Last night DH and the boys got home early so my plans of riding where shot out of the water. MIL had planned on coming over to ride with me so instead I let her ride with DH while I worked with Chase and Abby.
DH saddled up Max and I let MIL ride Lucy (this is the first time I’ve let anyone ride Lu). They were going to go for a walk down the road and I felt comfortable enough with Lucy to let MIL take her.
In the meantime Chase got Abby out, cleaned her up and we put the bareback pad on her and Shari got Nikki cleaned up too. I had the kids ride bareback with a halter and 1 rein so they could learn how to do the ORS without fumbling with their reins. We started out by walking and then having the kids do ORS. Then we moved to trotting. This posed to be more of a problem then I had expected because the two ponies like to crowd each other and get pissy with each other so I pulled one pony into the middle while the other one worked.
Shari has such a natural seat when it comes to riding. I really wish Heather could afford to get her lessons. Chase on the other hand…….he’s like me and he’s going to have to work at it. As soon as Abby would trot he’d get stiff and start to bounce, then he’d start to lose his balance and then he’d start to grip with his legs. This is what we are trying to prevent. Right when he was starting to get better Abby decided to cop a tude so I told Chase to get off and told Shari to get out.
I took the bareback pad off of Abby and we did some round penning. I’d ask her to lope she’d swish her head so I’d make her go faster. By the time she figured it was just a good idea to lope we were getting along much better. I set some barrels up and had her jump just for shits and giggles and to my surprise she can jump fairly well and fairly correct (hmmm – jumping pony prospect LOL).
I had Chase grab his saddle and get back on. He trotted a bit then did the ORS and then we loped a few strides and he did the ORS. Abby’s attitude was greatly improved. LOL She even had a nice, free flowing trot.
Chase was done riding and Abby was pooped so we let him get the mini bike out and ride. In the meantime Shari decided to take Nikki in the pasture to ride (still only had one rein). She was trotting all over the place, chasing the 4-wheeler and the mini bike. Shari almost had more control with just the one rein then she does when she has two.
By this time MIL and DH had returned from their ride so I put the English saddle on Max (figured I needed to rectify my ride from last night) so I could ride him for just a few minutes. I asked MIL how Lucy did and she replied “I just love her! She’s such a wonderful horse.” I giggled and replied “why do you think I like her!” DH said she was very good and just plunked down the road.
I hoped on Max and did some flexing and then we walked out and flexed and then moved to trotting transitions. He has “easy” down very well now. He was a completely different horse (but then I was a different rider too) last night. He was soft, easy moving and slow. When I asked for the lope transitions he smoothly moved into them and then stayed in a lope not a run. We maybe worked for ½ hour and then I put him up. The gal from ND had her weekends messed up and won’t be coming until next weekend so that gives me a bit more time to work with him.
Tonight is the queen contest. MIL is so excited to see Sis go. I have the camera so hopefully I’ll have lots of pictures on Monday.
1 comment:
Good lord it's sounds quite busy over there. Poor Abby - she went from carrying a little kid around to having to jump barrels. I'm sure that had to be a learning experience.
So, I didn't quite follow. Was Max better from the work the night before or because you were a different rider?
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