Yesterday was, against my Mom's usual wishes, a barn day for Victory. Erica picked me up and we ran to McDonald's to get McFlurrys. Man, that ice cream made my day. And now, as I sit in bed wondering why we have a 2 hour delay when the snow isn't that bad, I'm craving ANOTHER McFlurry. Sigh. Anyways.
First, I put on my half chaps thinking I could get in two, 30-minute rides. I wanted to ride Pete first, then Sonny. Well I ended up riding Pete bareback first, and let's say I don't get much work done bareback. Sure, I can do stuff while riding bareback; I just can't get down to work and stop messing around. So really while I rode Pete bareback, and Erica rode April bareback, I kinda fooled around and focused on keeping Pete slow and collected. Erica, of course, made everything she did on April look perfect, as usual. They are quite a pair, that's for sure. About 15 minutes into our ride, right when I was about to ask Erica to switch horses with me, she asked to switch. I said sure and hopped right on April. It's actually kind of creepy how smooth April is. Her trot is so smooth, her canter is leisurely but not boring. And her walk is energized. While riding her bareback, I worked on my position and shortening/lengthening her strides at a canter. It was a ton of fun.
By then, Carla had come and taken Rainmaker next door to the other barn where she always rides, and Charlotte was getting Joe ready. Erica and I brought the horses in as Charlotte was warming Joe up, and by the time we were done giving grain and water, Erica was exhausted and said she wasn't gonna ride a second horse. So I got Sonny all saddled up and got into the arena.
Well, let's say he was feeling like he wanted to be a demon out of hell. He was definitely in his head-tossing, disobeying mood. He didn't want to listen to my left leg, didn't want to bend, nothing. I'm not making excuses for him right now. He was just being flat out nasty. We worked mostly on half-pass and simple lead changes. The lead changes went pretty well, until I got ambitious and asked for a flying change (what was I thinking? asking him for something that he can barely do in the summer? it was the dead of winter. cold. Sonny doesn't work well in the cold.). When asked for a flying change, he sped up, switched in the back, and tossed his head until I jerked on the reins, stopped him, and made him pick up the correct lead. After that, we mostly worked on half-pass. We were doing pretty well half passing away from my right leg; he still gets way too over bent when doing a half-pass, though, and I don't know why. I try and support his whole body while asking for a half-pass, but somehow he ignores that and keeps on over-bending.
After cooling down with a 5-minute walk, I stopped Sonny in the middle. I asked nicely for him to tuck his head. He refused. I asked nicely again. He refused once more; so I asked with a little more force. Again, he refused! I was determined to win this battle. I commanded him to put his head down, and he DID! I was so proud of myself for not giving in. It made me feel accomplished, like I had taken a step towards one of my goals for March. I asked for him to back a few steps, and he did so without a fight. Then I asked him to yield his hindquarters and do a spin on the forehand to the left. He did it, no problem at all! Feeling ambitious once more, I asked him to do a spin on the forehand to the right. No luck. The best we got was a 180* turn around, and then I patted him, let him relax a minute, and got right off.
The last thing I heard as I was leaving the barn? Tarzan's goodbye whinny. <3
No comments:
Post a Comment