I can hardly believe that she is so calm and easy to handle on the trails, considering we went on our first trail ride, um, two months ago maybe? And before that, she had done her best to convince me that riding outside of the arena was simply impossible.
Anyway, yesterday I went out expecting to put in a nice dressage school. I've been alternative dressage schools between lateral work and impulsion/getting bigger steps behind.
Thursday we had a decent lateral day, mostly shoulder-fore and shoulder-in, with some leg yields and playing with bend/counterbend sort of things. She is difficult to get true lateral work out of, since she is SO wiggly, she can kind of contort her body into the general shape I'm asking for without using her body correctly. When we were first starting lateral work, that was acceptable because I was just looking for her to give me the correct reaction (aka leg=move over, shifting seat=move ribcage). Now that she knows what I want and is getting stronger, it is time to ask for some real work.
Friday, we worked on impulsion. She likes to take itty bitty steps behind and either settle into a tiny western jog (almost) with a nice headset and using her back, or bomb away with her head in the air. I need to get better about holding contact and pushing her into it. She is good about getting the headset with minimal contact, and tends to get fussy/bracey when I hold harder and push her into it, but we both need to grow up and do some real work. So we worked on that, with some trot-halt-reverse-trot transitions which really help her. She gave me some fantastic work and even some gorgeous (for her) canters! I was incredibly pleased.
I have been cooling her out on the trails, since there is a nice little loop that is the perfect length for cooling down, so I started to head out. Just as I was leaving the arena, the barn manager mentioned that she and two others were going out on the trails if I'd like to wait and go with them. Beauty hasn't been out on the trails with other horses, so I figured it would be a great experience, so I waited. One of the girls, A, was taking out a trail-green horse, too, so the group was just going to walk and take an easy
route.
(I didn't get any pictures, sadly, because I am a super nervous trail rider and didn't trust myself to take pictures and control my horse)
We started out with the experienced horses in the front (a mother-daughter pair of Arabians, super cute!), the other green horse (a gorgeous big palomino, who turned out to be a nutcase) behind them, and Beauty and I at the back. Well, that quickly proved to not be a great arrangement because Beauty was the fastest walker out of all the horses (yes, even the 17.2 palomino!) and she was getting pissy that I was holding her back, so we became the leaders for a while. Beauty was fine, not even blinking an eye (until we encountered a deer, but she quickly calmed down). Eventually, I let Barn Manager go in front of us because I didn't know the way.
It was a gorgeous little trail, farther that Beauty and I have even gone. We crossed two streams, Beauty's first time being ridden through water. She hesitated at first, but quickly got over it (literally and figuratively, ha!). She was calm and responsive most of the time, with only a few moments of excitement when a.) Barn Manager let her horse gallop up a hill and I ask Beauty to walk, which resulted in some saddleseat-esque prancing and jumping a small branch on the ground, b.) Palomino Nutcase wouldn't cross a stream, so his rider got off to lead him over, he jumped, she let go of the reins, he pranced around loose for a minute (I got off and B never did more than put her head up and watch excitedly), c.) we trotted towards home (ermagerd, so exciting!) and d.) we ended up at the back again and Palomino Nutcase jumped a stream ahead of us, so clearly we had to flail across the stream and up the hill until we caught up to the rest of the group. But mostly she was calm and I didn't get to nervous. We even jumped a little log on the trail on the way home and she was fine!
It was so fun and generally a great experience for both of us. Beauty needs more miles and I need to learn to freaking trust my horse, she clearly isn't going to do anything that I can't handle. There was a barn trail ride organized for this morning and Barn Manager was trying to convince me to go with them, but I opted to sleep in and work on the giant lab report and study for the test I have, both due Monday.
If I get enough work done, I'll go out tomorrow to see my pony. She's going to get a whole week off next week, since I am going home for Thanksgiving break.
No comments:
Post a Comment