So being the overdramatic person that I am, yesterday was perceived stressful by yours truly, so I texted my boyfriend...in caps, for drama's sake, I MUST RIDE AFTER WORK. Being the routinely calm and laid back person that he is, he answered "alright babe haha".
I get off work, get out of this bankrupt city I have been forced (not really forced) to work in, thankfully free of any annoying/rude/road rage type drivers today, onto the interstate, through all the construction, off onto the busy highway for several miles, a left turn through a yellow light (out of the way folks, STRESSED woman coming through), and onto Main St. of the little town the barn is outside of.
Meet the boyfriend at the barn, Get changed, feed boarded horses, and stomp up to the house barn, where Sugar and Rally live. Turn the corner, and Sugar sees me, her head comes up, ears forward. I can practically hear her say "You're here, FINALLY! Where have you been?? It's dinner time! Rally, RALLY, they're here!!!" Oh mare, you're a lifesaver!!
We saddle up, sans issues :) She gets a little testy with bridling every so often, but not today. She stands now without being tied, after a few sessions of "no, Sugar don't eat that" "NO Sugar, stop that" "SUGAR, KNOCK IT OFF!!!!" We mount up outside of the barn...no mounting block :) and ride up and around the farm to the arena. The arena is freshly dragged (by the boyfriend) and I kind of "dare" him to make a perfect circle. Of course he and SuperGelding complete the picture perfect circle. What's next? He asks, and Sugar and I complete a circle-oval, which is much preferred than it's cousin, the circle-square. I dismount after, because Sugar needs standing still practice/balance. I'll put the jump poles down and we can get them to walk over those! Of course, these two are old hands at that, but we each do that twice. I get down again, and put two barrels on their sides about eight feet apart, so they can practice walking in between stuff. Sugar realized what I was doing, and helped(hindered) me roll the barrels across the arena.
Then, I put two jump poles down, about four feet apart, so we can practice walking through, and starting to back up through them. Boyfriend got a phone call and answered it, so Sugar and I worked on trotting, all over and around, and through. stuff. She only tried to go up the bank once, which is amazing for us. I'm catching her earlier and working on bending her body into the circle, which she understands now.
What a day of riding. We are riding tonight as well :) and will do more obstacles. Any ideas?
We are starting to use obstacles more and more in lesson. I love them. My favourite is upright poles. We zig zag through them at a jog, side-passing in between the poles if we can. :-) Even if we can't side-pass, the bending the horse has to do weaving in and out helps with flexibility. I have seen one person use upright poles to help with lead changes. She will do the poles at a lope and as she weaves in and out she changes leads at each pole. Beautiful to watch. Looks like her horse is skipping.
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