December 19, 2010

My Riding Journal- December 19, 2010

     Such a great day today. Almost 50 degrees in the middle of December and mostly cloudy turned into very sunny and beautiful. Opie was excited to come out and play. A little fuzzy and I had to add a few holes to his girth...LOL. We both were overdressed for the weather... He in his fuzzies and me in my silkies and a sweatshirt. Didn't take long for both of us to work up a sweat.
     Things went as planned with the exception of the neighbor's target shooting but I was successful in keeping Opie busy and paying attention to my requests. A little reassuring him that we were doing well and he relaxed.
     First thing on the agenda was to work through the warm-up pattern we're designing for riding school. Worked well for one horse--- we will see how well it will work with six horses in the pattern. Enter on the large track- come in at C and track left to your assigned letter. I used M. Turn right at  your letter and halt on the centerline. Opie was a little distracted at the centerline and kept looking back over his shoulder--but otherwise straight. I think he was more worried about the cackling birds in the trees behind us and the gunshot sounds. After a 4 second halt at centerline, the horses ride on at the previous gait and track left and come all the way around to their letter again. Making a left at their letter and halting at the centerline completes the first warm-up segment. The instructor at this point can request the ride to walk-on or trot-on to the track and track right, repeating the pattern as many times as necessary to warm-up properly while correcting as necessary to get everyone in the proper balanced seat and to help with the transition to halt at the centerline practicing straightness. Today I practice the pattern several times with a mix of walk-trot and practicing the halt on the centerline.
     Then we moved on to the exercise I wanted to practice from The Right Track. "Learning the feeling of the half-halt." Opie was little confused during the exercise and it would have been helpful to have some eyes on the ground to help out. The exercise commenced with posting the trot on the track and asking for a walk for 5 steps at A, E, C and B and then returning to the posting trot. The plan was to continue reducing the steps from 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1 until I could just ask for the walk, act like I changed my mind, and then ask for the trot. Well, we did get to the point where I could actually count 5 steps but Opie was a little frustrated and seemed confused at what I wanted from him. A couple times I think we actually were doing piaffes!! That was kind of cool but we sure didn't plan to.
  I practiced the first 3/4's of the Intro C pattern at the walk and rising trot. Could not remember the end and did not have a reader. Also practiced the canter depart on both leads. The left lead went very well and we practiced some 20 meter circles at the canter. However, had trouble getting the canter depart on the right lead. So we did a few serpentines at the rising trot and called it a day.
   It was a very pleasant ride. NOTE TO SELF: no more graining inside the paddock with four horses. So I'll plan to stop by the farm store and pick up a few more hanging buckets for the paddock. Just to keep things a little safer for my fragile human bones. Berry fights for his bucket or two with a powerful hind kick and that is just too close for comfort.
   Jazz was putting a lot more weight on her left foot. I think the bute is also giving her a little more empowerment to fight for top dog. However when all is said and done-- she is a pretty solid third.
   Anyway, it was awesome to have this window of opportunity for a spring weather ride in the middle of December. Another Great Winter Ride!!
   GOALS for NEXT RIDE:

1. Hopefuly will get a chance to ride the warm up with more than one horse so that we can get a feel for how that works.
2. Need to memorize the rest of the Intro tests so that I can practice without a reader.
3. The trot to walk and halt transitions are coming a long great. Still need some work on posting with balance and correct seat. I can see why some dressage arenas have the big mirrors. Definitely would have been of value today to ride by and check my seat.
4. Get with my riding school partner to practice some of the schooling exercises together so we can present them to the classes in the spring.

   Thank you Connor for coming and being my safety spotter while I rode. I think Opie felt safer with you on post, too!