Prince: Circles, zone 5 driving and more...

May 13 2010

WOW! Prince and I had the most amazing and fun playtime this afternoon. I wasn't going to do a lot with Prince because I had been out all morning and I didn't really feel like thinking a lot. So I didn't go out planning on doing anything other then letting Prince graze on the front yard but as I was going out I decided that we would go up to the riding ring for a little bit and just do one or two things then come back down and then I could let Prince graze. 

Mom and I had to clean the corral first so we did that and the whole time Prince followed me around. If I left the corral to empty the wheelbarrow he would wait for me and then when I came back he would be right beside me again. It was so sweet!! After we were done I haltered Prince and we were off to play. On our way up the hill we switched to zone 5 driving and then continued up the hill and into the riding ring. I am really starting to love one rein zone 5 driving! It is so challenging but it is so fun at the same time. Prince is getting really responsive and I am working my way back farther and farther. Today I was at the end of the 22ft line for 90% of the time. It was really cool! Prince and I did some Touch it, Figure eights, transitions, sideways, and some other fun stuff. One thing we did was we walked up to a pole and I asked Prince to stop part way over, straddling it. He stepped over it with his back legs so I asked him to back up. Prince is responding so well to my body and when I need to help him out more I can use my carrot stick for the most part. I rarely need to use my rope now. 

Ruffian and Twosox came up to join us in the riding ring it wasn't a problem for the first little bit but then I decided to sent him out so Prince and I rounded them out and drove them on out. At one point Prince even cantered to stay with me! Which was really special because he normally can trot to keep up with me. After the horses were out we did a little bit of stick to me w/t/c. Prince and I are playing with getting Prince to canter closer to me. We are at about 8ft right now. So that isn't to bad :)

After that we did some jumping a single barrel and straddling it. At first I asked Prince to jump it from a stand still and then a walk and then a trot and then I asked him to straddle it. Prince was very connected to me and it was really neat! Prince is so cool!! 

Then we did circles. Prince once again amazed me. I wanted to play with maintaining gait on the circle at the canter so when I sent Prince off I knew exactly what I wanted. Prince took off at a canter and he cantered three laps... just like that. Once Prince can maintain gait for 4 laps then I will make sure that that is really consistent before I ask for more. The problems that I ran into before (last year) was that I asked for to much to soon. So I know what not to do this time around ;) I brought Prince in for a long rest and then after that I sent him back out in the opposite direction, to the left, his hard side. Prince did really well but there were some poles that were in the way so he broke gait a couple times. The first couple times I didn't change direction because he picked up the canter again right after he got over the poles so I left it but then he started breaking gait more often so I did one change of direction and he cantered another 3 laps to the right... I can't remember if he broke gait again or if I just asked for a change of direction but some how I got him going to the left again. I tried to find a better place for him to circle with out having some many obstacles in the way but there wasn't really any better place. It didn't take to long before Prince cantered 3 laps to the left and I brought him in and gave him a really long rest because he tried so hard and put out a lot of effort. So our circles to the left weren't as pretty as our circles to the right but that is okay. If the poles and other obstacles  hadn't of been there and I pretty sure that Prince would have cantered the circles right away. I will know for next time though... more the obstacles :)

The last thing we did before going down to the front yard was figure eights. I debated on not doing them because of the amazing play time we had already had but I decided to do them anyways. I was looking for Figure eights at the trot with the belly of the rope on the ground. We started off at the walk and then after a complete figure eights I asked for the trot and Prince did so well! The last figure eight I got was beautiful! The belly of the rope was on the ground the whole time and Prince was responding so well to my body!! It was great!

So I didn't exactly do "one or two things" but that was perfectly fine because we had an amazing playtime and Prince was incredible... but then he always is... :)

Naturally,

~Keri