A Box of Chocolates...

"Life is like a camera. Focus on what's important. Capture the good times.

Develop from the negatives. And if things don't work out, take another shot."

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend, miraculously, I was able to fit in two rides despite all the craziness going on in our house right now. So much preparation for one thing that depends solely on all factors perfectly aligning in a time sensitive manner. Humph.

I am a bit of skeptic so said 'thing' won't be disclosed just yet. But I promise I will in a few months. (And again, no it has nothing to do with children, *shiver*).

Thankfully though, it is a process hubby and I have been through before so at least this time we have the knowledge, for the most part, to get the ball rolling smoothly and not look like a total dumb***. (New years resolution- cutting back on the cursing).

 

Continuing on.

This weekend's rides were.... a box of chocolates. So dissimiliar.

 

My ride on Friday night, first off, was FREEZING. Mish-mosh and I braved -14, wind chill of Antarctica, and set a variation of the circle of death. I called it the circle of intimidation.

I had planned on taking vid's and photos but my phone's camera had frozen. *snarl*.

The exercise was set on a roughly 30m circle, three strides between each element. Small jump at A and between X and C. Two ground poles at E and B.

The whole thing looked dang easy. I didn't foresee any trouble since Pal lives in a collected canter and turns on a dime. But it was not in the cards today!

The horses must have been standing the entire day due to the icy conditions and were energetic to say the least.

I swear all Pal wanted to do was gallop on her nose around the arena, besting her time on each revolution. I obliged and let her go for a little hand gallop, thinking to 'get it out of her system'.

Right. It didn't help. While we jigged down to a walk to catch our breathes I planned my next tactic for the exercise.

I settled on sinking, three point-ish seat, opening inside hand, outside rein close to the neck and auto release so I could gain control a little quicker on landing. Oh and a ton of half-halts.

It worked! Wee-hoo. Then we quietly waved the white flag for the day and cooled out.

 

 

Sunday. Total 180. I had read about a 20m circle/leg yield type exercise in one of my new books. It consisted of walking or trotting a 20m circle, six steps of walk/trot on a normal circle, then 6 steps leg yield, back to six steps walk/trot on the circle and so on.

The author described this exercise as being extremely beneficial for teaching horses to activate the inside hind while strengthening.

I thought it was interesting and wanted to incorporate it into my ride.

 

Pal was still energetic but today was manageable.

One of my favourite things about Pal when she has her 'hyper' mode is that she is very, very sensitive to my light aids. So this exercise was perfect for today.

 

I warmed up long and low since she was a bit heavy Friday. Today I was set on her re-learning to hold your own.

Then we attempted the exercise in walk, it went very well. Pal happily moved off my leg, yielding for six steps. Not even the slightest tail swish.

Moving onto trot I thought for sure it would cause problems but it didn't! I proceeded in sitting trot so I could feel a bit more. Made sure I had Pal moving forward and round, barrel bending softly around my inside leg. I then half-halted in warning to pay attention, and moved my inside leg slightly back to ask for some yield, outside leg supporting since Pal loves to give a bit too much 'crossing' at times.
 

Overall, this exercise felt really neat and fluid. Pal was very obedient to my aids and after a few repetitions each direction I started asking for this in my corners or before transitions.
I noticed a difference right away! Less jump from the forehand while transitioning and more lift/push from behind.

I will most definitely be using this in many rides to come. I highly recommend it!