July 2 2010
This morning mom and I went out to play with the horses a little later than normal. The horses weren't in so we headed out to find them. They were on the road coming home. The deer flies were getting pretty bad. One interesting thing was that Ruffian came to see me! Normally he doesn't do that. I guess our play time yesterday was pretty good.
We all went back to the corral and I then saddled Prince at Liberty. Then we did some sideways down the fence while I kept my feet still, Touch it, and some other things. Then I haltered him from my knees and then we went up to the riding ring. We did circles first. Prince did about 15 circles to the left and the last 3 were really nice. Going to the right it took about 1 circle and he found the rhythm, relaxation and connection, he trotted for 3 circles and then I brought him in. It was really amazing.
Then we did figure eights. This was session three and already they is a huge improvement! At the end Prince trotted 3 figure eights and he definitely knew the patten. I still had to come out of neutral a couple times but it is so much better. The best part is that the look on Prince's face was so cool! He was totally interested and was having fun. It is amazing how when you give your horse the responsibility they have a lot more fun :)
After that I got up and rode. We started off with something new, skipping. Prince did well for the most part but he was a little bit unconfident about the carrot sticks going over his head so I stopped that and played friendly game with the two carrot sticks and savvy strings. With in about 5 minutes I was able to do the extreme friendly game with both carrot sticks and Prince was fine. It was really fun being able to solve that puzzle. I tied the savvy strings back together again and this time Prince was much more confident, not perfect but it is getting there. For the first day it went really well.
Then we did Follow the rail. This is where I went a little bit outside my comfort zone. I asked Prince to trot faster then we normally do, to the point where I knew it would be outside my comfort zone but not so far out that I would loose my confidence. Now ever since Prince has found a nice slow trot on the circle Online he has been offering that while we are riding, which is fine except that it could be very easy to just stay there and never push the envelope open. I didn't plan on doing it today but it just happened. So Prince and I did a lot of trotting. The best part was that I was perfectly confident! It was incredible. If I had of done that even a month ago it would have... well lets just say it would have been like someone pushing me over a cliff. It just goes to show you that if you take the time it takes, it will take less time. We got some really nice trotting Follow the rail. Prince did so well and was really in tune with me. We also did transitions and lots of them too!!
Then we took a long rest. Prince took a nap and mom and I chatted for a while. Then we played around with sideways, direct and indirect rein. I am still playing with teaching Prince the difference between each and how my body is different... being really clear. After that we did circles. Now I didn't have my carrot stick with me so I just used my reins but Prince was really leaning on them so I switched to my carrot stick. Prince kept wanting to go to the center so we really had to play with that. After a while we got some nice circles and then we went and took a rest. Then we went the other way. Again, it was really interesting being able to solve the problem while I was riding. It did take a while but we got it figured out. And since then I have figured out a new strategy that I want to try the next time. I think it will be better because I am taking Prince's idea and making it mine and then switching back to my original idea again. Kind of like tit for tat :)
One really neat thing too was that Prince told me when I was not being fair. There was a couple times that I didn't go through my phases right and Prince bucked a little bit. Nothing big but just enough to say "Keri, that wasn't fair" :) He did it once when I was asking him to do an indirect rein and he got stuck and I didn't help him soon enough and instead I went up my phases, when I should have used a little bit more rein and he would have gotten it. And the other time was when we were doing circles and he broke gait and I wasn't fair with my phases. It was nice though because I knew that I wasn't fair and he just confirmed it for me :)
We ended on a really good note and I got off, loosened the saddle and then we went to the shade and relaxed. Then even after I let him go and the gate was opened he stayed with me for at least half an hour and so I scratched him and he cooled off, he was pretty sweaty. After a long time though I had to leave. He followed me over to the gate but still didn't want to leave. So I just softly sent him and he slowly went down the hill. It was a really good play time all in all. Now that I have thought it all over I know where I can do better next time and what I can do different. It will be interesting :)
Naturally,
~Keri
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