Saturday, April 10, 2010

Prince: Having fun with Patterns!

April 6 2010

I had another chance to sit on Prince today! He was lying down when I finished playing with Ruffy so I walked over to him and we hung out for a bit. I sat on him a couple times and then left to get help clean the corral. After we were finished that there was still time before lunch so I played with and rode Prince. It was SO much fun! Mom video taped us but our video camera is not working right so I can't watch it :( Hopefully we can get it fixed soon!

I didn't really have any plans for what I wanted to do Online with Prince so we just played. We did some Touch it, yo-yo's, stick to me, jumping, straddling, circles, change of directions and transitions. Prince did really well the whole time. I have something interesting to tell you all but I will type about that father down ;) Prince did really well with the circles and change of directions. He did some REALLY nice ones. Prince also cantered 4 laps! Hooray!

Okay so this is the interesting part...

After we had done some circles we switched to a traveling circle and I wanted over to the barrels that were lying down by the fence. I stopped when I was about 10ft from then and Prince circled there. Now I didn't have plan on what exactly I wanted Prince to do. I wanted him to do something with the barrels but I hadn't decided if I wanted him to straddle it or jump it. Prince read into my uncertainty and so each time he came to the barrels he would half jump and then hesitate for a spit second and the kind of trip over the barrels with his hind legs. because I wasn't sure if I wanted him to straddle it or jump it he wasn't sure what do to. So after I realised this I quickly made up my mind that I wanted him to jump the barrels the next time he came around... and what do you know... Prince came cantering up and FLEW over the barrels. No tripping, no hesitating nothing. He knew what I wanted and did it. It was really interesting. So the next time I wanted him to straddle it and guess what? He did! He came up, and straddled it perfectly. No if, buts or maybes. It was so cool!

Now normally I had a plan before I ask Prince to do something but this time I wasn't so prepared and it showed. So it was just another reminder that we have to have a plan!

After that I set up some patterns and got onto ride. I knew the patterns that I wanted to play with and so we set off. We started out with some carrot stick riding and we did Follow the rail, sideways, point to point and transitions. Prince did really well and I felt totally balanced. Then we went over to the pedestal and I asked Prince to climb on with all four feet. Then I stood up on him and did some extreme friendly game and some different stuff then sat back down. Then we did some Figure eights and the Weave at a trot. Prince did SOOOOOO well! We did lots of Figure eights at and Prince only broke gait once or twice. I was playing around with my body and how I could help Prince arc his body into the turn better so that was interesting. At the end Prince did really well and arced around the barrels. After a long rest we did the Weave. Again Prince was incredible! At first he trot was a little fast but by the end he slowed down to a nice sitting trot trot and I hardly had to use my reins! Hooray! I just love riding patterns!

Then I took my halter and reins off and we rode around brideless! We haven't done that in a while (excluding last week when we rode bridleless in a round corral) Prince did very, very well and we had lots of fun! We did Follow the rail at first and we did some transitions, walk, trot, back up etc then we did some point to point, sideways, indirect and direct rein. Then I decided to try some figure eights! They were a lot of fun and we even trotted some of it! It was SOOOOOOOOO cool! I decided to end there because we had a great ride and Prince did really really well!

Naturally,
~Keri

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