WE CANTERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

July 23 2009

Yes after 3 years of owning Prince we have finally cantered!!!!!! Sure it might have been only 6 strides but we did it!!! It felt awful because I wasn't balanced but it took over a year to finally be able to ride Prince's trot and feel totally fine with it and not have to hold my reins or anything so I am not expecting the canter to be an over night thing. When I asked Prince to canter again he bucked :( but that was okay. I am pretty sure I know what to do about that. It was a big day though..... I rode my first canter.... wait my second canter but my first canter didn't count because I got bucked off, got a concussion and don't remember it. So that one doesn't count. But I rode my first official canter and my first major buck!!!!! What a day!!! hehe.

I didn't go out with plan of cantering this morning but I did want to practice riding Prince's really fast trot fluidly. Prince and I had fun playing on the ground too. Prince cantered 4 laps with out breaking gait one way then he cantered 3 laps the other way!!! We did some really cool transitions and change of directions too.

Before I got on I tied my savvy string around Prince's neck and we practiced some walk to halt transitions on the ground with me in zone 3. I had to support it a couple times but I knew that i needed to do it on the ground before I got on. Prince would just run right through the pressure of the savvy string and just totally ignore it so this way I could be more effective and help him understand what he needed to do.

Once that was really good I got on. Prince offered to trot so I took it. Like who wouldn't take a trot that your extreme LBI offered?? ;) Then I asked him to weave through the tires. He got the first couple ones but then decided that he was just going to ignore the carrot stick. So we stopped trotting and did it at the walk. After a couple minutes Prince was yielding nicely to the carrot stick.

Then we went and did figure 8's. Prince just wanted to trot and not do the pattern so we had to play with that. After Prince could walk around the barrels in a figure 8 pattern we stopped. I NEVER thought I would have had a problem with Prince trotting to much!!! Prince never ceases to amaze me!!! After a long rest, for no reason in particular just because I was talking to mom and so we ended up having a long rest but after that it was so cool because I asked Prince to go sideways with out me holding my reins, just using my carrot stick and he did!!!! We went sideways about 10ft and I mean it was a PERFECT sideways!!! No drifting forward!!!! It was amazing!!! After a rest and lick and chew I shifted my weight back picked up the savvy string about 1 inch from Prince's neck and Prince BACKED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He was SO light I couldn't believe it!!!!!! Then I did it again and the same thing!!! PERFECT!!!!!!

Prince and I then did some follow the rail. We trotted 2 and a half laps around the riding ring at a fast.... I mean REALLY fast trot!!! Prince has never trotted that fast before but as long as I kept my focus everything was great!! I wasn't bracing anywhere!! It felt so good!! Then we worked on my sitting trot. The interesting thing was that I could sit Prince's trot a lot better when I wasn't holding my reins. Hmmm..... I don't really know why but I could. So we played with that. I could sit his trot a lot longer and was a million times more fluid then I ever was!!!!

After doing a lot of trotting and such I felt ready to ask Prince to canter. Man he has an even faster trot then I thought!!!! But finally he cantered. But I do believe that he offered it but that was perfectly okay!!! As I said before he only cantered about 6 strides but that was okay. I was SO happy!!! I couldn't believe that we had actually did it!!! After a long rest we started off again. The next time I asked Prince to canter he bucked but I stayed on and then got off after I had bent him. I am kind of proud of my self because as soon as I bucked I automatically started to bend him and get off.

So we played on the ground some. Prince bucked a couple more times when I asked him to canter and especially when I asked him to canter on a phase one instead of a phase two or three. I got back on and rode around a bit but for some reason I felt like I should get off, so I did. We played for a little bit and then I noticed that my saddle was sliding forward like you wouldn't believe. Good thing I got off. So I took it off and looked at the sweat marks. There were some dry spots so I will have to play around with shimming. If Prince doesn't loose weight I don't know. The last four rides we have had he been all sweaty when we were done and it wasn't even hot out!!!

It started to pour rain when we were still out. The clouds just couldn't wait any longer. So everything got wet. Oh well. My blue savvy string that only a couple weeks ago was nice and clean is now really rather dirty. But maybe that is a sign of good use!! hehe :)

Anyways. Over all it was a good ride. I can't wait to get back out again. Should be fun!!!!

~K