Caught him up, and got down to business. He longed in his warm up delightfully. It was one of those “end of the long work set, day 5” kind of warmups. You know, the short ones, where you get it done quickly, and feel the horse being good?
I hopped on, and headed to the back 2/3. We still need more rain, and I didn’t feel like eating dust. Walk on the bit, good enough. I trotted him a little, and got that feeling again. Heading left, I figured, “Now or never”. Sit, legs, squeeze, kiss.
Up Up UP to the canter-heading left. I glanced down, got his lead. *whew* He broke gait pretty quick. Prolly my fault. So I sat, legs, squeeze, kiss again. This time, I kept inside leg on gently, and kissed occasionally. I was pretty focused on keeping him in the canter, and tried to keep my sternum up and heels down. Can’t say that was a total success.
Heavy sigh settled him back to the trot. I got a lot of “on contact” forward trot. Can’t say I had more than a stride or two of collected trot. Heh.. we’ll take what we can get.
Changed direction, and asked for canter-right. Even higher level of success, as it was an easier transition for him. He loves going right. Broke gait again, but quickly went back in with a little push & kiss. Stayed in it that time, inside leg resting on his side, an occasional kiss to him. Transition was not my best equitation, which showed when I lost one stirrup. Eh, heck with ‘em, I kicked the other one loose, and focused on chest up, heels down. Stirrups whacking him in the side with every stride.
Heavy sigh, and we’re back to trot. Heading right, he’s coming along SOO nicely. I had the urge to count strides with that pretty head down.. Up to 30 foot steps in a row. Sweet!!
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