August 19 2010
Prince and I had a really cool playtime today. He was incredible! We did Figure eights, which were much better then yesterdays and Prince was way more connected. Our circles were amazing. Prince cantered 6 circles to the left and about 4 to the right. He would have kept going but I brought him in.
My mom needed some help with transitions so I demonstrated them with Prince. Then I asked Prince to walk some circles then we played with changes of directions at the walk. It was really neat and I saw where a little problem is. So we played with that and pretty soon all I had to do was turn, make eye contact and then back up a step and Prince would change direction, and maintain gait. It was fun to do something totally different and ask Prince to walk the circles, because recently we have been focusing on cantering so it kind of blew his mind ;)
Then we did some other smaller things like some one line, zone 5 driving, jumping and some other stuff. One thing we played with that we haven't done in a while was I asked Prince to come to me, jump the barrels and then back up to them. We haven't done it in a while and so I wasn't sure how Prince was going to do but he did it perfectly!! I couldn't believe it! It was fun!!
Then I got on and we rode! We had an amazing ride. We started off with some Direct and Indirect rein, then I got the crazy idea to see if we could jump the barrels. Very much unplanned but I knew that I had prepared Prince Online enough so we headed off. The barrels were already set up anyways so that helped. The first time Prince did amazingly well and it didn't feel to bad but I lost my balance a little bit and that messed it up. So I gave Prince a rest and then I asked again. This time it felt better and but Prince tripped over the barrel a little but I still rewarded it. I figured out what I need to do (or what I thought I needed to do) and so we set out more more time. Prince trotted nicely up to the barrel and jumped right over it no problem (on a loose rein too!) and it felt a whole lot better.
Then I got on and we rode! We had an amazing ride. We started off with some Direct and Indirect rein, then I got the crazy idea to see if we could jump the barrels. Very much unplanned but I knew that I had prepared Prince Online enough so we headed off. The barrels were already set up anyways so that helped. The first time Prince did amazingly well and it didn't feel to bad but I lost my balance a little bit and that messed it up. So I gave Prince a rest and then I asked again. This time it felt better and but Prince tripped over the barrel a little but I still rewarded it. I figured out what I need to do (or what I thought I needed to do) and so we set out more more time. Prince trotted nicely up to the barrel and jumped right over it no problem (on a loose rein too!) and it felt a whole lot better.
Of course it will take time to be really fluid when we jump but it will get there. I am just really proud of Prince!! And I am happy that I was totally confident! I think that since I have started cantering my confidence has really skyrocketed!!
After that we did Transitions. At first when ever I asked Prince to trot he would trot really really fast as if he was going to canter. So we did lots of downward transitions until he relaxed and realized that what I wanted was the trot. Then once we got some nice relaxed trot I asked for the canter. He did well. But I think that we both could have done a lot better. I strongly believe that a major factor was that I was still sore from my play time with Ruffian yesterday and so I couldn't ask for the canter right. I was stiff. So it wasn't Prince's fault in the least. Poor guy :( He still tried really hard and we got some really nice canter after some trot to canter transitions.
One thing that really helped was sitting on my thumb! That was incredible! Right from the second I started Prince started blowing and I felt completely in harmony with him. It was amazing! So I made sure to do that from then on and it helped.
The hardest part for me is still getting into the canter. I am not asking quite right and it is messing both Prince and I up. I have to concentrate really hard on it and get the pattern. It will come though and I am confident about that. I can see the progress slowing coming :) This up coming week I am going to really focus on our trot to canter transitions. I know that if I can get those right everything else will fall into place.
Cantering to the left was interesting. It just showed me that what happens Online does effect your riding. Prince would canter around the end but would turn, as if he was circling. When Prince canters on the circle Online he will canter a 15ft circle or so and so when we were cantering to the left it carried over. So we played with that until Prince cantered along the fence and then we quit. Prince gave me a really nice canter too! :)
So I know what I will need to play with for the next little while but I am happy with the progress we are making.
Naturally,
~Keri
Cantering to the left was interesting. It just showed me that what happens Online does effect your riding. Prince would canter around the end but would turn, as if he was circling. When Prince canters on the circle Online he will canter a 15ft circle or so and so when we were cantering to the left it carried over. So we played with that until Prince cantered along the fence and then we quit. Prince gave me a really nice canter too! :)
So I know what I will need to play with for the next little while but I am happy with the progress we are making.
Naturally,
~Keri
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