Pretty good ride last night -- a little unfocused on my part, just because it was late, I was tired, traffic was bad, et cetera. I almost didn't go to the barn, but I kicked myself and reminded myself that I'd regret it if I didn't. Plus, I'd gotten that same, odd, physical feeling of I want to be on my horse! earlier in the day.
Rev is doing well stretching down and into the bridle. Consistency and bringing that into a contact is what we're working on now.
So in the face of the unfocused ride last night, I have some plans on what I want to work on tonight. Here's the plan:
* Stretch her neck by hand, from the ground.
* Warm up WTC on a very long rein, like we have been doing.
* Spiral circles each direction in the trot, working on regularity and contact/bend.
* Shorten and lengthen the trot, working for better push from behind, leading to better contact.
* Work simple changes in the canter, working on balance and response time.
That oughta keep us busy, I think. My lesson partner has been working her horse's simple changes, and the improvement is both huge and obvious. I need to get Rev going on those, with the idea of learning to get flying changes from her eventually. MT can get them, so I know she does them, but I don't know how on a physical level. Intellectually yes, physically no.
Ha! I was totally riding Izzy last night. As we cantered down the long side of the indoor, I thought, "We'll go around the short side, then down the diagonal and change through the trot" and marsie did a perfect flying change for no reason at all.
ReplyDeleteRandom, fun. She does it periodically.