Today was WINDY! The windchimes were chiming away all night long and it sounded like stuff was blowing around. Luckily this morning it wasn't too terrible. It was windy enough that I didn't think my pivo and tripod would stand a chance though! I had a massage for my shoulder at 11:30 and it was supposed to start raining at 1:30ish, so... after I fed, I rode.
Dan was super. He didn't get squirrely with the wind. Good boy! We just tried to ride our straightness. We did a good bit at the walk and practiced haunches in and shoulder in. We did our haunches right figure 8 thing. And I did play a little bit (since the arena was freshly drug) and looked at his footfalls with straight, haunches right, and haunches left. Which, it almost seemed like it was the best/straightest when he was haunches left. Sigh... But when I did haunches right, he seemed to be most upright in the withers. And he did get softer. So... I don't know. I'm so frustrated that I don't even know what's right, what's wrong... or what the heck to do anymore. I did do lots of breaks with him on the buckle. Pillar 1 and Pillar 2. I tried to ride slower and more in pillar 2, with a soft rein and contact. And... I tried to ride haunches right. For the most part, it was decent. He felt better than the last few rides, but still ... I'm still not sure if he's off his forehand.. if he's correct... if he's using himself properly. We played a little with leg yield and shoulder in at the trot too. He definitely struggles shoulders in to the left. Which, I should figure out what the means, but my brain is tired and I can't. I do think he was fairly uphill as our downwards seemed much more correct and less abrasive and slammy.
So yeah... we untacked and I turned him back out and went for my massage. Hopefully it helps as I have 11 foxhunters to adjust tomorrow.
Then the rest of the day was annoying. It was gloomy and windy and looked very threatening, but... never really did much more than spritz and sprinkle. I ended up working both the girls very briefly before dinner and when I finished with them, I grabbed Dan again thinking I'd do some in hand pillar work. Maybe that's my problem. Maybe I'm getting away from it and loosing it and that's where the struggles are. I don't know. Of course he wanted no part of it. He was all on edge because of the weather. And, maybe I should have taken him into the round pen but I really just wanted to do a little bit of pillars 1, 2 and 3... so I took him in the aisle. But then he wanted to walk, so we walked to the culdesac. And I managed to get him in pillar 1 a good bit, but he also would stop and prop and stare a good bit. We didn't really get pillar 2 or 3 in the road, but I did manage to get him to step wide (so I guess pillar 3 while walking) on the curves and then we got back to the aisle and I tried again. And he was just nutted up. On edge... wanting to look behind him. So I turned him around.. then he wanted to look behind him this way too. Sigh. I did manage to get a few steps of pillar 3, though I'm not sure how effective they were. Sigh. Oh well.
No comments:
Post a Comment