Monday, January 11, 2010

Raven

Well today I tried toe warmers to keep my feet warm while I worked with the horses. They seemed to work or it wasn't as cold as I thought. Anyway, today I rode Raven. I went out with a plan, to work on the ground for 15 minutes, then from the saddle working on Leg yields, 1/2 passes, and various other things for 15 minutes each rounding out my hour of working with her. I gotta tell you it is so much fun. and I think the fact that I was focused on a couple different things for different parts of the hour made it more enjoyable. Not that I didn't work on other things like stops, backups, moving the shoulders or hindquarters or even just trotting and cantering around on a loose rein, because I did all those things as they fit naturally into various parts of the structure. It is the structure that gave me the freedom to do many things. At the end of it all, I was great, she was great and relaxed and we had fun. Jake even wanted to get in on the action, but not enough time today. I even had Raven kneel 2x and she did it pretty good. I don't know what it is but there is something about riding a horse and communicating with her in such a way as to get to do the movement with just my leg or seat. I did have to use the rein, but that is for position and posture of the horse, not for direction per se. Can't wait to do it again.

No comments: