Better Together

Back to a day by day update this time!

Monday night I did a quick bareback hack on Mr. P, followed by a lunge for Stampede. P and I disagreed about the kind of canter we wanted, so I ended up focusing on counter canter down long sides instead of really pushing for a good quality canter overall. Stampede lunge was pretty rough – he was very on edge and didn’t want to relax down for quite a while. On the up side he was plenty forward and actually ended pretty well.

P after he got in trouble for picking his foot up to paw because he was jealous while I was taking pictures of Stampede…

Tuesday night lesson P was again rough to canter. I’ve found that when he’s really excited (like when he’s cantering with 5+ other horses in the indoor, lol) and gets up and down I’m better off riding a collected canter with circles for a bit then just loosening that up to find a good quality canter again. Trainer and I discussed how she thinks I always look like I’m either behind the motion at the trot or posting too far back in the saddle. Rung a bell with how I’d noticed my saddle sitting lower in back with my Ogilvy lately. Stampede got the night off with just some stretches and an aisle walk. I also gave him his last Previcox since that was 3 weeks on it.

Wednesday was a Stampede lunge and I put the fake pessoa rig back on. He was a bit trippy in the deeper footing at the one end of the ring, but trotted over a single trot pole quietly. I figured out that if I spin the end of the whip around he doesn’t like that sound and moves forward, so that’s a bonus.

When a Stampede really wants a carrot…

Thursday I rode P but used a Mattes half pad and found it felt better for me balance wise. Previously the Ogilvy was better as it stopped P getting rubs under the back panels of my saddle, so we will see if that comes back. If it does then I will have to figure something else out. I do think his shape has changed with the additional work he’s been doing as my solo lesson pony, so we might be okay there.

Friday I left work a little early since I’d gotten some extra hours in earlier in the week and got a lunge in before the lessons started. I got home by 5:45 which left time for me to get cleaned up and go with the husband to pick up dinner and hang out with his grandma for a while.

Saturday P and I did a flat lesson, using the Mattes pad this time. Trainer commented that I looked better without knowing/noticing that I had changed out the half pad, so bonus there. P was very good for the whole lesson, canter included. Great ride. Lunged Stampede afterwards and this time set up a set of two poles for him to trot through. He was really great other than the time he got over excited by my new whip technique and cantered a little.

Love these furry boys 🙂

Today I did another bareback ride on P. The ring was empty other than D and Willow so it was a nice relaxing time. Even snuck in a counter canter figure eight and P nailed it on the first try. Lunged Stampede after that. No poles, just a focus on maintaining forward while still stretching. I’m not getting as low of a head doing that, but he is moving forward. Both ponies got their bridle paths and muzzles cleaned up. That will be my last muzzle trim of the season as I like to let the boys grow out their beards for the winter.

My phone and camera are full of pictures – mostly of dogs and horses.

Headed back out to hay and water and tuck the ponies in for the night shortly. Looking forward to a short work week!