Prince: Trail riding!

March 14 2011

Online: Preparing for a trail ride. We played with jumping a single barrel from a stand still, sideways at a trot, circles at the trot (with changes of directions) while I sat on a barrel, zone 5 driving with one rein, and then we ended with circles at the canter maintaining rhythm, relaxation and connection with a phase one canter send!! 

Prince really got the sent at the canter today. He leaped into the canter on the correct lead and cantered a complete lap before I brought him in. I am still playing with the send so that is why I didn't leave him out there longer. It was such an amazing send and Prince put so much effort into it that I wanted to reward that. It was really cool! Our bring back still needs some help but at least Prince is disengaging now instead of spiraling in to me. It will get there. One thing at a time :)


Freestyle: Trail ride was great. We didn’t do any cantering because it was very mucky. But we played with lots of trotting. Prince offered me the most amazing, soft, slow and relaxed trot…. it was more of a slow jog actually. Very comfortable! Both Prince and Knightly were wearing Parelli saddles and pad (this makes me very happy) and they both had their heads on the ground at the beginning! It was so amazing to see!! They were so comfortable!


On the way home we played with standing up in the stirrups while walking and trotting. Of course I tried the trot first, found out it was harder than Mr. Parelli makes it look :) Then realized that I should have tried the walk first ;) It was so much fun though! The walk was definitely easier so we didn't stay there long. Towards the end Prince and I play a game "don't make me sit back down in the saddle" because he would go off the track every now and then by just a little bit so if I had to sit back down he knew I would correct him. It was fun! I love a good challenge and this was just that. After a couple tries though I had it and was able to stand up at the walk and trot and not have to hold onto anything.

Knightly was crowding Prince so I took the end of my rope and started swinging it around, this led to me trying other things like extreme friendly game at the walk, tossing the rope over Prince’s head, standing up in my stirrups and doing other things also, and many other things all the while not holding the reins. Prince kept on a straight line and maintained rhythm perfectly! It was a really cool test and Prince definitely past!

When I took the saddle off there were no rub marks or anything. All of Prince's hair was smooth and flat :) That makes me really happy!!

Naturally,
~Keri