Tuesday rides

Thank goodness the dcotor gave me antibiotics for my sinus infection. I feel better today, but I still have have some pain and pressure. Last night the pain got really bad so I took a Vicodin. Boy was that a bad idea. It gave me some pretty intense nightmares, so I didn't sleep well at all. At least I think I'm getting better.

Since I'm at work, the plan is to ride today! I'm hoping to continue some of the work I did on Tuesday. I might not get through all three horses, but I'm going to try. On Tuesday I started the evening out with Skyy. I didn't really know what to expect. We had made great progress at the show, and by Sunday I felt that he was making a much steadier contact with the reins than he ever had for me before. I was hoping that he'd remember this and we could just pick up where we left off from the show. However I wasn't expecting that to happen.

Well he surprised me by making a pretty good connection. He wasn't as steady as he was on Sunday at the show, but still better than before we left. The canter departs were hit and miss as far as him staying on the bit. For most of them he threw his head in the air and ran, so then I would have to stop him and ask him again. He got really frustrated so I put him on some small circles with changes of direction to distract him. Then the next canter depart was very nice, round, and pushing, even if it was a little quick. I was able to get two nice ones each direction before I quit.

I also interrupted the trot and canter training four times to concentrate on the walk work. He broke into a little jiggy trot during the walk phase in each of his tests so I made sure that we practiced it at home. He was very good at home, so I think I'm going to have to take him away from the farm and work in the big public arena nearby. He might be a bit more wound up there, like he would be at a show, and then we can work on calming his nerves at the walk and insisting that he walk like a little polite man when asked.

Kaswyn was next and he did not feel right. I couldn't exactly tell what was off, I just know that he wasn't quite right. But per Dr. G's instructions I worked him for ten minutes. He'll have tomorrow off and then another ride on Thursday. Susan will be able to video me riding him on Friday. After the taping session I will run the video over to Dr. G's and he can evaluate.

Albert was last. We warmed up and he felt great, so I started work on the walk pirouettes. I started off with a large turn on the haunches. He was fantastic to the left, but didn't get what he was supposed to do to the right. When my legs and seat weren't getting the idea across I did some tapping with the whip on his left heiny. He did not like that and tried to jump around and get all tense, but I talked to him and just kept going. He started to get upset and put his neck in the air, but I put it back down and started again. Since he is such a smart fella he figured it out and was able to accept that the whip was not a punishment but a tool that I can use to help him understand. We'll work on those some more on Thursday.

We also did some trot half-pass work, which was pretty nice. He still gets tense like he did when we were working on the leg yields at first, but he is slowly starting to relax. He's going to have a very nice half-pass when he relaxes and pushes through them. The canter half-passes still make him very tense, so we only worked on a few of those. They will be nice eventually too.

So I had good ponies after the break. Good job boys!