Prince: Online, Liberty and Freestyle

May 27 2010

This I played with all three horses. We had a huge thunderstorm last night so it was really nice out, even though it was wet. It isn't nearly as hot as it has been for the last couple days. The horses weren't we though so I saddled up Prince. But before I did that we played at Liberty for a little bit in the corral. We did our Liberty Challenge: Figure Eights Prince did so well and after we did a couple figure eights we stopped !! Yippee! Then we just hung out together for a while before I saddled Prince. Then we went up to the riding. We walked up there at Liberty then played for a while at Liberty. I had Prince haltered but just looped the lead rope over the saddle horn. We did jumping, stick to me, close range circles, sideways, touch it and lots of other fun stuff. Then we went and did our circles. I asked Prince to canter 5 laps each way this time. I figured out why Prince has a hard time cantering at a certain spot going each way, he has to canter straight the fence and then turn quickly so he feels the pressure of the fence and will break gait but once he is past that he will normally pick up the canter again. So I shall have to think about what I am going to do about that. 

After that we started our Online Challenge: Sniffing the tail. I haven't actually done this with Prince before. I have taught it to Ruffian but not Prince or Twosox. So I was excited to see how Prince would do. Well, he surpassed my expectations by a long shot! He caught so fast. We aren't any where near 30 seconds yet but it is an amazing start! I did it on both sides and both sides were really good.

Then it started to rain but that was okay. Prince and I headed over to the fence where there is a tree hanging over the fence. Then I decided to mount up and just sit there with Prince while we waited for the rain to stop. It wasn't to long before it let up enough for us to go back out. We did sideways over a barrel first, with out me touching my reins. Prince was so light!! It was really fun! Then we went and practiced our Freestyle Challenge: A full forequarter pivot, Prince pivoting on his hindquarters. Going to the right Prince did it beautifully, he put effort into it and we got our full pivot. It wasn't perfect, a little bit more practice and I think we shall have it just where I want it for the challenge. To the left was a little bit harder. We had a little misunderstanding near the beginning and that kind of messed it up but we still got it. :) 

As we were finishing up my mom was just finishing up doing circles with Knightly and since it had rained the ground was hard and so there was a beautiful circle where Knightly had trotted and where Prince had cantered earlier. I decided to try doing some circles with Prince... again he totally shocked me!! We trotted them and I mean Prince was incredible! We trotted 4 circles each way and I only had to make 3 corrections each way!! Plus I was able to sit his trot the whole time!! I was so happy! Prince was amazing!! :)

Then it started raining again. So back to the tree we went. This time it really poured!! While we were waiting for the rain to stop I was looking at the hill that we walk up every day to get to the riding ring... I have ridden up it but not down it... so I decided to try riding down it. So once the rain let up a bit off we went. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!! Prince walked the whole way down, we took it in zig zags and we made it! Prince was totally cool and listened to my direction perfectly! Then we rode into the corral and straight for the shelter because it had started down pouring again. What a ride!! I unsaddled Prince in the shelter and then made a dash for the garage with my saddle and theraflex in hand, fortunately the rain was letting up a bit so it didn't get to wet... :) Then it was off to play with Twosox!

Naturally,
~Keri