Thursday, January 26, 2017

BODY CONTROL

WINTER LESSONS 3: Body Part Control

GOALS: 1) To improve upon yesterday and Cearra’s confidence through the large puddles. 2) Get her mind engaged, body supple and work ethic back in shape. 3) Work on improving control of the major body parts.

SESSION REVIEW: We hit 45 degrees fairly early up here in the Sierra Foothills this morning so more snow melted. This creates some very slippery footing which is deceptive looking because the top 1/8 inch of soil “looks dry” but it is not. Lots of puddles to play in too.
We did some basic round pen work then moved outside to the trail course. Did some low log jumps, puddle crossings (nice and calm) and some of the other confidence building exercises and obstacles. Then we worked on some methods of backing, yielding the hindquarters, yielding the forequarters, lowering at the poll, lateral flexion, vertical flexion and some ground school circles to bring it all together. All went nicely. Lots of subtle refinements and more “softness” which was nice. The horse eating puddles are now just icky.


It was a good session. Tomorrow is a day off. Saturday is a Workshop. Going to be from 10:00am to 3:00pm. Long day but it should be fun!

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