Long weekend = RIDING TIME

I kicked off my long weekend with a visit to our mule Cecil.  I am going back today and will write up my notes on his training later this week. 

Then I went and had my first dressage lesson of the New Year and Uno was GREAT!  He was a little sucked back but once we got him up in front of the leg he was really using his hind legs well. 

Really working that booty.

My biggest take away is that I need to ride him a bit more forward than I like.  When we are cruising in our current working trot, everything looks and feels good - buuuut, his brain isn't engaged and so the transitions are pretty lack luster. 

The best trot we could get a year ago.

If I ride just a bit more forward he really has to think about what we are doing and the transitions are magically uphill and prompt.

The best trot we got Sat.

He still wants to be a bit poll low, but that will come as he builds his topline and stops relying on his under-neck muscles so much.

Then the temps plummeted and it was 29 degrees for our jump lesson yesterday! : O

Our usual jump and XC trainer is a bit too far for regular lessons, so I reached out to someone who has a bit of a sketchy reputation - in the scatterbrained dramatic way, not in horse care or competence way.  She has an absolutely beautiful facility that is only 5 miles up the road.  And to make a long story short - yes she is very dramatic and a little less formal or professional than I am used to, but she zeroed in on my jumping weaknesses and set up the perfect exercise to help me work through it.

It felt SO fast!

Basically, when I am confident about the jump I ride softly and go with his stride, the second I get nervous I start to ride backward and pick at him.  He is only a little horse and he is going to feel like he is moving faster than he is - I have to learn to be soft in my elbows and ride forward to the jumps.

It was not.

It was so cold that Uno was a bit cold backed and bucky, but she had us ride through it and we did her exercise multiple times ending up with jumps between 2' and 2'3".

Basically, she set up:

                                               I

                                 I  - 5/6 strides      I

                                                        I

We were to serpentine through the jumps focusing on long straight approaches, nice turns, and soft elbows.  I thought the middle line would be like 7 strides, but she really had me commit to the 5 and although the first time through felt scary fast, it got smoother and better the more we did.

happy pony

All in all, I was super happy with our little lesson and her invite to come back and ride with them during the week.

So fast... NOT