Ruffian: New confidence.

May 9, 2011

What a session Ruffian and I had this morning! Since watching the Colt Start Naturally over the weekend (or as much as I could watch between work and other chores) I was given so much confidence and strategies that could help Ruffian in the area of his Freestyle. He was "green broke" when we bought him but we soon found some issues that were more than we could handle. Than through a series of events Ruffian's journey became my responsibility but I only had time to play Online and not really do any riding. I did a little bit here and there but nothing much. 

Since Myles has started playing with Ruffian he has gained so much confidence and so since I gained some really great strategies from watching the colt start we decided to give it another try and just take it a step at a time. I have saddled Ruffian recently but I wanted to do it fairly similar to what they did just to do it right. So this morning Myles and I went out to see what we got and what we would get. 

Ruffian did fine with the bareback pad so we left it on while Myles played and then switched to the saddle and I played. Now since Ruffian is doing some Level 3 things there were hardly any confident issues but I made sure to look for green lights and everything went really smoothly. 

We started off at the walk doing some touch it, sideways, hindquarter and forequarter yields and then we did some circles at the walk and trot. Ruffian didn't have any problem at the trot so after it was tightened enough we switched onto the 22ft line and did some cantering. Ruffian bucked once and then just tossed his head a bit looking like he might buck but he didn't. I set the barrels up in his way so that he had something to thing about and pretty soon he was cantering nicely with rhythm, relaxation and connection. He jumped quite a few times from the canter and wasn't bother at all by the saddle. 

So then we tested the stirrups to see whether or not I could move them with my savvy string while we walked around. Both sides were great. Next we played with the ball. Ruffian only had a little bit of trouble with the ball on his back but with with some approach and retreat on the second try he was fine with the ball being on his back. 

Everything looked great and I was seeing loads of green lights so I got ready to mount. Lateral flexions were great. I mounted from the ground on both sides and Ruffian stood still the whole time. 

We started with a passenger lesson at the walk to let Ruffian get used to me being up there. Then he ended up wanting to stick closer to the rail so we did some Follow the rail at the walk. I was a little cautious about riding near the sandy end of the riding ring because I didn't want Ruffian to lay down. But I decided that if I was going to do this properly I would have to know if that was what Ruffian was thinking. We did one lap of Follow the rail in each direction and since everything was going so well we did some trotting.

This was the first time in at least two years that Ruffian has been ridden at a trot but he took it like a pro and even though he wasn't to sure at first what I wanted he soon figured it out. We trotted in both directions and I was reminded yet again how lovely Ruffian's trot really is to ride. Then we pushed the ball around the hung out for a while before I dismounted.

While I was riding I made sure to "push" Ruffian with the carrot stick rather than "pull" him with the reins. That seemed to work really well and Ruffian understood what I wanted a lot sooner.

I was really pleased with how well it went and Myles was also :)

Naturally,
~Keri