March 15 2011
Mom and I decided to go for another trail ride today. First though Prince and I played in the riding ring on the 12ft line. We played with walk, trot, and canter stick to me with my hand on his neck, this went really well and Prince was very connected. The canter was a little rough to start but by the end Prince was light and the transition to the canter from the trot was very smooth! We also played with circles at the at the walk, trot and canter while I sat on a barrel. Prince took all the slack out of the rope at the canter but then was able to find the connection again and adjust his body to canter a smaller circle. Once we got a couple strides of connected canter I brought him in.
Then we did some jumping, sideways and then leading by the tail. Then just for fun I decided to see if Prince would back up with me in zone 5 if I just lightly pulled his a couple pieces of the hair on his legs, he did!! And it wasn't just a slow, not-much-effort back up but he put lightness and speed into it!! It was really cool!! I then decided to play with Twosox while I rode Prince so I went over and haltered Twosox, who was standing just outside the riding ring then I mounted up!
Prince, Twosox and I started out with just doing basic walk-halt transitions and trying to get Twosox to lead off the feel of the halter with more lightness. Twosox was leading on it quite a bit. After that was going better we moved up into the trot. I wrapped the lead rope around the saddle horn so that it would be a more solid feel for Twosox and more quicker release when he came off the the pressure. That seemed to work really well and Twosox started walking and trotting beside Prince and I instead of lagging behind.
Just as this was going really well I noticed that Prince was starting to pin his ears at Twosox, which he wasn't doing before at first I just thought that it could have been because he didn't like Twosox being so close but then I just happened to look at Twosox as we were trotting a long the rail and he was biting at Prince! So I had to promptly attend to that and as soon as Twosox stopped trying to bite Prince, Prince stopped pinning his ears.
We did some more Follow the rail with walk, trot, halt, back up transitions and then we ended. To take the halter off I asked Twosox to put his head on Prince's neck and then even after I took the halter off Twosox just left his head there for me to rub it. So we spent some time just hanging out together, all three of us, before Prince and I walked off, but to mu surprise Twosox followed us!! It was really cool!! We walked around the end of the riding ring and then stopped.
It was such a great day for a trail ride. The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect and both horses and riders were happy! It was muckier than yesterday because things were melting but we still had fun. Prince and I played with walk trot transitions and we played with getting a slower trot. I still had to use my reins a lot so we are going to have to play with that one until Prince responds to my body more and my reins less.
We tried some cantering but the footing was really bad. On the way home though Prince and I rode up on the packed snow where the snowmobiles go and it was much better. Prince and I got some amazing cantering transitions on both leads. Prince totally blew my mind away with how he actually picked up the leads that I was asking for and when I asked! Up until now when we have been on the trail I have just been happy with which ever lead Prince cantered on (normally the right lead) so for Prince to be that in tune with me was totally incredible! I just couldn't believe it!
Then we
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