Monday's Ride

I got out to the barn a little after 5 PM and found a whole lotta people clearing tree debris and several piles of debris burning in the pastures. So instead of grabbing Breezy right away I sat in the barn a while and cleaned my jumping saddle until they went away.

Once everyone was gone I collected Breezy from the paddock and set to cleaning her up. She was filthy. I knew by the time I had her tacked up that she was going to be a little nutty so instead of hopping on by the barn, I threw the mounting block over the fence into the grass ring that I was going to ride in.

I walked Breezy from the barn to the ring all the while she was blowing and looking hard in the direction of the new horses, mostly the stallion. With her head in the clouds she was spooking at all the new things that were laying around the property owner's house, which she normally takes in stride. I walked her around the ring until she settled down.

Once I was up she seemed to be ok and we walked around for about ten minutes just warming up. Whenever she would get too excited and started walking with her head way up in the air I would make her circle or leg yield in the opposite direction of where she wanted to look. When we started trotting I did a lot of circles, serpentines, leg yields, and changes of direction to keep her moving and thinking about what she was doing. I think that Breezy's extra energy was helpful in our exercises as she was able to maintain some impulsion through the turns and circles rather than me having to constantly ask for it.

We are still working on maintaining a consistant pace at the walk and trot on the rail and in figures.

I am working on keeping my hands from drifting across the withers during turns and bends. I have also noticed that my focus tends to drift in and out while I am riding. I find myself looking down alot as well as hunching a bit. Egads! They go together! So does getting left behind (which I feel I sometimes do during the trot)! I knew this blog would help me out!

We didn't do any canter work because I just wasn't feeling very tight with my legs at the trot and so I focused on that instead. I tried to feel myself being pushed out of the saddle and onto my thighs and then down into my heels. I am trying to figure out what it should feel like when posting the trot without stirrups. I know I should just do it.

I was thinking about my leg/seat last night after riding and I think I came up with why my leg is "ineffective." I think it is especially bad during transitions because I have always been taught to kick and when I think kick my leg comes up and I use my heel. I think, from what I have read, that I should be squeezing with my upper calf instead of bringing my heel up. So my leg looks good because I have been taught that that is what it is supposed to look and feel like but my leg is ineffective because I have not been taught nor have I practiced how to use my leg to give aids properly. It does seem like a pretty common problem though...leg creepage sucks.

After all that trotting, I am sorry to say, I was pretty pooped and ended the ride with some walk, halt, walk transitions.

I am running today and so won't be able to ride til tomorrow. I am thinking that I will work on walk, canter, walk transitions and maybe some figures at the canter. Figure eights with a simple change of lead and circles. I will have to look in my arena exercises book for some other ones. I will definately keep it simple for now. I am really trying to go for consistency and good figures. I think I will break out the traffic cones.

Friday, I think I will work without stirrups...