Superstar

So....somebody put on their fancy pants this morning!!

I told Cindy that I was riding Dan first so that he didn't have an hour sitting bored in the trail scheming of fun things to do when we rode. ;) hee hee. I was really kidding, as the main reason was so that Fleck and I could go for a hack after and find some trails. But I think it worked!

Dan came out ready to work. There was no snorty squealing baby tantrums today. He was a star! We were able to work on our connection and keeping that left shoulder in line and he was even over his back some today. :) :) YAY!!!

I'm trying to remember the key points, but...

• the right lead canter is all about the right bend. He has to yield that ribcage and contract the right side of his body. In order to do that I have to actually give a little on the outside rein so that he has room to go into it. I can block slightly with my outside leg back slightly, but I can't clamp it on and prevent him from going there. 
• Remember to post quickly up from the saddle. Forward in a fairly quick tempo, but with long strides. He tends to suck me into the saddle too long.
• It's ALL about seat aids! The right leg should tell him to bend around it and soften that rib cage. My leg shouldn't move from the right place when I ask for bend, ask for the canter, or ask for a leg yield. But he should be able to discern the difference based on my seat aids and my body position. And.. it works! :) 

So yep. It was a great lesson. Danny really stepped up his game today. Cindy said he started his ride as good as he finished last time. He's making it hard to take it slow with him! Even Zanne was impressed and was saying how he looked like a whole different horse than last time and how grown up he was looking. "He had steering!". hee hee.

Yay. Good day. 

Dressage and a hack

Dan was super good for his dressage ride so we went for a little hack after as a reward. He was really good about his right lead canter and was even good about being connected :) Yay! It was a fairly short ride because he was so good. We had some lovely leg yields too.

How to Train Your Dragon

So ooops! This actually happened before the XC lesson, which is partly why I was a little worried about getting bucked off. ;) 

Tuesday was our dressage lesson and as soon as I got on Danny that day, I could feel that it was going to be an exciting day. He welled up but didn't do anything as we walked off. He was being VERY distracted though and looking around and only minimally minding me. So Cindy got after me for allowing it and we managed to get him working. As we were passing the opening at A during some trot work, Dan took the opportunity to drop his shoulder, spin, bolt and crowhop halfway down the arena. I sat it and then tried to keep him moving and make him work. Cindy wanted me to make that hind end work but doing turn on the forehand or spiral in and out, so we attempted that. He settled and we went back to work. Then later he made a dragon face at Titus as they went past us. He was just in a mood that day!

So then as we were working on our leg yields, he wasn't moving over to the left so I gave him a little pop on the side and he kicked out. Opinionated little turd! We did manage to get some good work in although I was so embarassed at the end because of our canter stuff. At the end of my lesson, I had Peri show up to watch and then Christina and Guardian were there waiting their turn. And Cindy. So... all these fancy upper level riders there watching me and hooligan head. So we're working on spiral in and out and then canter. Well, Dan spirals in and out pretty good, but even with me doing the change of post and then asking for the canter, we kept getting the left lead instead of the right. Like 6 times in a row. Sigh... Cindy said he was throwing himself to the outside, so she wanted me to balance him by riding inside leg to outside hand but blocking the outside shoulder. Oh my goodness was it hard!!! Like really hard. It's so hard for my brain to do that. So we were struggling. It was embarassing. But we got through it and by keeping a firm connection but allowing some give on the outside rein and really riding with my inside leg, and my outside leg slightly back, we were able to get the left shoulder straight and then get the right lead. Ugh... but it was rough. So I'll need to revisit that.

And funny enough... Cindy was so mad at Dan that she wouldn't give him a treat. Hee hee. He's so naughty sometimes. 

 

XC Lesson with Kelly E

Such a fun day! I'm so glad I decided to do the lesson. I was thinking that Dan didn't need to jump for a bit and almost didn't join in, but I LOVE Kelly E lessons and wasn't quite ready to be jumping with Fleck, so... when Julie asked me to join her and Romeo, I couldn't say no. :)
And I'm glad I didn't, because not only was it fun, but it was super helpful! I rode Fleck first so I was a little rushed and didn't get to warm him up in the arena like I wanted. I was a little afraid that he was going to dump me in the XC field in front of Kelly, Julie, and Lynda, but... oh well. We got out there and started to warm up. He was his typical bouncy self for the first 10 minutes. He was distracted and playing so we had quite a few porpoise bucks and some scurrying. But nothing too major. Kelly said that I needed to be a bit more in the backseat and wanted me to kick my legs out in front just a hair. Then she said to collect him a bit more going down the hill and encourage a forward stride up the hill. She said we needed to start working on half halts.

Danny and Romeo warming up

So we finished warming up and Dan was starting to behave somewhat. Kelly called me over and shortened my stirrups a hole and told me to thin about kicking my feet in front of me and sinking down and then asking for a downward transition. She said this way, he'd do his downwards from his butt, and eventually, I'll add leg and use that to half halt and encourage collection rather than take it to the full downward. So we did a few transitions and within 2 or 3 of them, he was coming down a gait without reins. :) Smart baby! So then we were ready to jump!

 

Danny jumps two logs

Danny's mini course

We started off over the log. We trotted in and then cantered out. Dan ducked his head once but other than that, he was quite polite on landing and we were able to canter politely and pull up fairly straight even. :) Kelly had me shorten/weaken his stride a bit, almost to an underpowered trot, but he was still jumping pretty well. She said for now, let it be underpowered. :) Then we progressed to two logs and then even to the two logs from the trot and then cantering on up the hill over another log. I thought for sure that when we kept cantering up the hill, Dan would decide to bolt for home, but he was a gentleman and we had a very polite little 3 log course going. :)
So then we headed to the ditches. Dan walked over it like it was no big deal. (Because it's not.. he's been hand walked, ponies, long lined and ridden over them for years!). Romeo had some issues so we had to walk over it a few times as a lead. And then a few more times. Danny was a hoot. He kept walking and grazing and looking at Romeo like "what dude?! It's just a ditch". So then we moved over to the BN one and we trotted it a few times. He was a little goofy but not bad.
Danny jumps the ditch
We then carried on to the bank. And of course Dan was a superstar and hopped on up like it was nothing. I joked that the downhill would be exciting and that goofy horse just dropped down like he'd been doing it his whole life. (Which, he kind of has, but he's never been that calm and collected about it!). So we worked on me. Kelly had me almost pinch with my knee going up the bank, and then coming down, she had me keep my butt in the saddle and slide/scoop it sort of. I swear that I had tried it with Fleck but could never master it, but I was able to get it done correctly with Dan. Yay! So then we were done. :) Both baby spotties are superstars in the making!

As their reward, we headed to the lake for a splash. Dan had fun playing. Romeo took some convincing to get in and then he wanted to roll. But they had fun. :)

Bareback fun day

So.. did I mention it's HOT!? Like... really really hot!! So... we were going to meet up with Missy and Indi and Zhar and play in the lake. I opted to go in shorts and then ride Fleck afterwards in proper clothes. But since Dan was having a fun day, he got to go bareback and play.

It was super fun. We almost went for a swim too but not quite. He got pretty deep though. My boots got so wet and submerged. I was pouring water out of them afterwards. :) Fun times

Fun times

Since I promised Dan we would back off on the work some, we took a fun hack tonight. We hit the trails and while I knew we needed to mostly walk, it was hot and buggy, so we added some fun stuff. We did a bit of trot and a bit of canter. We jumped over two little logs and he was great. We trotted the first one and landed in a nice forward canter, which he politely came down from. Then the second one he broke to the canter a stride or two out, but jumped nicely and didn't bolt on the backside too bad! ;) Really, he didn't. He got big and happy for a few strides but came right back. Then we had a deer bolt across the field in front of us. He was chill about it. But the deer reminded me of him. It was taking such huge airborne strides and just covered the distance quickly. :)

 We splashed in the lake a bit but it's not as much fun without pals. Then as we were heading back, I tried to get a picture of the lake from the trail beside it. It was gorgeous out as it was getting to be dusk and was a bit misty over the lake and the lighting was great. Well, Dan was getting antsy anyways and as we rounded the corner he saw a bait bucket. A big green bait bucket. TERRIFYING! He spooked, spun, and bolted. I got him back after a step or two and we tried to go back and look. It took a few tries and he was honestly scared. But once I reassured him, he was brave and got much closer. It was so cute because you could tell he was honestly scared, but as soon as I reassured him, he took a few steps forward before spooking himself again. :) Yay!!! He trusts me! Mostly. ;) 

So yep, a nice fun relaxing ride. :) 

Sneaking it in

I couldn't help myself. We came back from the beach with enough time to go for a ride. And Mike wanted to move some dirt and needed the horses out of the way so he could work with the tractor. So... of course I'll go ride! No matter that it's 95 degrees. 

When we got home from the beach they were sweaty so I had already hosed them off once. But then they rolled in the dirt. So I hosed them off again before putting them in the trailer to go to Ashland. They were still dirty but I quickly brushed Fleck and rode him. The plan was to ride him first and do some ring work and then hit the trails. However, I ended up meeting Alex and Lisa and Rebecca so I did a quick bit of ring work and then hit the trails. So... by the time we got back, I had barely enough time for Dan. On the plus side, it was much cooler and almost quite pleasant at 8:45 when I finally got on him. :)

With the light fading, I decided to just take him in the ring for a quick work out. He was super good considering he's had the week off. No bad baby pony stuff. :) We had some really nice turn on the haunches!! Like, really nice! And some pretty decent leg yields. And when I did the "sit one stride" thing before the right lead canter, we got it. :) Whoo hooo. And sure, it was a very forward canter or two, but we had some decent work with a decent connection. 
I finished after only 20 minutes and gave him a third rinse of the night and home we went. 

So... hopefully tomorrow he can get his trail ride in. I know he deserves some light work and I promised him that. :) But I was super proud of him today. Especially since he stood on the trailer calmly and politely for the hour and a half I was on Fleck with everyone else. Then he was pretty good with Ti and Alex in the ring next to us. And he was non-plussed when Alex and Ti left the ring and went home. GOOD BABY HORSE!