So... turns out baby horse CAN stay in the arena. :) Hee hee. We had a good lesson with Beth. We worked on a few things.... I need to remember to practice the stretchy walk. He did get it by the end. But it took a few tries. Of course that's my fault for not making the effort. Then Beth told me that I needed to keep the connection from now on. It's time to start making him aware of the connection - he doesn't have to be on the bit or even connected yet, but he needs to start to feel me at the end of the reins. And when he does, he fusses. So I need to remember to keep the connection even when he's fussing. When he settles, then I can soften but if I relax when he's flinging his head around, he'll learn that flinging gives him a reward. By the end, he was really doing pretty well with his head and I was doing a good job of keeping the connection and softening when he softened. So then we did a canter both directions and he picked up the lead both ways. Yay! But again, I need to remember to hold the connection a little bit in the transitions, even coming down.
Then we ran through Intro Test B and C. We stayed in the ring and we did all the movements. We were awfully drunk coming down centerline. We drifted off the rail in the corners. We ran into the canters a bit. But we did it. :) So maybe we can survive Barlyn. Although I realize that riding through the test at Ashland is a whole different ball game than a test at a new place with wild animals next door in a show atmosphere!!! Eeeks.. maybe we won't be able to stay in the ring. :)
I'm excited though. We'll see how it goes! I have a feeling Fleck might behave worse than Dan. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment