A Bit of A Review & Some Fun New Stuff!

REVIEW & NEW

Today’s session “goals” were to review the exercises we have been working on, improve overall softness and attention to seat/leg cues and to introduce shoulder elevation and vertical flexion at the standstill and walk.

It was a good day!

Groundwork was really good. We worked on the following exercises:

•           Lunge for Respect #1 (circle, stop and look at me) and #2 (circle, slow down, change directions and circle).

•           Backing with Steady Pressure, and Tapping the Air.

•           Yield the HQ #1

•           Yield the FQ.

•           Side Pass along the Fence.

•           Turn and Go (incorporates a HQ yield, a FQ yield and impulsion)

•           Ground School Circles (incorporates FIVE exercises into one fluid movement).

It is always fun to watch the horse “process” the say and communicate back to us. We, as humans, set a “performance bar” to be sure but that bar needs to be flexible. Cearra was a little stiff on one side (probably slept wrong) so it took a little more effort to loosen those muscles and get back to giving 100%. We wrapped up the groundwork by stringing a few of the noted exercises together to create some fun interactions. Of course we balanced this out with some lateral flexion and desensitizing too!

Under saddle we worked on the following:

•           Forward, Back, Forward Transitions.

•           Yield HQ at Standstill.

•           Introduction to Rollbacks.

•           Yield FQ.

•           Forward, Back and Yield HQ.

•           Serpentine through Cones (two gaits).

•           Ground School Circles Under Saddle.

•           Side Pass along the Fence Under Saddle

•           Introduction to Elevation of Shoulders and Vertical Flexion (Standstill and Walk)

The riding portion of the day went very well!  The horses did really well with the exercises. The footing at Pioneer Park is a little hard right now so long lopes get a little uncomfy because of the impact but overall the exercises went over really well.

We got nice improvements on the “review” side and some quick acceptance/understanding on the “new” exercises. We had a little bit of sass at first (typical) but everything mellowed out quickly and we had a great session!

Next week we have a G.S.H.C. Practice (Saturday) and a Horsemanship Workshop (Sunday). Should be a blast!