Thursday, June 16, 2011

Day six of wet blankets and long miles

 Summer weather was apparently very fleeting here; we went from winter the summer, and now its back to rainy spring weather.  Day four, in a row, of rainy showery days.  This makes for quite a bit of mud. 

Stevie and I have been out working up and down the roads in between rain drops.  I try to do less and less work in the arena before setting out- I don't like the idea of having to get my horse tired before she will behave herself!  So, our arena sessions consist of some flexion, moving the hips, picking me up from the fence, desensitizing, and maintaining gait in the trot (no speeding up, slowing down, breaking, etc - I don't want to have to keep my leg on all the time, or continually half-halt to keep her in check.  Horses can and should be responsible for staying in the gait they are placed!). 


I will do a little bit of ground work once we are outside of the ring.  It's more just for piece of mind, to make sure she is still listening and paying attention.  Overall, it's going very well.  We are able to walk and jog up and down the road, past scary things like lawnmowers and trash cans.  When on the road, I spend as much time as she needs doing our mock-serpentine exercise to keep her focused.  As soon as she is soft and relaxed, its right back to loose reins and a forward walk. 

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