I had two glorious rides this weekend. On Saturday, BB and I did some dressage in the puddlesome outdoor, and while she was wild and wanted to canter, canter, canter she finally settled down into some nice lateral work and also did some AWESOME canter work. I'm proud that she's getting more prompt and is learning the more complex concepts, and can actually do a walk-canter transition (even if only on one lead...). She is definitely learning to brace through her poll, which is annoying, but something we can work on. She's using outside to fight the running martingale so she can gawk at whatever is going on (horses running, tarp blowing in the wind, scary trailers). Her leg yields outside need some work, but inside they are on par so I know she knows it- I'm going to write it off as "crazy baby horse outside for the first time" syndrome.
Yesterday we jumped! Just a simple gate and xrail/vertical on a rollback, but we JUMPED! OUTSIDE! AND NO ONE DIED! The singular disadvantage to Drew doing things with Foxie is that I don't have any pics or video, but still. BB was super naughty over the x-rail to warm up, and wanted to buck and play and take off (and then got quite huffy when I kept asking her to halt). I finally make her walk or tiny trot up to it and she did it calmly, so I had drew put up the vertical. She knocked it down like a dummy because she went back to her super-blast-off tendencies, and we played over the gate (which she respected much more) for a while until we got our vertical reset. She left the vertical in it's cups after that and after a lot of arguing between us, I finally got a (albeit, still kind of wild) vertical roll back turn to the oxer, without an inordinate amount of leaping into the air, trying to buck or taking off, so I called it a day. Our last jump was the nicest, and thus great to end on, because I finally just scooped her up with my inside spur and made her put her booty to use for good instead of evil - she sat down over her hocks and powered through the turn and put in a quiet few strides to the gate.
Meanwhile, Foxie had a lovely bit of fun on the lunge line with Drew - she was full speed ahead prepare-to-warp cantering around with such a happy, bright expression. You can just tell she loves to run, and I was happy to see that she was being quite obedient to Drew, as well. He got her puffing and veiny - a good bit of exercise for the fat mare! I'll probably get on her on Tuesday (probably just with the bareback pad) so she gets a ride in this week, too. I should teach Drew to put on her boots, and he can maybe even start lunging her in the surcingle and some kind of contraption next.
Some take aways from this weekend are:
1. I need a hole punch, or to find mine back. The running martingale is too long (did the darn thing stretch?!) and while the knot tied in it makes it short enough for acceptable flatwork, it's a bit too short to be fair to jump in. I will try the breast collar with martingale attachment until I can get a punch.
2. BB needs lots of schooling before she's show ready.
3. We might need a new SJ bit. Beval gag? Waterford? Cheltenham? Soooo many options. I also want to try the boucher for the flat to change things up a bit. Luckily, I have plenty of bridles!
4. Lighter blankets are going to be a thing. It's so warm out all of the sudden!!
5. I need my videographer/photographer back, photoless posts suck.
Yesterday we jumped! Just a simple gate and xrail/vertical on a rollback, but we JUMPED! OUTSIDE! AND NO ONE DIED! The singular disadvantage to Drew doing things with Foxie is that I don't have any pics or video, but still. BB was super naughty over the x-rail to warm up, and wanted to buck and play and take off (and then got quite huffy when I kept asking her to halt). I finally make her walk or tiny trot up to it and she did it calmly, so I had drew put up the vertical. She knocked it down like a dummy because she went back to her super-blast-off tendencies, and we played over the gate (which she respected much more) for a while until we got our vertical reset. She left the vertical in it's cups after that and after a lot of arguing between us, I finally got a (albeit, still kind of wild) vertical roll back turn to the oxer, without an inordinate amount of leaping into the air, trying to buck or taking off, so I called it a day. Our last jump was the nicest, and thus great to end on, because I finally just scooped her up with my inside spur and made her put her booty to use for good instead of evil - she sat down over her hocks and powered through the turn and put in a quiet few strides to the gate.
Meanwhile, Foxie had a lovely bit of fun on the lunge line with Drew - she was full speed ahead prepare-to-warp cantering around with such a happy, bright expression. You can just tell she loves to run, and I was happy to see that she was being quite obedient to Drew, as well. He got her puffing and veiny - a good bit of exercise for the fat mare! I'll probably get on her on Tuesday (probably just with the bareback pad) so she gets a ride in this week, too. I should teach Drew to put on her boots, and he can maybe even start lunging her in the surcingle and some kind of contraption next.
Some take aways from this weekend are:
1. I need a hole punch, or to find mine back. The running martingale is too long (did the darn thing stretch?!) and while the knot tied in it makes it short enough for acceptable flatwork, it's a bit too short to be fair to jump in. I will try the breast collar with martingale attachment until I can get a punch.
2. BB needs lots of schooling before she's show ready.
3. We might need a new SJ bit. Beval gag? Waterford? Cheltenham? Soooo many options. I also want to try the boucher for the flat to change things up a bit. Luckily, I have plenty of bridles!
4. Lighter blankets are going to be a thing. It's so warm out all of the sudden!!
5. I need my videographer/photographer back, photoless posts suck.
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