So my brain tends to be anxious and fixate on things whilst trying to smooth them out and make them orderly. Thus, I feel frantic and powerless because THE BIT ISN'T RIGHT OMG.
It's actually kind of stressful to be in my own head - and then I go out to the barn like I did last night, ride outside in blustery 50 degree and dropping weather... and have a lovely, lovely ride.
BB was quiet in the bridle (weighted snaffle, tight noseband) and was light and at the vertical. She was distracted, but I was able to get her back pretty easily. We started off with figure eights, which is always good for her for some reason, and I was happy that she was dropping down/coming through in her back and pushing through the direction change versus fussing and coming up. She rolled into canter pretty promptly (though this varies depending on her focus) and was willing to collect into her medium trot without breaking to the canter, coming up, or bracing too badly. Some of the canter work was messy, but she got it together a little better as we went on to play "red light green light" of "please stop hanging on my hands that's not how you stop". She will figure it out eventually, me thinks. Now that her trot work is back to being awesome, I want to get back to working on prompt transitions (up AND down) with no bracing or head raising/shaking and getting her strong in her canter work. We need to canter canter canter until she's strong enough to not swap leads in the back when she's distracted. Once she's strong, we can hopefully figure out flying changes.
Realizing that the waterford is too much for her has me thinking: beval gag or slow twist something as a jumping bit? Or a lever noseband? Or should I just try the cheltenham on her and see what happens?
Do I even really need a new bit?
Sigh,
It's actually kind of stressful to be in my own head - and then I go out to the barn like I did last night, ride outside in blustery 50 degree and dropping weather... and have a lovely, lovely ride.
BB was quiet in the bridle (weighted snaffle, tight noseband) and was light and at the vertical. She was distracted, but I was able to get her back pretty easily. We started off with figure eights, which is always good for her for some reason, and I was happy that she was dropping down/coming through in her back and pushing through the direction change versus fussing and coming up. She rolled into canter pretty promptly (though this varies depending on her focus) and was willing to collect into her medium trot without breaking to the canter, coming up, or bracing too badly. Some of the canter work was messy, but she got it together a little better as we went on to play "red light green light" of "please stop hanging on my hands that's not how you stop". She will figure it out eventually, me thinks. Now that her trot work is back to being awesome, I want to get back to working on prompt transitions (up AND down) with no bracing or head raising/shaking and getting her strong in her canter work. We need to canter canter canter until she's strong enough to not swap leads in the back when she's distracted. Once she's strong, we can hopefully figure out flying changes.
Realizing that the waterford is too much for her has me thinking: beval gag or slow twist something as a jumping bit? Or a lever noseband? Or should I just try the cheltenham on her and see what happens?
Do I even really need a new bit?
Sigh,
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