Thursday, February 17, 2011

First sweat/bath of the winter:)


Alrighty. I have absolutely ENJOYED this week! It has been low 60's to low 70's everyday, with LOTS of sunshine:) It killed me to give Muffin Mon and Tues off, but I just had to since he worked so hard Sat and Sunday.


Wednesday I did trot sets for the first time in a LONG time. I did my usual timing; 8 minutes of trot, 2 minutes of canter each way. I want to up that to 10 minutes of trot, 4 minutes of canter, but I have to get him back on a good work schedule first! He started out as usual; a little quick, a little giraffe like. Settled into a super rhythm, and rode it out. At the canter, he felt AMAZING, as usual! Strong, forward, and eager! To the left, the trot felt even better than it had to the right, but the canter was a little bit um, heavy:) He really arched his neck, laid on my hands, and trucked along. I half halted pretty hard to get him to lift up, and he did ... beautifully. He worked up a GOOD sweat, so I gave him his first bath since before the horse trial in October.


Today, I rode in the dressage tack. I'll be DARNED if my boy didn't feel like a REAL dressage horse. Holy Cow. Light, responsive, forward, bendy, steady to the contact. I did a couple of trot spirals, and it felt amazing. Worked transitions, and he nailed the trot/canter as well as walk/canter transitions. I asked for the upward transitions ONLY down the longsides, and he didn't miss a lead at all. Finished up by trotting through low cavalettis. I had to go through probably 5 times tracking right before he really stayed consistent through them; head steady, neck round, NOT knocking the rails. Went through only once left, and he nailed it beautifully, so I quit there. He had a small sweat today, but it was a little cooler. SUCH a nice ride, put me in an amazing mood:)


Want to jump tomorrow; we'll see how much time I give myself to get a little course set up!

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