I don't have to holler "whoa" to get him to stop avoiding me...

I rode him walk, trot, and canter. His canter was not in any way collected, but it was flat. So flat, in fact, I did plenty of long sides without stirrups and without reins. Reins were swinging in the gait around his neck, and my legs automatically lengthened and wrapped around him.

I found it a bit difficult to keep feet in stirrups & heels down with the short hunt stirrup length. Not real sure what's going on there, except that maybe it's different leg muscles and I'm not using them well.

We played together for about 45 minutes, and had fun. It's neat to ride him without expectations, though some part of me still feels he's got more to offer that I need to discover.

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