Hmph

Queen B
I'm afraid that I'll have to be doing some backtracking with my flatwork, specifically polework. We do a lot of jumping in our lessons, and I think Baby has gotten into the mindset that poles automatically equal a bounce or awkward half jump, half trot over of some sort. We also need some work going to the right (shocker). As crazy as it sounds, I think that I've spent way too much time on the left and essentially ignored the right. Shame on me! I was noticing all of this on Tuesday while we were working inside. It was a nice day, and I think we are officially done with snow over here, so everyone wanted to ride in the field a bit, but we had to do some real work inside first.

We get to warm up by ourselves, so I took Baby in the arena and got her trotting around. She was perfect, honestly, I couldn't fault her besides being on the forehand, but that is what we are currently working on. We went on the rail for a while, then we started doing some 20m circles. Her bends were flawless, and I didn't have to use much leg, just enough that she could feel me.

The actual lesson part began, and Miss S didn't have much to say equitation wise going both ways, but I could feel Baby ducking in when we were going to the right. It irked me a bit considering how well she did to the left and the fact that the right isn't even her problem side. I fit in a good couple of laps of a circle, and I could feel her leaning. Inside leg, inside leg. We moved onto some trot poles slightly off the rail, then Miss S added a little oxer to our circle. To the right, she was slightly strong going to the oxer, but otherwise, I have no complaints. To the left was when we experienced the unintentional bounce and odd trot overs. I want to ride her next Monday to work on this a bit before the lesson on Tuesday.

We finished inside and head out into the field where we have one coop set up. I jumped it once, and I was fine with that, so I went and did my transitions exercise. Baby isn't the most relaxed horse on trails. The exercise was similar to the first time I did it in the arena. She would pick up her head going into the trot from the walk, but the trot to canter transitions were relaxed. Going down from a canter wasn't so nice, but she did go from canter to halt once, and it was okay. It took a little while, but it wasn't all that bad.

I had Miss S take some pictures at the end of the ride of me just going around and all I can say is wow. She was swishing her tail and shaking her head more than usual today, which is a bit discouraging. There's a lot to be worked on for both of us, and the first show is in 24 days. I believe that there is a God, and I would appreciate his help right about now.


"Balance"
"Contact"


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