Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Transitions and forward

So.... I don't know if it's the little bit of sunshine respite we've been given.... not taking benadryl at night and still actually sleeping better... not having a migraine every single day.... (although it's been a chronic tension headache more days than not), etc... but I finally felt up to doing a Tuesday morning lesson again. It helped that Beanie needed her horse adjusted too, so... there was the motivation to help her horse out as incentive. Anyways... luckily I did NOT wake up with a headache... and bonus, it was raining and they have an indoor, so.. yay for that. ;) So I loaded Dan up (not raining just yet) and we hauled 30 min down the road to Aerie for a lesson with Beanie. I adjusted Daniel's horse first (beanie's husband is daniel) and left Dan in the trailer munching on hay. It had started to rain by the time we got there, and proceeded to keep raining. When I finished with the mare.. it was POURING! Of course! So I ran out to get Dan and got so wet. I pulled him off the trailer and picked his feet and then put my boots and helmet on. Then I went to pull his saddle and pad out and when I came back out of the trailer, he was gone! Doh! Dingbat untied himself and was strolling across the outdoor arena. The freshly dragged and fairly deep in the wet arena. Sigh... Of course he kept going to the far corner and I had to tromp across some pretty deep puddles to get to him. But at least he didn't run from me. And it was still raining heavily. So.. I put the saddle on and put his bridle on and we headed to the indoor. He was filthy, but... you know.. there is only so much I can do!

We had a good ride. He was a little goofy in the arena, as he's never been there before. We tried to do our noodle neck and eventually got there. He definitely wasn't as ADD as he was this past weekend. :) He was also sound. So... ??? Anyways.. after we warmed up we decided to work on transitions and keeping him supple and round. Since our next event is poplar and a Novice 3 phase... that's the important stuff for our test. :) Dan still wants to throw that right shoulder out, so I had to keep him straight... keep his nose between his shoulders. I tend to lift my right hand to help stabilize him but I really need to keep my right hand at the base of his withers... and NOT cross my left hand over his neck and over bend him. We also worked on suppling him... keeping him straight... so lots of counter flexing to help supple him and prevent him from bracing/popping. He also has to be snappy in his upwards... immediately forward :) And... in reality.. I think my working trot... really needs to be what I think is my extended trot. As far as my pace. I need snappier and more forward. We also worked on the downwards... and keeping the forward in the downwards. We did canter, to half halt and sit and shorten, to trot a few steps, then walk. Rather than just walking from the canter because that would make me ride backwards. And then eventually we'll go from canter to walk. But we've got to fix it first. And ultimately, I think that is the way to getting Dan to change... get the canter to walk to canters nailed... then decreasing the number of walk steps until he starts to anticipate. And I know... he's got to listen to the cue, but... I think that trying to do it over poles isn't going to work for us. So... anyways... we got some really nice work today. He was really sitting and round and while his suppleness was intermittent, it was there some! Even a good bit! He got butt foam even :)





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