I'd love to say that today was a beautiful day for riding. Alas, the rain continues to plague my barn visits. At least the temperature has finally reached the 50s. so I don't have to bundle up.The advantage to this wet weather is that when I don't feel like riding in the rain, I get to think of other things to do with my girls.
Lately, I've been going on casual walks with my trainer. Each week we choose an equine and head down the road. Madge is my usual suspect. Since I typically ride Maxine on Saturdays, it makes sense to focus my Friday time on Madge. Today, however, I decided to take Max to practice long lining.
If you've ever driven an equine before, you've probably realized know that it's one of the best way to find the holes in your reining technique. When you're driving, you get to see your animal from ear to tail, and any bend in their body is much easier to see that when riding.
While followed Maxine down the road, I realized that she doesn't walk perfectly straight. Instead, her nose bends slightly to the right, which means that her barrel sticks out to the left. To fix her bend, I had to be firmer with my outside rein. This has long been a weakness of mine.
As we walked, I experimented with rein pressure, doing my best to keep Maxine in between the yellow lines on the road. I can't say that we were completely successful, but we showed major improvement by the end of our walk. I'm excited to translate what I learned today to riding.
After Maxine got a treat, I worked with Madge. We lunged for a while, stood quietly at the mounting block, practiced bridling, and snapped through a few showmanship moves. I'm happy to report that she's entered a mouthy phase (yeah, that's sarcasm), but I know that won't last long. Probably about as long as her kicking phase. *roll eyes*
By the end of the day, I was tired, soaked to the knees, and pleasantly satisfied with the work we'd done. The rain may have dampened my hair, but it didn't dampen my spirits.
Photo: Muddy boots = a productive day!
I hope that the mouthy phase is short lived. My horse is still a little mouthy but I found out someone at her old barn thought it was cute when she would bite at get clothes for treats. Yeah needless to say we didn't stay there very long after I found out what was happening.
ReplyDeleteI definitely understand about finding holes when long lining. My biggest problem is my horse is so in tuned with my legs and seat I use very, very light rein aids. But when long lining I have to use slightly stronger ones, so sometimes she acts like I'm yelling at her and over corrects. So we are still finding our happy medium.
I love it! Muddy boots = productive day! I know I've had a good day at the barn when I have to hose off my boots before I can even get in my truck.
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