Hey yall!

Welcome! My blog is about 2/3 OTTB retraining and 1/3 newbie eventer (former hunt seat/equitation girl). Please follow along with my experiences, share insight, and enjoy!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

6/22/11

Lego: I rode Lego today and boy was it warm!!! It was SO humid today!  I moved our ground poles up to the "riding area" and placed one of them oh so carefully on a two little hills so the middle part of the pole was about three inches above the ground.  The other pole was a canter stride in front of it.  I warmed him up and trotted around both directions for about 12-13 minutes.  He was doing really well on figure 8's and circles.  I gave him a little walk break and then picked up a trot going to the left again. I was hoping to really get him to move off of my inside leg to really set him up to get the correct lead. It definitely helped and we were able to get the correct lead and canter a few laps and circles.  He has such a great canter :)
I then figured I could reverse directions and do the same thing, only adding in the poles.  Not the brightest idea I've ever had.  This horse LOVES to canter...and go fast....and be speedy.
We changed direction and trotted towards the poles.  He has been doing SO well with trotting over them but he was a bit excited about cantering so he jumped the first one and then jumped the other one and cantered away.  No big deal, he did great and transitioned back down beautifully.  This is where we fell apart a bit.  The next time I picked up a trot he was already a bit crazy. he tucked his head down and was was doing the "i am about two seconds away from exploding" jig.  I tried to circle and work him through it, but......it didn't' help that much.  We went over the poles and he took giant leaps over them as if they were just obstacles in the way of him getting to go fast.  And he was fast.  But fortunately he listens and I  just circled and asked him for a transition which he gave me...eventually.
Oh OTTB's how we love the antics.
He was sooo amped up after that that I decided not to give in to his little meltdown and just walked him out.  We worked hard though...WALKING over the poles and turning circles and NOT breaking into a trot.  Once he was a little more calm I walked him over the first pole, then asked for a trot over the second.  He trotted it and then cantered away, but it was a good canter so I praised him thoroughly and then cooled him out.
Overall it was a good ride, but definitely the most challenging so far.  :)

Goal: raised poles, canter a little more-setting up better for lead success
Time: 50 minutes

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