Ransom had Friday to stretch & remind his muscles how to get to work. With our next show about a month away, it's time to start pushing through the heat & ride anyways. I'll keep them super early or super late, around every other day, and light as best I can. If he cooperates, I'll keep the next few weeks easy. If he's gonna be a grump, then the rides will be longer.
I got all the way to the arena with all my stuff, except the lunge line. Awe poop.. Oh well. Took side reins off & hopped on anyways. I gave him a good ten minutes walking, starting out on a loose rein, then some flex in, flex out, shortened the reins, tried a few halts with yucky success. Moved up to a long reined trot, which was a little stiff to start, too. Slowly gathered him up in a circle, and he lengthened. Sweet!
We rode for about 40 minutes, some on solid contact, some on a longer rein for stretching down, all with pretty good results. His canters weren't even - they were either short & steady, or big(!). The big canter was nice & forward, but not exactly the best stride for the dressage arena. It'll be nice to ride that over fences, though. His circle work was really nice, and the long&low trots were quite fantastic. Very impressive stuff, all stretched out, and coming back up to a shorter rein without too much protest.
He got crabby a bit towards the end, then realizing Momma wasn't playing, and I wasn't going to give him the break & hop off, he decided to cooperate for the rest of the ride. Lovin' my big old sweet horse!
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