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Apr. 4th, 2010 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickGood outing with the horse today. Actually, she's was pretty good on Saturday, too.
Today I went out to catch her after a lovely Easter breakfast (candy and huevos a la Lala) and she was lying down in the morning sun, not even really awake yet. Nick didn't bother to get up when I approached her, so I haltered her and then stood there holding the end of a lead rope attached to a horse that was not standing.
I used to think that horses were unable to snigger.
After she got done sniggering and stood up, we went out and walked nicely up and down the steep hills over across the road. (For warm-up and also for building aerobic fitness prior to actual efforts at 'getting in shape' for the competitive ride.) She did a good job with that. We did walk and trot transitions, which also worked nicely. There was bending. There were canter transitions that got a bit sudden, there, but not horrific and she relaxed easily and came back out of the canter in very nice downward transitions. It was a very fun outing. Nick was pleasant to ride the whole time. I'm starting to wonder if she's feeling OK...
Also, must start reading up on how to teach flying changes. Horse is reliable when asked for one lead or the other. Horse bends nicely, is very supple and wiggly to ride. I bet she can do flying changes. I just need to be able to teach them. (The sticking point here is not her, it's me. I am simply not organized enough yet. *sigh* Perhaps a better grasp of the theory will help me.)
Yesterday we went out and I was going to pop her over one of our little wee fences, still set up in cute little cross-rails. She bopped right over it and I went to steer her out of the line (there were two more fences after the first one) and Goof was like "No, no. The drill here is that I'm supposed to go over all of them." And she did. Weird.
We are getting set to do training for the competitive ride -- next weekend (Saturday) we're test-riding the route for our clinic of the 17th and then we're gonna get a schedule in place and ongoing by the first week of May. La has five kids (including Cass and Waylie) signed up to be game for this, so that means we have to have five ponies fitted up. Cass is riding Jasmine. Waylie is (we think) riding Eikon. Lutely can go on the ride and she's stable. KC is going. Not sure who the other horse is going to be. We need tack picked out for the horses so that we can color-code it. (Makes loading the truck easier.) All ponies should have designated tack for this. There will be six-day-a-week riding for this, one set on M-W-F schedule and one set on a T-R-S schedule. Not sure how I'm gonna work that because I have lesson on R, but I'll work something out if it becomes an issue. Might wind up with a T-S-S instead. Cass and I can ride our designated horses 3x a week and our substitute horses (for the other kids) the other 3x a week. That'll get four horses started, anyway. Dipshit Goofball can pony a horse when under saddle and Lutely (my alternate horse) can also... so that's two more we can fit up. Six horses. Waylie is going to have to put some work into his pony, but he's very busy with boy activities (sports) and I'm not sure he's gonna log any miles until school's out and even then I have to work around baseball and stuff. I'd like the other kids (some of whom ride better than others) to get more involved after we get some miles under the substitute horses' belts but that's not super-critical just yet.
It'll be a long road to September -- I've done this before -- but it's not like time on my horse is a bad thing. In it to win it? Well, maybe. A little. :) But I will be happy, plenty happy, if we finish sound and happy.
Today I went out to catch her after a lovely Easter breakfast (candy and huevos a la Lala) and she was lying down in the morning sun, not even really awake yet. Nick didn't bother to get up when I approached her, so I haltered her and then stood there holding the end of a lead rope attached to a horse that was not standing.
I used to think that horses were unable to snigger.
After she got done sniggering and stood up, we went out and walked nicely up and down the steep hills over across the road. (For warm-up and also for building aerobic fitness prior to actual efforts at 'getting in shape' for the competitive ride.) She did a good job with that. We did walk and trot transitions, which also worked nicely. There was bending. There were canter transitions that got a bit sudden, there, but not horrific and she relaxed easily and came back out of the canter in very nice downward transitions. It was a very fun outing. Nick was pleasant to ride the whole time. I'm starting to wonder if she's feeling OK...
Also, must start reading up on how to teach flying changes. Horse is reliable when asked for one lead or the other. Horse bends nicely, is very supple and wiggly to ride. I bet she can do flying changes. I just need to be able to teach them. (The sticking point here is not her, it's me. I am simply not organized enough yet. *sigh* Perhaps a better grasp of the theory will help me.)
Yesterday we went out and I was going to pop her over one of our little wee fences, still set up in cute little cross-rails. She bopped right over it and I went to steer her out of the line (there were two more fences after the first one) and Goof was like "No, no. The drill here is that I'm supposed to go over all of them." And she did. Weird.
We are getting set to do training for the competitive ride -- next weekend (Saturday) we're test-riding the route for our clinic of the 17th and then we're gonna get a schedule in place and ongoing by the first week of May. La has five kids (including Cass and Waylie) signed up to be game for this, so that means we have to have five ponies fitted up. Cass is riding Jasmine. Waylie is (we think) riding Eikon. Lutely can go on the ride and she's stable. KC is going. Not sure who the other horse is going to be. We need tack picked out for the horses so that we can color-code it. (Makes loading the truck easier.) All ponies should have designated tack for this. There will be six-day-a-week riding for this, one set on M-W-F schedule and one set on a T-R-S schedule. Not sure how I'm gonna work that because I have lesson on R, but I'll work something out if it becomes an issue. Might wind up with a T-S-S instead. Cass and I can ride our designated horses 3x a week and our substitute horses (for the other kids) the other 3x a week. That'll get four horses started, anyway. Dipshit Goofball can pony a horse when under saddle and Lutely (my alternate horse) can also... so that's two more we can fit up. Six horses. Waylie is going to have to put some work into his pony, but he's very busy with boy activities (sports) and I'm not sure he's gonna log any miles until school's out and even then I have to work around baseball and stuff. I'd like the other kids (some of whom ride better than others) to get more involved after we get some miles under the substitute horses' belts but that's not super-critical just yet.
It'll be a long road to September -- I've done this before -- but it's not like time on my horse is a bad thing. In it to win it? Well, maybe. A little. :) But I will be happy, plenty happy, if we finish sound and happy.
