April 2 2010
Yesterday my mom and I had the chance to take Prince and Knightly to a friends place for a play day. It was so much fun even though it was over 30 Celsius but with the wind it was tolerable. To make things easier for myself I am going to divide what we did through out the day into each savvy because we did all three savvies through out the whole day.
Online
Prince loaded by himself into the trailer when I took him over to check it out. He just climbed right in and stood there waiting to be tied. That was really cool! He was totally ready to go somewhere! :) Knightly loaded up pretty easily also and then we were off! When we got to our destination we let the horses eat for a while and then took them through a big field to a stream to get some water. On the way over Prince and I had lots of fun doing traveling circles, change of directions, trotting up and down the hills, transitions and anything else I could think of. Prince kept the slack in the rope for the most part which was really nice. When we got to the stream Prince walked through it a couple times and then had a nice drink. Then we went over to a line of posts that were planted in the ground but didn't have any fencing on it and we Weaved through them from zone 5. Prince caught on to the pattern pretty quickly I don't know how long the weave was but it was pretty long! After that Prince and I went over to part of the field where there was a high bank along the fence and I stood at the bottom and asked Prince to circle around me, going up the bank and then down it again while maintaining the trot the whole time, plus keeping slack in the line. Prince did really well and even when I moved down the bank a ways to where he had to go down a steeper part of the hill he took it all in stride and didn't miss a beat! It was so much fun! Then the others came from the barnyard with there horses so we worked our way to the gate and I asked Prince to back through it, which also included going up a hill and then through the gate. Prince did that perfectly though and stayed straight the whole time! So then we all went over to the other side of the driveway and let the horses graze for a while before heading over to the arena.
It was really nice to just take it slow and not feel that since there was so much we could do that we had to do it all. It was great! Once we got to the arena Prince and I did some Touch it, jumping, sideways, and some other stuff. I asked Prince to straddle the log and I was at the end of the 22ft line and he did it! It was really cool! Then I walked along the top of the logs and we did some stick to me which was really fun! Then Prince came sideways over to me as if I was going to get up so I rubbed him and then decided to see if I could get Prince to ling zone 5 up to the log while I was standing on it. Prince did really well and after a couple minutes he figured it out! Then I knelt on him, did some extreme friendly game and some other stuff and then jumped down. We then went over and saddled up, played around a little bit more until the saddle was tight enough and then I switched to the 45ft line and we went and played on that. We started off in the arena but I didn't want to run into anyone so we went out to the field just outside the arena and we did circles. It was sooooooo nice to be able to have Prince out at the end of the 45ft line and not have to worry about fences, obstacles getting in the way or anything else! Just Prince, the 45ft rope and myself in a big space! It was wonderful!
We did some circles and then we did the spiral pattern (where the horse spirals in and then out again while circling) Prince did really well and only broke gait a couple times near the end when he was really close to me. He was sweating pretty good when we ended. It was getting really hot by this time. So we went back to the arena and I let Prince graze while I video taped my mom and Knightly played. Then it was time to ride! Hooray!
Freestyle
Prince did so well while I was riding. The whole time we did different patterns and he was wonderful! We started off with a little bit of Follow the rail at the trot. That went really well and Prince stayed on the rail the whole time. Then we did some Point to point. After that we did the Question box which was SO much fun! We did the first circle at the walk and then I asked Prince to trot and we trotted the rest! It was incredible! We trotted a couple circles on way and then stopped in the box for a rest, when back out the same way trotted a two circles and then went straight through the box and onto the other circle and Prince didn't break gait once! I was so proud of Prince! It was so nice to be have the room to do the patterns and not have to worry about hills, rocks and other obstacles!
Then after a long rest we did the Weave pattern, again at the trot. At first it was a little bit messy but then Prince remembered the pattern and he did really well. We trotted the whole thing, including the ends and after a couple complete weaves we had another long rest! Then we did some sideways, 9- step back up, in direct rein and pivots. Prince did well with those also. Then the last thing we did was figure eights! Prince was great! We trotted at least 5 complete figure eights and then stopped. Prince had a huge lick and chew and then I got off. I think the most wonderful thing about the whole ride was that I was 100% confident! Even when Prince was trotting faster I was totally confident! It was a wonderful feeling!
After that I took Prince out side the arena and let him graze for a while before I let him go in the arena and went for lunch.
Liberty
The next chance that I got I played with Prince at Liberty in the round corral. We did Stick to me from the one end of the arena down to the other end then we went into the round corral. Once we were in the round corral we did some Stick to me first. I wanted to make sure that Prince was in tune with me before we did anything. We did Stick to me at the walk, trot, canter and back up. Prince was good until we got to the canter then he would run a head. So we had to play with that for a while then when Prince was sticking with me we stopped. Then we did some friendly game with the tarp it was windy so it made it more challenging but fun! I put it on Prince and all over him. Then we did some sideways, hindquarter and forequarter yields and then circles! I started off really slow because I knew that before I would start off to fast and Prince would loose connection with me. So I sent Prince off at a walk and after he walked a lap or so I asked him to trot. We did some simple walk trot transitions. Prince was really in tune with me so we did some change of directions at the walk and then a couple at the trot. I was really happy with those. We did a little bit of cantering too but not a whole lot. I wanted to keep it short and sweet because we haven't played at Liberty in a round corral in a long time! After that we did some jumping and sideways towards me and we ended there.
I decided to get on Prince and ride around bareback and brideless a little bit. Prince was soooooo good! I was so proud of him! I had a carrot stick and savvy string and we did lots of transitions, walk, trot, back up etc, sideways, direct and indirect rein, lateral flexions and lots more! It was so much fun and Prince was really in tune with me. I ended by standing on Prince and then I got off. We then did some Undemanding time and then my mom wanted to ride out to the driveway and up that so I grabbed my halter and got back on Prince again. He did really well and was such a trooper! We went out and I let him eat some grass for a bit and then we rode over to the driveway, we rode all the way to the house and then we rode back down, a long the tree line, turned to the far side of the arena, rode down the rail and then back to the trailer. Prince did really well and I think he enjoyed it. He likes going new places ;)
The horses loaded up easily into the trailer to come back home. Prince looked really tired as he was standing there waiting to be tied. We both had a big day! It was a lot of fun though and a day I don't think I will forget in a long time... especially the part about getting a sunburn in April ;)
Naturally,
~Keri
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