Prince: Just having fun!

May 19 2010

This morning I was pretty tired after I trimmed Ruffian I didn't plan on doing a whole lot with Prince. I had a couple things in mind that I wanted to play with but nothing much. We started out with some zone 5 driving with one rein. It was so much fun! We did Transitions, Touch it, and some other things. One thing we did was I asked Prince to step over a pole one foot at a time (stopping after each foot was over) and then backing up over it one foot at a time. I was almost at the end of the rope and Prince responded beautifully! I could see Prince thinking about what foot I wanted and some times he would just hold his foot up and wait for me to tell him where to put it! It was really fun! 

Then we did Figure eights. We started out at the walk and got them going well and then went to the trot. I was looking for the belly of the rope to be on the ground and Prince to maintain gait. At first they were nice but not quite what I was looking for so we kept with it until Prince kept the slack on the ground. I can see the improvement! After that we did circles first at the walk and trot and the at the canter! I asked Prince to walk first and he would walk so far and then start trotting so I would ask for a walk again and then go back to neutral. Finally Prince got it figured out and maintained gait at the walk then we did a change of direction and went the other way. 

Our circles at the canter were really good. Going to the right was a little bit harder this time, to my surprise. It is so important that you have a strong send!! I had a feeling that my send wasn't good enough and Prince let me know! So when I sent Prince to the left the send was much better and Prince cantered 4 laps no problem! I was so proud of him! We also got some really nice draw at the canter!! 

I wasn't going to ride but I decided to climb up and ride for a little while anyways. I put my savvy string on the halter and grabbed my carrot stick and off we went! I have really fallen in love with one rein riding and one rein zone 5 driving! I can see the importance and it is just plain fun! Back in Level 1 one rein riding was my least favourite thing but now it is my favourite!! Prince and I did really simple stuff but it was all fun. We climbed up on the pedestal, front feet on, all four feet on, just the back feet on, and three feet on...  I stood on Prince, we did some Follow the rail w/t, sideways, I layed across Prince, then I think the funnest thing was there were two barrels standing up and where really close together but just far enough apart that we could ride through them. So we rode through once going once way and then turned around and went through in the other direction. I had to lift my legs up or else it would have hit the barrels, Prince was just tiny enough to fit though. Then I asked Prince to go through but stop in the middle. Then I stood up on both barrels and asked Prince to walk through, turn around and go through the other way, stopping in the middle to pick me up. I have always wanted to try that but never had the chance too. Prince was amazing though and did it perfectly!! 

After that we just hung out for a bit and then I took Prince's halter off and we rode brideless over to another barrel and Prince dropped me off there. It was fun! When I let Prince go he stayed with me and even followed me as I closed the gate and then after I left he left. It was a really, really fun play time! I have pictures but will post them later.

Naturally,

~Keri