November 24 2010
Today Prince, Knightly, myself and my mom went out to a friends place (where I kept Prince for two and a half weeks) for a play day. It turned out to be a nice day even though it was cold and windy, but at least the sun was shining!
The ground was hard in the arena because of the -11 temperatures over night so Prince and I mainly played in the field. We did some circles at the trot. About 8 each way. Prince wanted to see the new horses so he would take the slack out of the rope when ever he got to the one side but then he started to blow and stay connected the whole circle. Going in the other direction was of course easier because he had already figured out what I wanted. We also did some cantering on the circle. Prince had to figure out what I was asking but he got it in the end. It is amazing how when you do not do something for a while how it almost falls apart! I noticed that a lot today.
When Prince was there for those two and a half weeks we were getting things like drop to trot simple lead changes on a change of direction, 6-10 laps at the canter with rhythm, relaxation and connection... but now that we have been back home and do not have the same space to do those kind of things they have gone down hill.
We did play in the arena a bit and did some jumping, straddling the log, sideways towards and away from me and some other things. Then we headed out into the field to ride. We started with Follow the rail on the outside of the arena, which was grass so it was easier to ride on. Prince wasn't responding to my body at all. So we had to play with that quite a bit. Eventually he started getting better and I didn't have to make as many correction with my rein or carrot stick.
Then we went to circles. These were much the same as the Follow the rail. I had to make lots of corrections. Eventually Prince started to get it and when we got some nicer circles going in both
directions at the trot we finished. After that mom and I went for a ride up and down the road. We trotted for a long ways and then headed back over to the others. I felt even more in harmony with Prince today which was really cool considering it felt good before. We didn't do any cantering because of the ground being frozen but that was okay.
When we loaded the horses into the trailer, both leaving and going home we tied the horses last. So Prince had to wait quite some time because he was loaded first. I was really proud of how well he stood in the trailer, untied with nobody holding him, and he just waited patiently while Knightly was loaded and everything was ready! It was really neat!!
This was the last time that we are going to take the horses out there because winter is just around the corner!!! It is getting really cold now but in the spring I have the opportunity to take Prince out there again for two weeks!! So I am looking forward to that!
Naturally,
~Keri
No comments:
Post a Comment