Hee hee. So last night I put the Bemer on Dan after I fed. Or maybe it was in the morning... I can't remember. I went inside to do something that didn't take long. Maybe grab a water or pee.. something less than like 2 minutes. And this is what I came back out to. Daniel!! ha ha.. But thank you for not breaking your amazing dinosaur halter!
So anyways... today was a better day. I had the whole day off! I got ponies fed and then mowed the roundpen and trailer turn around. Then I grabbed my stuff and headed to the arena. The kids were by the hay hut so I grabbed Dan first and we did some work. I had the pivo out with me too and it worked beautifully! Yay! I may have the right checklist now. And I know how to use it when it's on the rail like at A or C and when it's in the middle of the arena. So yay! We did our pillar work and he started out beautifully! Like... as soon as we started walking I got yawns and releasese. Okay... thanks for making me feel better about my training abilities son. We had lots of good work. So yay! We played for a bit and then I even did some off lead work. We also worked on our clicker training even though my clickers and dinosaur fanny pack hadn't arrived yet. (At least I didn't know if it had.. it did arrive at some point today. And it is awesome!).
Then I played with Funny and then Mike and I went to lunch. And then I went to Aubreys and rode two horses. Ahhhh.... Sorry Dan, but I feel better. It was helpful. She has a cute TB mare who has only been off the track a very short time. Aubrey rode her first and it was only her third post track ride. Then I got to get on. It was a little tough, but Aubrey talked me through it and we did well. It was fun. She's only 15.3 but didn't ride that tiny. It was fun. Then I had a lesson on Mountain. I rode with Cindy and Ranger and we had fun. It was a very basic lesson. I walked, I trotted, I trotted some circles and I cantered some circles. But it was so helpful! Mountain tattled on me. Hee hee. Dan's gotten so used to me that he covers my sins. Or at least he covers them from my brain and body. But not Mountain. And damn.. some of that stuff is so hard for me. I'm not sure why I'm convinced that crossing the neck, or lifting the inside rein will bring their shoulder to the outside. Cause it doesn't! It "kinks the hose" and disengages the hind end and throws them off balance. And my hands were all over the place. Aubrey kept reminding me to keep my hands even and to hold the outside rein steady and not cross the neck. I explained that it was hard for me to do an opening rein and showed her what I was trying to do. And she was like "Uh.... no, not like that". Whooops. Basically, I am making it harder than it should be. I need to keep it simple. Just bring my outside elbow straight back to hold an outside rein. I can widen it a hair, but I don't need to bring my elbow in and turn my lower arm out to open that rein. That totally ruins the bit to elbow contact. I just need to open my elbow a hair and bring my elbow back. Ride from the elbow Holly! You know this! Argh. But it was good. And I also have no lower leg strength. I rely on my heel instead of my whole leg. Sigh. Not sure quite how to fix that, but... maybe I can ask the Athletic Rider Lady. :) So yeah, it was fun. Oh, and then.. ha ha... his canter was good the first way, but the second way got a little wild. Ha ha. Look where you're going Holly!!! Turn your shoulders Holly. Hee hee. Oh yeah. Duh! But yep.. Fun day. I need to do this more, because I can ride a different horse probably every time I ride at Aubreys and it'll be so helpful to work on me and break some of these bad habits. I was hoping they'd just go away after not riding, but... not so much. But maybe, on horses that don't know me, they'll tattle and make it more obvious, which should help me break the habits. So yay! Plus I can swap it out for adjusting horses for Aubrey and make it more affordable.
Hopefully Dan didn't notice or get his feelings hurt. :) Oh, and we had a beautiful sunset tonight. :)
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