♣Ambitious♣

We're coming up to two months with Miss Lucie, so I figured it was time to actually delve in and share more about her. The obvious: she's a mare, she's gray, and she's huge. Basically Summer with tinier legs. She also rides pretty similar to Summer as well despite being a touch dead to my leg. Her walk and trot are pretty consistent. I could definitely get a bigger step out of her at both gaits, but she's starting to get a lot softer in her mouth. The BO also mentioned that she tends to get stiff behind, but the more consistently she's taken out, the better she gets. I've introduced polework and a lot of direction changes as well, and that seems to have her moving more energetically with a lot less influence from me. Her canter is . . . a trip. She hasn't been consistent, although part of that is likely due to stiffness, being out of shape, and getting kicked the second week I went out to ride her. Her canter is where she gets more like Summer ...

Cheers to a year of monthly videos! I actually like this format and will likely continue with it for as long as its remains convenient. September was my first month with Lucie, but I didn't get a lot of our rides on video, so this month you get to meet her neighbor, Molly.

The first horse I tried was the hunter mare. She's a gray, 10 year old OTTB. Pretty much a horse that I would expect to see in Coach S's barn. The BO said that the mare is typically a hunter but gets into a jumper mindset once you put spurs on. This wasn't an issue for me at all until I got on her and realized that she is slow . Like takes a serious effort kind of slow. She's also not been worked regularly in a while outside of another lessor riding her sometimes. Trying her basically turned into a 30 minute lesson in the evening sun. Fun Fact: it's still hot as hell down here at 5pm. This will be a fun adjustment. We did a lot of trot work to get her moving and then moved into the canter. She has smooth smooth gaits, which kinda makes up for how pokey she is. One drawback for me is that she has auto changes (hunter children, calm down). I genuinely prefer to have control over the flying change. Since she isn't super fit, going over fences was kept super si...