Liberty, Bridleless and more!!

After my little brothers were finished playing with Prince we [Prince and I] went up to the riding ring. I drove Prince from zone 5 up the hill then we both ran in to the riding ring. After I switched to the 22ft line we went and did some Stick to me. Prince had so much energy so we played with that. We did w/t/c all over the place. I couldn't believe all that energy Prince had!! It was fun but tiring.... all that running in the snow!! :)

Then we did Figure eights. Prince wanted to canter them so I took it for a little while then asked him to trot them. At first they were a little messy just because we haven't done them in a while but then Prince got really connected and put slack in the rope and was just listening to my body. It was so cool!!! After that we did some circles. At first we just played around with Change of directions. Then we did some cantering/maintaining gait. At first Prince didn't want to canter so we played with it then he cantered a lap. So I brought him in, gave him a quick rest and then sent him back out again in the other direction. This time it was a lot better and he cantered 2 laps nicely. I am hoping to play with him more so that we can build it back up to where it was in the summer and not take so long but I am going to take the time it takes so it will take less time!!! After that we did some long range sideways over barrels and then back towards me. That was fun!! 

My mom needed the 22ft line so I took it off Prince and I wasn't planning on playing at Liberty but we ended up doing some really fun stuff!! We did stick to me, the cutting game, a little bit of circles, change of directions, drawing to me at the trot from far away and some other stuff. The look on Prince's face was priceless!!! He was riveted to me!!!!!!!!!! It was SO much fun!!!!!!!

Then I put my 12ft line on him and tied then into two reins then got on. I tied my savvy string around Prince's neck and checked and made sure that Prince was responding to that. Then we were off. I didn't have a lot planned but there were a few things I wanted to play with so we started will A Million transitions/Follow the rail. Prince did really well with that. We did walk/trot/ back-up all with the savvy string and carrot stick. Prince did really really well. I was so proud of him!!! I wanted to play around with trotting for a bit so we did that next. When ever Prince got a little bit faster I would just grab onto his mail and hang on!! It was fun!!! Prince was happy to trot around but we did some transitions here and there. Prince got REALLY good at listening to me seat. We even played around with transitions with in each gait. That was fun!! When I asked Prince to back up he got so good that all I had to do was shift my weight back, focus and wiggle my feet a tiny bit and he would back up. It was amazing!!!

After that we did Figure eights at the trot. At first Prince wasn't to thrilled about trotting figure eights. But pretty soon it became a game that if he trotted one figure eight he would get a rest. Then he put effort into trotting!!! We did big figure eights too. Prince liked that better. More like straight lines!!

The last thing I wanted to play with was sideways brideless. At first Prince would do what he normally does and his hind quarters were lagging so we played with that. Then I remembered what Mr. Parelli did in the Level 3 Freestyle DVD of the new Levels when Magic did the same thing [not to the same extent though ;)] which was just bring the carrot stick over to the other side and "blocking" the shoulder from going to far ahead. That really helped Prince. It fixed a lot of our problems with Sideways too. At the end Prince would go true sideways for about 10-20ft with just my body and a little bit of pressure from my carrot stick. It was so light!!!

Prince responded really well to the savvy string today and most of the time I didn't even need to use it! He responded to just my body. He is SO light when I ask him to turn or pivot on his hind quarters!!! It was amazing the improvement!!!! We also did Lateral flexions with the carrot stick. It isn't perfect yet but we are getting there. It is a good start though!!!

I can hardly wait for our next play time!!! It will probably be me trimming him though. He is next so that should be interesting!!!

~K