Prince: Liberty and Bridleless

December 30 2010

Today we some friends of my parents came over and they wanted to see a little bit of what we were doing with the horses so Prince and I played at Liberty in the riding ring and then I got up and rode bareback and bridleless. 

While we played at Liberty we did Stick to me at the walk/trot/canter/ and back up, Touch it from about 15ft away, sideways over some barrel from zone one at about 20ft away from me, and (to my surprise) we jumped a single barrel from a stand still and Prince cleared it!!! I was really surprised that (1) he jumped it because just recently (over the last couple months) got it good Online and to the point where Prince won't try to go around it (2) that Prince cleared the barrel. Normally from a stand still he will knock it with his back legs, we have been playing with getting more effort and it is coming along but I didn't expect at Liberty yet :) So needless to say, I was happy :) We ended with a draw at a trot for a good 50ft or so then I mounted up. 

Since I hadn't ridden Prince in almost a week we started off with some hindquarter disengagements and forequarter yields. Prince was superb and we got some really nice forequarter pivots with Prince responding just to my body, no leg!!! It was really cool!! 

Then we did some sideways, back-up's and Follow the rail with walk/trot/halt/back-up transitions. Prince did so well and everything felt so smooth!! We also walked over to the pedestal and I asked Prince to put all four feet on it and then I stood on him and swung my carrot stick and savvy string around. 

So we didn't do a whole lot but I was still really pleased with how well Prince did, especially while we were riding. He responded so well!! It was really incredible! 

Then my youngest brother got up with me and we rode around for a short while. He loves to ride! This was his second bridleless ride too :) I had him focusing with me where we were going and dropping his energy when we were stopping. It was fun :) Then we got off and Prince and I spent some undemanding time together for a while before we went back down to the corral. 

So considering I was not even planning on playing with any horse today because we had company over, I was very happy to be able to play :) And to have such a great session was just a bonus :)

Naturally,

~Keri