Prince: Learning...

July 15 2010

This morning it was really nice out. I saddled Prince up and we went up to the riding ring to play. It was a lot of fun and Prince was really connected to me. We started out with the Weave. First at the walk and then at the trot. At the walk Prince did it with the belly of the rope on the ground and I only had to use my body to draw him and drive him. It was pretty cool! Then we went to the trot. Going one way Prince was very light and maintained gait well going in the other direction though he had a little bit of trouble, part of it was my fault though because I had to avoid the pedestal which was in the way. But we stuck with it and in a short while he trotted a really nice weave with me at the end of the 22ft line. 

Then we did circles but I had a little bit different of a goal today. My goal was for Prince to trot 10 laps each way with rhythm, relaxation and connection. Going to the right it took a couple laps for Prince to stay connected the whole time but after that he was really good. Then I decided to try something a little bit different going to the left. I stood on the end of my rope and sent Prince off. He did really well. I had a little bit of trouble keeping the rope untangled though. Next time I want to try it and ask Prince to spiral in as the rope shortens. It should be fun! 

After that I mounted up. Prince and I stood around for a little bit while I helped my mom with something and then we did Follow the rail with two carrot sticks. Prince was doing okay but his upwards transitions were not as light and responsive as they used to be so we played with that. Then we did Figure eights at the walk and trot. They were pretty good, the last ones were the best because I only used one finger on the reins to guide Prince. We did bigger Figure eights but that was perfectly fine because Prince was light! 

As I waited for Prince to lick and chew and have some time to process the Figure eights I got to thinking and I think that I really need to become more interesting in our riding. Since our riding ring is so small it is hard to be imaginative, especially with a LBI. I think that the Patterns that we can do in our riding ring (we can't do them all because of the space limitations) have just gotten to boring. That doesn't mean that I shall stop doing them. I am not the type of person to stop doing something because it is boring... I figure out what is boring about it and why and figure out how to make it interesting again. So it shall take a lot of thinking on my part but that is what the leaders role it. To have a plan. 

Prince and I ended with doing some really cool transitions. We did walk to trot, trot to halt, trot to walk to halt to back up, halt to trot and lots of other ones. By the end Prince was pretty light again and seemed interested. Then I asked Prince to back up from where we had stopped to the planted tire, which was about 30-35ft. We have never backed up that far before but Prince put so much effort into it and did so well!! It was incredible!

Then we played with the ball. Prince really likes pushing it. A couple times he came off the fence and we followed it and we even trotted a little bit while pushing it! I tried to stand on Prince while I was bouncing it but the ball kept rolling away. I have to figure out how to keep the ball bouncing while I kneel on Prince. I shall get it though! It will be a good challenge! 

Prince did really well and it was a good ride even though it was a challenging one. I have a lot to think about and hopefully I shall be more interesting for our next time :) 

Naturally,

~Keri