200th post

I meant to come up with something cool for my 200th post, yet here I am about to tell you about my rides this week instead! I know you are excited! I need to think of some cool contest to do coming up. I’m open to ideas!

Three pups in a row 🙂

Monday the Stampede got back to work after his two-week siesta. I was lucky to get a ride in since it was raining and the indoor was (and still is) full of temporary stalls. The pony and I were definitely damp after our ride but other than some tense moments tracking right and going by the scary part of the ring he was great for having some time off.

Alert pony on Friday

Tuesday I did a flat lesson on P. The footing in the ring was not very good, a strange mix of hard in spots and squishy in others, but we toughed it out. Trainer got after me for my Phoenix habit of not keeping my elbows in. It’s funny how you can have different faults on different horses.

P after his bath on Saturday

Wednesday Stampede was at it again. He was very heavy in my hands, which usually happens at some point when he gets back to work after a break. I was riding a fine line of keeping him moving from behind without hyping him up. I still kept things simple and overall it was a progressive ride.

Love the shadow

Thursday P and I went for a bareback ride in the field. The pony was feeling good, weather in the 60’s with a breeze always energizes him. We ended up working for quite a while and he did require a couple of reminders to slow down a bit. Can’t complain that the pony was feeling that good though!

Field is looking gorgeous

My Friday ride with Stampede was a bit rough due to some outside factors. I left work early so I got out to the barn in the late afternoon. All of the horses had come in from turnout and no one else was riding. Stampede was not feeling super brave about being alone, so just getting around the ring was a challenge. We spent a lot of time on a circle, making it bigger and smaller to keep the nervous pony attentive. Oddly enough he focuses better at the canter, so we were able to end on a pretty good note.

Stampede after a bath on Friday

Saturday Mr P was at it again. We put a saddle on and got to work in the field after a walk through the trails. After a brief discussion about appropriate bend which involved some avoidance trantering P was awesome. Nice forward trot, relaxed canter. A good day!

Saturday trail ride

Today Stampede and I got to brave some crazy wind for a pretty decent ride. His trot felt close to his usual more automatic movement with head set and pushing from behind. He seemed to wear out fairly quickly at the canter, maybe because I didn’t take a break between directions. I need to get him moving extra forward again at the canter, but I want to give him some more building rides first. To finish up, we went through this grid of cavalletti that was already set up after my friend lowered them for us. It was three poles at the lowest setting set as bounces, one stride to a raised, then a bounce to the last raised cavalletti. The first time Stampede was nice and quiet but I had cantered in and didn’t get the best distance in so he had to adjust. Second time he was being spooky about his scary corner so he rushed. Third time I trotted to the first pole and he went through nicely.