Had my first ride last night on Ponyface since the disasterous ride on Friday. No jumping, we just did some flat work, ground poles, and then the bounce that was set up (did it at cavaletti height though-just enough to get her to lift up her feet, but not really jumping).
She was great. Great, great, great. Seriously, her being like this makes me so complacent. I forgot how HARD she can be for me to ride at times and instead think I can cruise around on a loose rein. Bad.
Anyway, we just did a little warm up of leg yields, figure eights, lots of bending, lots of trotting, then some cantering and lead changes. One new development that has popped up in the last couple rides-resistance to picking up the left lead. My trainer and I have been discussing her needing her hocks done (has also started missing some lead changes, which is a new thing too) but I need to get some money together before doing that because those puppies ain't cheap. Hopefully in a couple weeks though because I don't like princess ponyface feeling uncomfortable!
After the flat work, I got off to set up some ground poles. Only two that I could ride as either a single, or a bending line (gotta torture myself with those to get better at them, right?) Popped over the singles a couple times first, really focusing on getting her back and balanced on the other side of the poles. Also, keeping my darn leg on on the approach. On the first couple ones you could tell she was like "oh, pole?", like the darn thing came out of nowhere. If they had been actual fences, I think she might have attempted a repeat of our last lesson. But, I kept that leg tight on her sides to let her know she was taking that damn pole, no questions. We then attempted the bending line both ways. One time through was pretty disasterous, she completely ran through my hand and launched at the second pole, got all unbalanced, and then ran around on the wrong lead. Tried it again, this time I sat back and really tried to collect/balance her between the poles and what do you know-perfect! After the pole work we went through the little bounce a couple times both ways. SO MUCH FUN. I really love gymnastics of any type. First, having gymnastics set up tends to slow Arwen down naturally. Second, she is so athletic and powerful its like a big spring going through them and I love that feeling!
Since she was such a good girl, to cool down she got a short little trail ride and then her favorite thing ever-grass! I know, bad habit to let her graze with her bridle on. But how can you resist such a cute pony face after she gave me such a wonderful hack?
No comments:
Post a Comment