Shadow Puppets & Update

Snapped a few pics while letting the girls out on Sunday morning, I shall intersperse them through my waffly round-up of last week, teehee

My fav picture, Kika is on the left and O on right

Myself and Kika had a wonderfully agreeable weekend after her lazy-ish week. I rode her Tuesday, only walk and trot transitions as we were in the main arena and more people would be likely to see our shambolic attempts at cantering! I didn't want an argument and really wanted a good session to bring back up the happy factor; so we worked mostly in walk and trot - changes of rein, circles and serpentines with small circles as we meet the track. We are after getting a good deal better at these if i may say so myself, I am meeting a whole lot less resistance on my smaller circles as we meet the track then i used to, we can now keep our frame 90% of the time and when we do lose it we stay on our small circle until we get a nice one and then continue on with our serpentine which means coming out straightening and getting ready for our next bend.

We did nothing on Wednesday as i was knackered after the days work, despite great plans to have a pop around the course set up for the jumping lessons after they finished up. I was just too exhausted and ended heading home. I didn't think riding when I was so mentally drained would have been beneficial for either of us, so while things were going well i figured I'd leave well enough alone.

Thursday I loose lunged very succesfully if i may say so myself - was very happy with the transitions we worked our way through and the quality of the work therein. We moved up and down through walk, trot and canter, changing rein and requests to keep this interesting and keep Miss Kika guessing as to what would come next hence focussed on me. I was very happy that there was no messing, she is very Zen these days - the afternoons sunbathing outside must be good for her mental well being.

Friday was another rest day as farrier pared her feet in the morning and she was out till after 8pm as L and I chilled out chatting to other bodies around the yard before bringing them in, teehee

Kika acting disinterested and O shyly curious, can you say Peeak-a-Boo?

Saturday I got a lovely 45mins or so session in my dressage saddle in "our" arena. Started out with someone lungeing below us but they left after about 20mins so i expanded our work to the whole arena. We got some lovely serpentines and circles and ... yes... I even braved cantering again and while still a long way off perfect and she started hollow with her head up, at least we have got the correct strike off first time again! Phew - there's always something to work on,

We kept at it till she rounded down as i know her well capable off and then we returned to trot work as I was very happy with her canter (once we got it right a couple of times). We did a lot more work in walk then I would typically do, she was carrying herself well and listening to my aids so I ploughed on with it - she can often distract herself easiest in walk and mess with her head, so while we were on the same page i figured we'd chance our arm on work in walk for a bit. We did a couple circles and serpentines then as she was feeling maleable and attentive I tried someting I haven't really done before and am not sure we did right but i got what I wanted so it'll be up to L to correct me at a later stage if the way i am asking is incorrect (which lets be honest it probably is

).
Anyway i kept her in walk and had her bring her head to the inside as we kept moving forwards along the longside on both reins, and then I tried a few sides alternating between head inside the arena and head facing the panelling but I didn't do too much of this as she typically keeps her head slightly out rather than in anyway so i only tried that to see if we'd manage and changed back to encouraging her to look/bend her neck inside. Happy with our work in walk we moved back up to trot and tried it a few times on each rein, I'd meet a bit of resistence on our "bad" side, but then she'd settle back and do as i asked before we'd meet the corner so I ended our session a very happy bunny.

Another nice one

Sunday I was back in my GP and had hoped to do some pole work, but the arena i wanted was busy so we rode in the main arena despite it being a little hard for my liking (becoming a wuss so i am) but as i had her in tendon and fetlock boots due to my intentions to do pole work i figured she was as well supported as i could have her. We worked on walk, trot and canter in circles and serpentines (trot not canter - that'd be way to advanced for us at this stage!) and after a few botched attempts we did get very nice rounded canter circles - the botchiness was not in the strike off so much as in how she would initially carry herself with her head in the air and resisting the bend but I kept calmly circling till she did as i asked, so I was a happy camper again and returned to sitting trot work on serpentines and circles which were lovely and controlled and as such easy to sit

Wound down then as a third person joined the arena, one of the RI's was already in there on her horse when i started although she did a lot of walking and then kept stopping to chat to the others as they passed by. I called it a day as i was fresh out of ideas and happy with what we had done.