The Fulcrum of Balance.

The past few rides I have actually been able to ride in daylight! Who does that! So amazing...

The only con with getting to the barn in daylight is that this is when everyone else shows up and books the arena for 2-3 hour intervals. But being the trooper that I am, during those times I have opted to get out and go for a trail ride solo on Solo. *Tehehe*
The footing in the fields is not yet optimal being that the farmers tilled the soil late which led to wet and now frozen clumps that have not yet had enough snow to cushion so road hacks it is!

Solo is pretty much mega baby horse road hack trooper. He plods along, alert but composed only batting an eye when the school buses whiz on by. Those things are pretty terrifying even to me, so I get it.


When it comes to the actual rides I have been able to swing. Solo has been ultra strechy, swingy and also unbalanced....
As per usual I always have a ride game plan but the last few I have just allowed to flow. (Not normal for me to go with the flow yo!)
Solo has been really wanting to reach down, lifting his back and arching his studdly neck and it has felt glorious! This is probably the thing I had missed most about Pally, the 'stretchy swingy floaty trot'.
For Pal, this did not come as early as it is coming in for So. Pal was about 4 y/o before she really started to lift her back and swing but I think this could be the difference between a) Being a mare and b) Pal's lack of forward.
All in all, I have been eating this up, taking advantage of every moment meanwhile still asking for small amounts of leg yeild, haunches in/out and TOH/TOF periodically along with also allowing So to find his own balance in this new found strechy trot and even a bit in the canter.

Mind you he loses his balance every now and then and he stumbles or sucks back to regain and Hey! I am good with that! As long as he is stretching down and lifting himself properly he can do what he needs to do.

"Ugh... she made me wear orange. Hunters with guns out there she said....
I saw No One...except my orange polos..."

I also tossed in a couple more tiny cross rails, 2' at most. Of which I have added in ground lines at the base to bulk it up and try to avoid rapping the rail, which Solo finds pretty confusing and often has to do a little pause and hop/step over though he is still willing to go forward and over.... it just may not be very fluid yet... (but this HAS ki-boshed the rail rapping! Thanks Alex!) 

Meh... what do you do... baby horse gotta baby I guess.
Though, there is the other side of me that wants to remind forward with a little whip. However, I am pretty sure this would confuse and stress him out.


Anyhow, progress is progress and I am SO ready for Christmas this year.... despite having to pack and move the few days afterwards... Gift cards people, gift cards!

In Twenty Meters, Turn Left ... Recalculating.

You know how your GPS spells out instructions for your route and it never ceases to fail at some point along the way? Somehow, somewhere, you will miss a turn or hell, go completely off course and end up driving in circles.

This is how I have been feeling about my rides lately and no matter how much I hate deviating from my precisely laid out game plan, I accept it as part of A) riding horses, where no things actually follow the book and B) only to accentuate part A – riding baby horses.

Today, I had planned on schooling a couple cross rails,  making them a bit more solid looking than I had before and removing both take off/landing and trot in poles. Reason being I have been finding that Solo concentrates so much on where his feet are falling over the poles (something we have been working on often), that he doesn’t really know what to do over the little jump. Mind you the size of the fence doesn’t really warrant ‘jumping’ but he does have to be a bit more conscious about where his feet are. Yes, I admit I would like him to touch a couple times to learn and hey it is totally normally for this age and having only seen maybe half a dozen fences in his entire life thus far but riding alone, getting off and on to reset the poles is not very convenient. So, my theory is to roll the take-off and landing pole into the fence to give ground lines and make it appear more ‘jump’ worthy rather than merely raised trot poles. On the plus side, the lack of poles to boggle his still baby brain will give him more time to look and think about the question.

Anyhow, long explanation short, we had to recalculate our route after missing the exit on account for having a super duper floaty and stretchy pony this day.

Solo’s balance is all over the place. I never really ride the same horse as the day before yet so you have to make the most out of the horse you’ve got that day. #babyhorseworldproblems.

I am honestly not sure what triggered ‘this horse’ to come forth but today after a short warm up Solo was really forward, lifting his back and floating along. It could be from his recent pedicure Friday (the 1^st), or maybe because the mud is beginning to dry … hell maybe it was the fresh round bale. Either way I opted to make use of this version of horse and play with it.

All in all, we played basic w/t/c, transitions and some odds and ends of lateral work. Nothing fascinating but progressive all the same and I am betting it will make it all the better for our next ride to have a nice relaxed and stretched out pony.

Next stop, crossrail crossing.