Friday, September 25, 2009

09/24/09 Regroup & Back to Training

With the show cancelled, I could've done more pouting and fussing, or I could get my saddle back up & get to work. Ain't no reason why I can't make those transitions even better over the next month, right?

So, I had Jen come over & meet Ransom and I in the arena for a dressage lesson. The weather was just about perfect for riding - low 70s temperature, light winds, overcast skies. The back half of the arena was still a bit too mushy for real work, so we stuck to the low circle.

Ransom lunged out in side reins beautifully. No goofy fits, no stiff transitions. He actually was slowing down on my body language and a subtle "shhhhh" verbal cue. Very sweet! I was about done lunging as Jen arrived at the arena. Mucho perfecto timing!

As I was warming up, Ransom showed us what we would work on for the day. I got my canter-left in, and as I turned him around, he got a bit antsy at the trot-right, in AnTiCi...Pation of the canter-right. I let him canter right, just as Jen said, "Okay, let him walk." She suggested I needed to start mixing up my canters, not put them one right after the other, and work on a lot of different things in between, so he'd never know when his canter-fun would commence.

And we did. Worked on circles of posting trot, sitting trot, walk to halt, back to posting & sitting, a few figure 8s in the circle-space, and then some canter mingled in. Also worked on keeping my legs on and him collected up on the bit for transitions. I was happy to say most of them were pretty darn good. Ransom got a little fussy on the shoulders, sticking whatever shoulder out that was on the outside of the circle, in an effort to avoid work. I'll fix that! Work at walk and trot with his head bent in and then out of the circle. Bent-in at the walk, on the circle, rough stuff! Bent-out, at walk and trot, not so difficult. At least not difficult for me to control. Now, for my Ransom to hold it, funnie! He'll try to duck that head out in working trot, I forced him out in an exaggerated bend, for a circle or two, then let him go back to 'normal', and wow did he look good then!

Even with the weather-related two days off, Ransom was phenominal! We had an awesome ride, and in fact I lost track of time. He had a 20 minute warm up, and an hour ride! A whole hour! Got to love the weather, when I wasn't sweaty, wasn't feeling exhausted, and my horse still felt awesome. Forward-going, and light on my hands. Very Very sweet!!!

No comments: