Qualifying
As opposed to quantifying.
I think I've said this on here a couple of times, but I've never been one to spend a lot of time on the horse. I like my 5 minute rides, my 20 minute rides, and now I have my 10 minute ride. It's a simple quality vs quantity thing.
Case in point, since it's been disgustingly hot, I've been forced to ride when it is much later. I basically mount up at sunset and make the best of the receding sunlight. Since last week's rides were in the good but not quite what I want them to be category, I decided to keep it really simple on Tuesday. It was 10 mins of pointed walk and trot asking Roman to seriously move forward, be soft, and then maintain that. Frankly, it took less than 10 minutes to put him together, but I wanted to go both directions because balance.
The next day, when I went to do a longer ride, guess who was much easier and significantly more consistent in his movements??? Wild, I know. Miss El was out teaching, and while I wasn't taking a lesson, she had a lot of really nice comments. More so even than her usual "Good" when I'm lessoning. No, I got some, "He looks really good," and it sounded genuine, so I'll take it. When I popped him up to the left canter, he felt so damn good that I just had to leave it at that.
Good boy, Roro.
I think I've said this on here a couple of times, but I've never been one to spend a lot of time on the horse. I like my 5 minute rides, my 20 minute rides, and now I have my 10 minute ride. It's a simple quality vs quantity thing.
Case in point, since it's been disgustingly hot, I've been forced to ride when it is much later. I basically mount up at sunset and make the best of the receding sunlight. Since last week's rides were in the good but not quite what I want them to be category, I decided to keep it really simple on Tuesday. It was 10 mins of pointed walk and trot asking Roman to seriously move forward, be soft, and then maintain that. Frankly, it took less than 10 minutes to put him together, but I wanted to go both directions because balance.
The next day, when I went to do a longer ride, guess who was much easier and significantly more consistent in his movements??? Wild, I know. Miss El was out teaching, and while I wasn't taking a lesson, she had a lot of really nice comments. More so even than her usual "Good" when I'm lessoning. No, I got some, "He looks really good," and it sounded genuine, so I'll take it. When I popped him up to the left canter, he felt so damn good that I just had to leave it at that.
Good boy, Roro.
Yea almost all of my schools end up being in the 30-40 minute range, with about 10-20 of that being walking. Tho I usually do try to have a distinct warm up phase (10 walking followed by 10 working) and then another working phase after another walk break, bc I find that the second working phase tells me the most about where my horse is. Can he take a break and then go back to work? Is his back softer? Has he actually let go of some of the tension we started with?
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