March 18 2010
It was another beautiful day out today. So this afternoon I played with Prince. After I saddled Prince we did some different things, Circles (Prince was very connected and kept the slack in the rope 90% of the time!), Change of directions, Weaving, transitions, sideways and lots more! Prince did really well at everything! He was connected to me and was really willing to try what I asked. Our Change of directions are slowly getting them back again! After that, just before I got on to ride I took one barrel and put it up to the fence and sent Prince over to it. The first time I didn't line it up right and so he went in between me and the barrel so I disengaged him and then he offered to jump (from a stand still) the other barrel and straddle it! It was so cute the look on his face after he did it! So after that I sent him over to the other barrel and asked him to straddle it. I hardly did anything and Prince straddled it perfectly! I was really proud of him! Then after that I asked him to jump it. It still amazes me just how in tune Prince is with me! He know exactly when I want him to straddle it and when I want him to jump it!
After that I got on. We were going to do the Weave first but I we ended up doing the A Million Transition pattern and boy was it fun! We were trotted everywhere! The first time I asked Prince to come off the rail and trot straight down to the other end of the arena hadn't figured out the pattern yet so he didn't go completely straight but that was okay so the next time we tried it Prince went perfectly straight! This was the first time we have actually done a lot of trotting (with out breaking gait) all over the arena. Normally I will stick to the rail or to what ever pattern we are doing (i.e. Figure eight, Weave etc). The really cool thing was that I was perfectly confident and wasn't even thinking about Prince trotting. I was so focused on the Pattern that I wasn't worried about anything! It was a wonderful feeling! Another thing that amazed me was that Prince only broke gait about two times! The rest of the time he just trotted! Plus we were doing the pattern on my hard side! :)
Prince got a long rest after that. Then we went and did the Weave. This time Prince got it right away. He knew exactly what to do and did it. We trotted the whole Weave and did 3 complete weaves. I was so proud of Prince! He did so well! After that we did some sideways, lateral flexions with the carrot stick, Point to point (Prince loves standing on the pedestal with all four feet! I think that is his favourite thing to do) Then my mom and I did a trail ride simulation. Prince and I were in the lead and Mom and Knightly were following. It was fun. At first Prince kept trotting so I would ask him to walk again so after a while he figured out that I just wanted him to walk and not break gait. The other thing I noticed was that since all winter we were riding about 3ft from the fence when ever to were doing follow the rail (because that was where the path ended up) Prince would walk 3ft from the fence now even though there is no snow bank there. So we had to play with that. After a while he figured it out though so that was good! It is interesting what you notice when you slow things down.
Prince did so well the whole ride. I think it was a little long for both of us but he still did really well. I can't wait till we can ride again! I am trying to ride as much as I can because it is spring and once summer comes... the bugs come. So I am taking advantage of the nice weather!
Naturally,
~Keri
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