March 10 2010
This afternoon I played with Prince. I was supposed to play with Ruffian but Prince came over to see me so I decided to play with him. Before I haltered him I spent some time scratching some itchy spots! Then I halter him and I sat on the fence for a while and leaned on Prince. I think we both could have taken a nap ;) After a while we went up to the riding ring. We went over to the pedestal and I sat on the edge and Prince climbed up behind me. I was really rather tired because I trimmed Twosox this morning and even though it went faster than it normally goes I was still really tired.
To start with I sat on the pedestal and sent Prince around circling. Then we did some Figure eights. Prince did really well. He had a little bit harder of a time coming around the right barrel but that makes sense because he circles to the right better than to the left. So we kept with it until he was able to stay connected to me. After that I took a barrel over to the fence, my plan being to ask Prince to straddle it. The first time I just asked him to jump it. I could see Prince hesitate a little bit just as he was going over the jump, he wasn't sure if I was going to ask him to straddle it. The next time I did ask him to straddle it and he did it perfectly! The only problem was that there just so happened to be a puddle of water right where Prince landed... and well the impact of Prince landed cause the water to come up... and well... get me wet.
After that I got on and rode. We didn't do a whole lot but what we did do was really cool! We started off with some follow the rail, it was really slippery in the middle of the riding ring so we stayed away from that for the most part. Then we did some point to point. Prince will easily climb up on the pedestal with all four feet no problem. Most of the snow has melted from around it so it is a lot higher now! While we were following the rail I asked Prince to trot and it was totally amazing because I could ride Prince's trot a million times better than the last time I rode him bareback! It was incredible! I felt totally balanced and it wasn't bouncy at all! It was so nice! After that we did some sideways.... I really had to play around with my body and using less of my reins because if I used my reins to much Prince would started moving his forequarters over and pivoting so I really had to make sure I was using my body and carrot stick and not use my reins. The cool thing is that Prince did way better! We went sideways over 20ft, without a fence and Prince was putting extra effort into going sideways.
Then we did some savvy string riding, backing up, sideways, direct and indirect rein etc. Prince did really well and when I asked him to back up I just wiggled my legs a little bit and Prince would back up. When I was ready to get off I asked Prince to go sideways over to the fence so I could get off. Just for the fun of it! I love finding new things I test us! Prince did really well and went sideways right over to the fence and I got off. It was such a wonderful ride! I can hardly wait till the riding ring dries up a little bit more so it won't be so slippery then we came play with some more patterns other than follow the rail... which has gotten really good since around the outside of the riding ring isn't as slippery! :)
Naturally,
~Keri
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