Raven

I had a chance to ride Raven today. I have a different saddle, cause mine is in the shop for repairs. :{ Anyway, I got her saddled, a dream as always. She is just so soft with it all. I went through my exercises with her on the ground. I do the usual, disengaging, moving shoulders, back up and lunging. I also have her leg yielding toward me and away from me. She does real good at this because I have worked so much with her. I got on her and moved her around a bit in the pen, doing leg yields, side passes and haunches in kinda stuff. She is a dream to ride for me. Then we went for a ride down the road. I had a great time cantering her for about a mile. It was a real rocking chair soft, rythmic kind of canter. It is fun when she is balanced in a collected state. Then we just trotted and walked the rest of the 3 miles we went. I worked on keeping my upper body relaxed and soft as I was using my seat bones to move with her movements. I practiced speeding her up and slowing her down with my seat. She does better at speeding up than slowing down, especially if we are heading in the direction of home. It was just a real good ride. I got her back, unsaddled her, brushed her and then she went and rolled in the dirt. Ah, yeah! Thank you Lord for letting me have the time to ride.