May 3, 2011
This morning was kind of an odd morning. The internet has been out since Friday, coming on just yesterday, explaining why all of a sudden there were many posts on here :) so this morning I was still getting caught up on some stuff and also it was such a gray, gloomy day outside that neither Mom or I were very interested in going out to play. But eventually we got out.
It was an amazing session in the sense that I learned how Prince and I are so similar when we are both sleepy and not really altogether wanting to play. Our energy matched almost exactly. So it really was a great learning experience. Although it would have been nice to just go slow for the whole session we were planning on going for a trail ride before the rain came so since I was the leader it was my responsibility to cause us both to want to be more active.
We started off with some stick to me with Prince behind me and Prince had to keep the same distance no matter what we were doing, whether walking, trotting, stopping, or backing-up. Then after that we played with some sideways at a trot but instead of sending Prince around in a half circle then push him down the fence we started off walking sideways and then going up into the trot. This was the first time that we have tried this as Prince had a really hard time doing it but slow and rights beats fast and wrong because we took the time it took and now Prince understands what I want and how he can move his body in that way.
We got some beautiful sideways at a trot and most of the time the transitions into the trot were at a phase two or less! It was really amazing!
Then I decided to ask Prince to back all the way to the other side of the riding ring at Liberty because that was where the saddle was. I stood by the fence and just looped the lead rope over Prince's back and Prince backed all the way, very straight, with a lot of effort, at a phase 1 (just my energy) about 50ft!!! Twice he got a little bit stuck but it was only for a moment and then he carried on. I couldn't get over how light and connected Prince was and how many questions he was asking also! When he got to the other side I ran straight towards him, something that really used to bother Prince, and Prince just stood there giving me two ears and two eyes and was fine!!
After that I groomed Prince and saddled. Prince was very relaxed and I realized that Prince still holds a bit of tension when I saddle because today since Prince was so relaxed I was able to get my back cinch up an extra hole right away and there was still extra room, and as much as I would like to say it, Prince hasn't lost that much weight even though he has lost quite a bit :)
Then we played with backing by the tail and making small turns. This went way better than I expected and Prince caught on really quickly. We have played with it before but Prince has never really "got it" but today he did. On the first try Prince figured it out and so we would back up, turn a step, back up, turn another step or two and so on, rewarding the slightest try of course, but Prince had it figured out :)
After that we played with stick to me with myself in zone 2/3 at the walk, trot and canter. At the trot we played with Prince matching me so we would trot slow, very slow, fast and even faster and so on. Prince picked up on it so quickly and we were able to get a really fast trot and then immediately afterward a very slow trot. Up next was the canter. We played with two main things. Balance, Prince getting the correct lead and maintaining it which if he brought gait we would go down to the walk and go into the canter from there, and secondly attitude. Prince will pin his ears when go into the canter unless he is about 5ft away. Which is fine except I want to build it to him being able to happily canter with my hand on his neck. So we would continue to canter until Prince put his ears forward and then we would stop.
The first thing really helped the second as it got Prince's mind engaged and asking loads of questions so really the second thing didn't take long at all because the first helped it immensely. Then we did some circles with Mom and Knightly. The only problem was that Knightly has long legs and Prince has short legs. So Knightly trots was a lot fast than Prince's ... we got into a couple messes but in the end we did get 10 circles each direction both horses trotting fairly nicely :) It was fun nonetheless :)
Then Prince and I did some canter circles Online. Prince picked up the cantering to the right no problem and cantered 6 laps. But to the left he had a harder time. He was trying really hard but was cross-firing. He cantered almost 4 laps like that and then did a lead change to the right lead and then a flying lead change to the left so that he was on the correct lead... all by himself!! He is so clever!! He brought gait a couple more times before getting a really good circle with rhythm, relaxation and connection so I brought him in for a rest. I could tel that he was trying very hard so I wanted to reward that even though we didn't get the 6 laps he got 5 with a couple breakages of gait and ended with a full lap on the correct lead.
One thing I found very interesting was I had brought a long one of my brother's kidz carrot sticks and was playing around with that, it is such an amazing different riding with that verses the normal ones. I love it!! One thing I really liked that was I was able to use it to support my phases for asking Prince to canter on a specific lead and it was a million times easier than using my savvy string. I could be much more effective and it was so much easier to maintain my fluidity if Prince had a bit of trouble getting into the canter, which he normally doesn't on the trail but today he did so it was very helpful. I think I shall be riding with this little carrot stick a lot more :)
It was raining pretty hard by the time we got home so it was a good thing we came back when we did but it was kind of fun riding in the rain considering I hardly noticed it :)
Naturally,
~Keri
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