Still Here

I actually got to ride my poor neglected horse yesterday. It was the first ride in 2 weeks. :-( This work stuff really gets in the way of my life. Sigh. He was good. I just did some basic suppling work, w/t/c, trying to stay focused on response to my leg aids and keeping him light in the reins. We did some walk half-pass down the long side--track to quarter line back to track repeat as many times as we can fit in on the long side. Then, I let him stretch through the short side. It's so nice to have him follow the bit all the way down when I let the reins slide through my fingers. His stride lengthens and I can feel the swing in his back. Those little details show me that he was truly connected to the bit, not just faking a pose. He was really taking shorter steps in collection, not just being lazy. I like doing work like this at the walk. It's so much easier to feel these little details. And, it's paying attention to these little details that keep us going in the right direction.

The short stretches through the short side are a really good part of the exercise. He used to get stiff in the collected work. Letting him stretch out after brief periods of work let him know that he doesn't have to stiffen. It helps him realize that I'm not cramming him into a "frame". It's helped so much with his longitudinal suppleness. He still gets a bit fussy with his face when I pick up the reins, but he no longer shortens his stride and hollows his back. He keeps marching forward.

No ride today. The work calls started at 8:00 am and the last one finished just before 6:00 pm and no time to squeeze in a ride in between all the calls. I don't have lights in my ring, so another day without a ride passes by. Tomorrow will be stormy--they're actually talking about SNOW! It's not going to stick, just enough to make things messy...and keep me from riding again. Grumble, complain, whine.